W1/6562

Samuel Whitbread II, Geneva, to Elizabeth Grey. Marked no 17.

8 July 1787

From: 1787 To: 1787

My dearest Bessy Many & many thanks to you for the receipt of a letter upon my arrival here this afternoon. Le Duc put it into my hands as I got out of the Carriage & by so doing took of my mind a load of doubt, fear, anxiety & distress which had been operating in a most violent manner during the whole of the day's Journey, particularly after I came in sight of Geneva. These troublesome companions are now replaced by Confidence & Joy. the contents of your letters are always pleasing, always interesting, the Contents of this last, more particularly so than those of any other. The beginning, the ending, the whole is as perfect as I could possibly wish it, in short you take from me every (even?) the most trifling reason to complain, the very word I fished for in my last from Montpellier, appears a Volunteer, & is the more gratifying on that account. You deprive me of the power of wishing, by anticipating all my wishes. You treat me better than I can possibly deserve; & after having consented to take your share of Obligation, are laying the whole burthen upon me. However I will bear it. I were not happy if I could say how much, So silence must be the Herald of my Joy. I cannot however but recollect that I have been unreasonably anxious, that I wrote a letter from Bordeaux the day of my departure from thence. which I am sure must have given you pain; & in short that I am a very unconscishable(?) fellow; & that I ought to beg pardon I do most sincerely; but have Impudence eno' to defend my conduct, & to declare that in the same circumstances I should wish to act & feel precisely as I have done in these. You have sufficient discernment to atribute my Uneasiness to it's real cause, & you have Sympathy eno' to extract some degree of pleasure from that Uneasiness.- When I said that of my Opinion of your veracity was confirmed even more than I wished; I alluded simply to the grand fault of Omission. I cannot but wish to give most implicit credit to every letter that does appear in writing; for every letter contains something that is most grateful to me to believe. I do believe every word you say, & upon that belief I feast with the most sanguine & eager fondness. Had I been unfortunate eno' not to have had it in my power to see your hand writing during my Absence, Had you even denied me that resource, You need not have feared the loss of my Affections; no Object or Time or Place can alienate them; but by your letters you absolutely take Prisoner all my Faculties & divest me of Power to be tempted if Temptation there can exist to a Person so completely happy as I am & must be in your Esteem & Affection. You perceive that we have finished our Southern expedition & we are both well. not at allhurt by the heat nor rendered thin by exercise. You pray so prettily that there is no possibility of refusing your request. I will not ride Post in the heat, nor run the risk of a Fever by any Imprudence. Indeed I have been an exceeding good Boy for some time past, & have been on Horseback but one whole day since we left Nantes. We are both at present in very good Condition. I find myself not too fat, nor too thin, & hope to return precisely what you would wish & escape all abuse. We quitted Montpellier on the day that I wrote last to you. & that Evening arrived at Nismes. Early the next Morning we arose & viewed the Antiquities of that Town, which much exceeded my expectations. about ten o'clock we quitted it. & proceeded by the Pont de Garde, which is the finest ancient work I think I ever beheld, to Avignon. the day was hotter than Fury, & we were as great Fools as were ever trusted out of leading Strings to travel in the midst of it. We arrived however safe. Ask no questions about Vaucluse. the day had been so hot, the night was so hot we were so languid. I had seen so many People that had been disappointed at Vaucluse that we agreed to turn our heads Northward, & to pass a Vote that Vaucluse was not worth seeing because We had not activity eno' to vist it. One promise I exacted from Tom; that he should not mention the omission to any of his correspondents, nor confess it till he was questioned upon the Subject. I promised the same. but as everything I do not do, as well as everything I do, is & ought to be brought before your tribunal, I hold myself absolved in this single instance. trusting that you will be generous eno' not to betray, what by some people might be termed our exceeding want of Curiosity what You I hope will term our laudable care of our precious persons. for we should have broiled at least ten hours in a filthy buggy, & after all should probably have wished that Laura & her Lover had been at Old Nick. - to proceed then; on Thursday Morning we arose between three & four, both with the head ache & much out of sorts, but Tom so far worse than myself, that my Malady soon