W1/6548

Samuel Whitbread II, Paris, to Elizabeth Grey. Marked no 3.

16-17 May 1787

From: 1787 To: 1787

My dear Bessy We arrived at Paris on Saturday Evening all well; & I should have written to You by Yesterday's Post had I not expected a letter from my Father by the Mail of today, in answer to one I wrote from Calais, which might have furnished me with Materials for a letter to You, as grateful for You to receive as for me to write; that my stay abroad was abridged. but I have only received a short letter, written before mine could have reached London. extremely kind, & informing me that Time passed very quick & so it will when once I get back to England & to you. But now it creeps decrepit with his Age. I could not however, disappointed as I was with this unimportant Epistle, refrain from setting down this Evening to converse with you for a little while, & inform You of the events of our Journey & our present Situation. We left Calais on Wednesday Morning early & reached Lisle at Night, which considering it was the first day's Journey was a good exertion of thirteen Posts. We stayed part of the next day at Lisle & got to Arras only in the Evening. I did not fail to enquire after your Cousin, I heard the famille was bien portante, but had not a glimpse of them. So that the Basilisk Eyes of your irresistible Cousin have not shone upon your humble Servant. On Friday we made a desperate Effort, & got from Arras to Chantilly, & the next day at our leisure hither. three in a chaise of our size, & in this Weather, is not precisely what is enviable. We therefore by turns rode. I say by turns, but I rode all the way on Wednesday with Nesfield, & sixteen of the Posts on Friday; it is the only way I found of detaching myself from my Companions & getting in to your Company. for I am narrowly watched, & a fixed Eye, is a signal for a friendly blow from one or other or both. But on Horseback I could think as I pleased, sneak behind Nesfield, swear I could not make my horse keep up. & by the force of imagination, make him carry me to Fallodon, altho' we were clattering on the Pave. I had so strict charge that Tom Monson should get rid of his Cough, that I forbad his riding, least I should be called to England by some very very lucky accident & be reprimanded as a bad Physician the first time he barked in Company. Well then here we are at Paris, lodged at the Hotel du Palais Royale. Very few English here indeed, & very few of those very few worth the knowing. We amuse ourselves as well as we can, we run about in the Morning to see sights & in the Evening to the Spectacles. I do not know how it is, but Paris is not so gay as it was a year ago, nothing so lively as it was; the Spectacles not so amusing, the company not so brilliant. But I tell a Lie, I do know the reason of this change of appearance in everything, I will tell it you; you shall have the Truyth, for it is no Compliment I feel, even without the trouble of Fishing for it. You are not here, I am not with You, I cannot See You, I cannot hear You, I cannot speak to you except in Imagination; & till the reality comes again I shall not be happy; I shall see every thing thro' a distempered Eye, & imagine that there exists neither gayity nor Pleasure because I can tast of neither. Patience! Patience! what a Fool I am to be sad & complain; at the most a few months will carry me to the Extent of my Wishes. Charles & I settled a Correspondence upon our leaving England, I do not however expect a letter from, nor do I trouble him with any, till the Sessions shall be ended, & he shall have time to attend to trifles. Should he however blame me for not writing to him, I commission you to fight for me, as you did once before; give him the above as a true reason & beg he will condescent to write to me first. Whether we shall go from hence is yet undetermined, nor shall we fix upon our Tour till I receive an Answer from my Father to the two letters I wrote from Calais & from hence. I must tell you all so you know. they were both to entreat him to let me return to England sooner than was his first intention. perhaps he may let me. it is worth the trial. & remember if I do come down to the Assizes You are to dance with me all Nights. but do not imagine if He should refuse this request that anything goes wrong; I own that I think it will be rather too great a triumph for a Son to outre a son a Father in every point. Write to me constantly pray do. You may direct with safety to Perrigeause at Paris & should any letter come after my departure, he will forward it to me without fail. I eagerly long to know how you got down to Fallodon & how you do, & what you think. but We both think the same & we shall verify the saying that Absence like the Wind extinguishes a small, but encreases a deep rooted flame. I find I shall not have an opportunity of wearing a sword Knot at Paris. but I have ordered as smart Marchande de Modes to come to me tomorrow whom I shall commission to make one that I have into a Porte feuille. & I shall out therein certain Charrades &c that I am possessed of. Apropos. I have a favour to ask of you & you promised you would never say No. Pray work me a Purse. I think I see you, as soon as you have read the letter looking for the Silk; or am I too vain? No I do not think I am. It will be ready by the time I get to Fallodon, will it not? Nesfield has engaged to stay with us till Saturday sennight. a great acquisition I assure you. his Spirits, his good Humour his Friendship have all their full force now. Tom Monson says Bill you must not go, Sam will hang himself, & I shall be hanged for letting him. Are not you tired with this nonsense? No, write on: & tell me everything. I think I have. May 17 Thus far had I got last night & have now resumed my pen to conclude before the Post goes out. I must only guess at what I have said to you in the preceeding Pages; for I dare not read them over, least finding them a rhapsodical string of incoherent sentences, I should throw them into the Fire & despair of ever writing what is worth your reading. This is the third since you quitted London & I hope you will have received all safe. Do not give yourself the trouble of an answering as often as I write, that is too much to expect. but if it is no trouble, nothing can make me happier than hearing from you if it were possible every day. We have employed this morning in seeing the collection of Pictures in the Palais Royal; & I have just left Monson & Nesfield who are gone in search of Duets, to come for a few minutes to you. We dine today, for the first time since we came to Paris that we have dined out, with Colonel Weymis who came here last week to bury an old Uncle [David Wemyss, Lord Elcho.]. I hope he will give us a better dinner than we get at home, for to add to the distress of Epicures nothing can be possibly worse than our living. You see I am full of complaints, & je ne fais que bouder du Matin jusqua Soir. My old French Master say ma foi M[onsieur] Wubre est beaucoup plus tranquil qu'il ne l'etoit. I say, Cela va passer bientot but a Truce a Truce you will cry out so Adieu. Remember me most kindly to your Father & Mother & the old Lady. I cannot say how much I esteem far less how much I am obliged to your Family for their goodness to me. I shall never be able to tell them how grateful I am to them; my words would fail me & I should choak in the Act. but do pray every opportunity you have. how sincerely & deeply impressed I am with the sense of their Conduct & Kindness to me. Remember me to all your Brothers. You shall have another letter next week with the earliest intelligence of what comes from Portman Square. It it shortens my stay abroad so much the better, if not I cannot think that a pennance of five months is a dear purchase of so much future happiness. My sentiments are unaltered & unalterable. what they were. Your eyes & Ears will tell you; & they are still the same. Adieu then again My dear Bessy, depend upon me who am & ever shall remain Most sincerely & affectionately Your's & only Your's S. Whitbread When You put your letters into the post, do you frank them? - I do not know whether you should, but you had better enquire.

item

Whitbread, Samuel II,
Grey, Elizabeth,
Whitbread, Samuel I,
Monson, Thomas,
Nesfield, William,
Wemyss, David

Paris, Calais, Lille, Arras, art collections, Paris Palais Royal, Fallodon, travel, purse