W1/6552

Samuel Whitbread II, Orleans, to Elizabeth Grey. Marked no 7.

30 May 1787

From: 1787 To: 1787

You once said to me, & altho' I never doubted the truth of a single syllable you have uttered to me, yet your letter which I received yesterday with extreme pleasure & gratitude, quite confirms my opinion of your universal veracity, even more than I could wish. You once said to me 'I have no faults of omission to answer for'. I have now a severe one to lay to your charge. Why were the three Words that gave me such essential happiness at the opening of your first letter omitted in your second? & why do you deprive of a single syllable when every one is treasured up by me with so much care? Why deprive me of monosyllables so important to me as the three in Question? - Negligence it could not be, for I too well know, & have reason to thank you so much for your attention. A hint for me to withdraw the beginning of my letters neither it cannot be, for you told me you were pleased with such beginning, & you are always honest. to what cause to attribute it I know not; but this I know it has mortified me & if you are disappointed equally at seeing my letter headless as I was at seeing your last so, you will never mot the beginning again; you will be punished for the omission, & I shall feel a sincere pleasure in seeing in your answer to this, that you are sorry & that it was unintentional - You see I am punctilious & will not allow, if I can possibly help it, my pleasure to be abridged of an Iota; I hope however you will be pleased with this species of Captiousness, which proves only that I wish to receive as largely as I give; I give with my whole heart & flatter myself I receive from one who gives with her whole heart too. Having now taken a large gulp & swallowed what spleen & mortification remained upon this Score, I will proceed to thank you for your letter which I received yesterday a few minutes before I left Paris. it gave me great satisfaction in every part & your impatience not the least of all. my letter before this time you will have however was some time detained by the person to whom I entrusted it at Calais but you never received it I hope you would never have suspected that I could have been negligent or could by any possible accident have change my intention of writing. Thank you however for wishing to hear from me. Thank you for fearing that I should not write. it proves that my letters are acceptable & makes me -- with additional Joy & Zeal. You see we are now embarked for our Tour & have quitted the Gay Paris. As soon as we heard that the English Courier was arrived we despatched our Servants in the chaise & ourselves waited the distribution of letters booted & spurred & whips across the shoulders walking up & down the Palais Royal like men in expectation of a Crown or a Gallow's. I say We for Tom's countenance brightens as I brighten, & sinks as I sink. At lengh they came, & it was the Crown we got, for I perceived a letter from you, & immediately assumed an involuntary broad grin. The King & Queen were to visit Chiswell Street on Saturday last, so that I had no letter from my Father he being occupied in preparations for them all friday. he only said on the back of a letter he enclosed from Langford that he should write by Tuesday's Post. Every thing therefore goes on well in that Quarter & I have undertaken my Journey with exceeding alacrity, thinking now that was unreasonable even to ask for a remission. I am glad that Fallodon is so far from London, for had you been within distance of a visit from my Father, I should much have feared least your threat in jest should in earnest have come to pass, & I should feel humbled to no small degree to be obliged to address in you Madame ma belle Mere. seriously he went as near All perfection in his account as possible. I could say no more & I do not wish him to say quite so much, it is absolutely dangerous for me. - We rode to Estampes six posts & a half last night & the Bidets suffered by your letter, for had I not been in spirits they would not have gone so fast by a great deal but it was Vive la Joye. We got here to dinner today, confined to our Carriage by continual rain, which ceased however soon after our arrival, & has given us an opportunity of strolling comfortably about, till I came in to talk with you, & thereby to acquire a fresh Stock of Spirits to pursue my Journey.- Tomorrow we propose reaching Tours. it will be rather a long day but we shall manage it altho' we cannot set out before six o'clock, the Post Office is not open till that hour, & I trust my letters to you to no hand but my own in the delivery. You will call this a Puff about early rising; if you do not recollect that upon some occasions, besides hunting, I get up early. I know that on such an occasion I do not sleep all night but I believe that occasion will never more exist that I never shall have such a farewell again to take.