dispersed by a hearty laugh at the length of his miserable countenance & his continued not long. that night we slept at Valences, sixteen Posts from Avignon, & the next day arrived at Grenoble. Yesterday we employed in a visit to the Grande Chartreuse. We dispatched the Servant with the Carriage to Chamberry & ourselves went on Horseback thro' the precincts of the Convent, to the Echelles of Savoy, & thence Post to Chamberry. It is the third visit that I have paid to that wonderfully romantic & aweful Solitude. I was still struck with it's Beauties, nay more forcibly perhaps than the first time; & Monson was highly delighted from which I auger that he will be very highly delighted with our Swiss expedition. The Pere Coadjutur acknowledged me immediately upon my arrival; I believe that he may imagine I am about to shave my head & seclude myself from the World, by my visiting the Convent so often, but I cannot say that I have the slightest quarrel with the World in the present prosperous state of my Views & expectations. Had I come abroad at a time when We only wished for better days I should not have trusted myself in the Desert. Apropos to shaving heads, I think you offered to lay me a Wager that I never wore a brown Scratch [wig]; this implied you did not like it, therefore I must tell you that the bet was unfair, as you rested upon the moral certainty of my never doing anything designedly that could be displeasing to you. My hair it is now fixed, must remain upon my head as long as it is possible for it to hang on; & I must exhibit all over my head that respectable & silvery appearance of Age that I have done over my left temple ever since I was born. We left Chamberry at five this Morning & arrived here about the same hour in the Evening. Le Duc complains very much of the badness of the Roads & want of accommodation on the Road thro' Auvergney which we had intended to have taken so that, all things considered,we are great Gainers by having taken the Southern Tour. this I say to you for to my Father I shall make no small merit, of having complied with his Whim. Whims he has, & this idea of my having humoured one at some expense & after some grumbling, will probably prevent his starting any other new Idea on the same Subject, of travelling. But notwithstanding his Whims, notwithstanding his hurries & Impatience, notwithstanding the Agony & Tears that he cost me this Spring; believe me when I say that my Heart throbs with gratitude when I think of his Affection & Kindness for all his children, for me more particularly than the rest; that I return that Affection to him in the most unfeigned & unbounded manner, & that I reverence his Character independent of all filial ties, as composed of the soundest Principles of Benevolence, Honour & Generosity. Such as I here describe him, you will find him. Some small failings are a necessary counter balance to so exalted a character surely they are pardonable. Some check might be necessary to the unbounded Happiness that I am about to experience. He gave such an one as will if possible increase that Felicity by giving an opportunity of comparing success with Disappointment. I forget the Misery of the Past in content of the Present, in the Joy of the future & hope you will agree with me, that there is even some degree of pleasure, & that not small to me, in reflecting on those bitter days.-but no more on the old subject. Charles is by this time settled with you. I will not gratify your little propensity to Scandal, in supposing that the Landlady at Havensworth was the cause of his disappointing You. G. Baker's match with Miss Dalton we heard of some time ago. I was surprized, not at him, but [paper missing - at her?] Our plan from hence, or the length of our stay here I cannot yet determine; two letters; one from Punch, one from my Father which I suppose to be lying at the Banker's, but which I cannot get till the morning will settle that: & you shall hear by Wednesday's Post; it will give me the pleasure of writing again; I cannot put it in this Packet as it must be in the Post Office by 7 in the morning. Today closes the ninth we (torn) --rive on ye lazy footed Steeds. All will come about, All will do. do you remember that? My best remembrances to all at Fallodon. & I will conclude my dear dear Bessy, by telling you once more that I do love you most sincerely & that I shall ever remain most sincerely & affectionately Your's & Your's only S. Whitbread. Adieu. Adieu. Write but do not direct till I write again. Thanks for the Purse. I risked an account of Cherbourg to Charles from Bordeaux, did he get it? I began on the 8th but find it is now the 9th so must wish Goodmorrow to your Night Cap & take my own Adieu & Heaven bless You. S.W.17.

item

Whitbread, Samuel II,
Grey, Elizabeth,
Le Duc,
Monson, Thomas,
Whitbread, Samuel I,
Baker, G,
Dalton,
Grey, Charles

Geneva, Nimes, Chambery, Vaucluse Departement, monasteries, travel, wigs