- We have a scheme from Tours, rather a wild one but I think we shall put in practice to send our Carriage & one servant immediately from there into Nantes, & ourselves with the other servant to ride across to Alen£on, Caen, Cherbourg &c, in short to make the whole Tour on Horseback, & rejoin our Carriage at the Nantes in our way to Bourdeaux. We shall save time by longer days Journies, & also by the badness of the roads in some parts of Normandy which would delay our carriage much. the fatigue will be inconsiderable & I think upon the whole idea rather a good one than otherwise. I will write to you from Cherbourg information relative to the situation of that place itself I shall probably venture to give none for the satisfaction of your Father or Brother least my letter should be opened & stopped, & you by that means disappointed & saving their presence I had much rather they should go uninformed than you be the least mortified or have reason for suspicion of neglect or fear of a change of intention.- Charles I have not heard from but have sent him two letters. keep your promise of making him write but remember that his sending ten letters will not be an apology for your mitting to send one. We have settled that we are not to hear of each other thro' any third person & thank Heaven, that better days are come, & that I have the inestimable privilege of telling you with my own Hand, & addressed to Yourself, how much obliged to you I am, with what sincerity & affection I esteem You, & with what impatient Joy I look forward to the moment when we are to meet & what is more to meet & not to part. Unaccommodating I banish from my dictionary, It is a word that I am sensible at the time when it was uttered depressed me in the opinion of the person to whom it was said & that opinion I was not even then totally insensble to the value of. Now that I am alive to every sentiment & every thought that may be entertained of me by that person I will beg her to believe that it was not meant at that time in its literal sense but merely by way of laughing. it produced a long Countenance however instead of a broad one & from that moment I dated the decadence of my good Character. How I have been happy eno' to revive it I know not but I have the satisfaction of knowing that the Friendship has been cemented by its duration & I now rejoice from my Soul in its having arisen to such a pitch as to enable me to call you my first Friend. You allow me the use of repetition & this is what I cannot repeat too frequently as it flows immediately from my Heart.- May Gigglewick be realised is what Tom & I have often said since we left Fallodon, we now say Gigglewick will be realized, & as he has given You the title of La Regina, I must apply to you for some Post; being rather of an ambitious turn I shall not be contented with any inferior denomination therefore may it please your Majesty to name Il Re & think few Subjects will be happier than our own & I am sure if I may judge from myself two so contented crowned Heads will scarcely be met with. If you do not - no more - I will not murmur 'are in you letter. Do not I beseech you make yourself uneasy about my stay abroad - for change there can happen none - for the time it is not long in consideration of its price - for myself I esteem it when looking forward to its conclusion as no pennance - for being so far distant from each other we have the communication of letters - for the absence itself alone I will allow you to complain, & shall be glad to hear those complaints, because they correspond with my feelings & convince me that you will be as happy to receive me as I shall be to fly to you.- I would not have you patient for the World, but I hope your impatience with never arise from the least particle of doubt over & over again depend upon me, I do most faithfully upon you. You never can think I esteem the Journey & hardship. I left London the hour I intended, & Paris the same in a word sure as I am of my reward every pain in the attainment is not worth regarding - direct to Bourdeaux still. any letter you may have sent to Paris I shall get there. Remember my purse tho' I shall not receive it till Michaelmas. Monson has quite lost his cough & now prides himself upon the idea of riding himself thin, I hope he will not, for my Weight will hardly increase with the diminution of his. Best remembrances at Falldon & believe me my dearest Bessy, I am & shall ever remain Most sincerely & affectionately Your's & only Your's S. Whitbread. [on rverse] By Heavens in running over my scrawl I find that I have inadvertently let slip from my pen three words in the conclusion which I when I began I made a tacit Oath should not enter my letter. I have held my pen up to scratch them out, but they plead in their defence that they do but tell the truth, & have a right to two places in each letter. I could not deny this & have let them remain. if therefore my dear Bessy, they appear guilty to you, expunge them with your own hand. of on the contrary you allow them to maintain their present situation, you know how to inform me by three monosyllables of such decision & I know after the answer to this no letter will want a beginning. Adieu, once more and may heaven bless you."

item

Whitbread, Samuel II,
Grey, Elizabeth,
Whitbread, Samuel I,
Monson, Thomas,
George III

Orleans, Bordeaux, Fallodon, Chiswell Street Brewery London, travel