W1/6568

Samuel Whitbread II, Basle, to Elizabeth Grey. Marked no 22.

8 August 1787

From: 1787 To: 1787

August 8.1787 Un giorno assai, assai felice -- My dearest Bessy I have broken my word with you for the first time by not writing from Lucerne & I am saucy eno' to say before I begin my letter that I am happy in the extreme, even under the consciousness of so heinous a crime. but it may gratify your vanity to inform it that the prospects of Switzerland begin to pall, the fine weather was overcast & my whole stock of spirits & gayety began to dropp. because I was so far distant from your letters. & because it was so immense a period as three weeks since I had heard from you. what was to be done but curtail the Journey & meet le Duc at Basle as soon as possible? Yet how to persuade Monson to abandon the view of so much delightful country as I had promised him during those few days. Confess I was ashamed. Luckily walking up a very steep Alp on Friday last, under the rays of a broiling Sun I heard my Companion say to himself, 'damn the heat, it is insupportable'. I did not lose the opportunity; but told him, I knew a road that would bring Us to Lucerne on Sunday & Zurich on Monday, & that if he found the Weather so oppressive, if he pleased we would take it. he acceded, & lightened my heart.; he soon perceived the different countenance I had assumed; & turning his oath upon mne; 'by your grinning You have something to receive at Zurich'. well to Zurich we got on Monday & I ran to the Banker's where I found what I so anxiously wished for a letter, that proves to a demonstration that she is every thing I could wish her to be; more than I could hope, for she is merciful where I deserve no mercy.- & you may look in the Glass, & tell her, that I instead of being contrite for the Sin I committed at Bordeaux, am very glad of it. that I only wish so to sin, to be so pardoned; & that as long as she continues to be so amiable I shall not be able to help loving her more & more every day; & if she does not (observe her well) curl her lip at receiving this tell her I am very angry. for I like to see her lip curl.- the letter at Zurich told me that two at least were waiting for me at Strasbourg. I knew that le Duc would return that very day. then Tom you must excuse me. Go to Schaffousen by Yourself, & meet me at Basle on Thursday. & Yesterday Morning at 5 o'clock I committed myself to the Rhine in a boat of three deal planks & arrived here safe at three. Combien de lettres le Duc? Pardieu une centaine. & what was my Joy when instead of two from you I received five. I devoured them first & read them a little more composedly the second time, & after three or four readings came a little more to my Senses. now my dearest Bessy let me thank you for them a thousand & a thousand times. I cannot say how much obliged to you I am. nor can you have a adequate idea of the happiness I feel at their contents. assai assai, does not come near it. nor can any language but the tacit language of the heart convey my meaning to you. I do you injustice by saving your ideas must be inadequate to my feelings. I do from my Soul believe that you partake of those feelings in as lively a manner as I do; I cannot say more. No stronger affection can exist than that I possess for you. Now do not say I fish. You force my own applause from my own Pen for I cannot but applaud myself when I reflect upon the pleasure I derive from your esteem & affection. I have laid baits & intentionally too. I own it, I glory in it, who do not fish where they are sure of catching? You do, You know you do. I will maintain that it is fair at this distance. not in conversation: but to say at the end of one's letter that it is uninteresting, in order to be told at the end of the answer in a civil way that one lies; is I think very venial. but I will never do so again. but send my epistles off, with a thorough conviction that they are the Quintessence of Composition. that is to You. If I am told perpetually that they are pleasant, & at last believe it, Am I to blame? Certainly not. but where to begin, I know not, my head is all confusion of Happiness. Oh! convey to the whole Family my Congratulations on Sr. Charles's acquisition of the Regiment of Horse. I take a warm interest in every thing that happens to your Family & believe me, sincerely participate the pleasure of this event. Captain Henry, & Cornet Thomas I also congratulate, on their respective promotions. We must beware of laughing at Tom's blunders now, or a coup d'Epee may be the consequence. You are the first Woman that ever preferred a blue coat to a red one. but I allow you to be unique. but let me tell you that if ever again you begin a sentence, think better of it & scratch it out, I shall begin my answer to such letter Dear Madam. You know nothing provokes me so much in conversation; & so forsooth you must not only teaze me by letting me perceive by the marks of the Knife in your letters, for so that you have done it but tell me so to my face. this past bearing. If you fancy that I should laugh at your talking gravely on a serious Subject, You must of necessity have laughed at the Idea of my entering upon one with you. You judge from yourself huh? Now I do insist upon your giving me your opinion deliberately & seriously upon my Question, that I should put to you. if You do not I will never forgive you. Remember, the title of first friend requires that you should fulfill all it's functions & I resort to you with every thought & wish of my heart & head. If you will not attend to them where am I (to) fly?- Your concurrence with my opinions will always give them the stamp of excellence. When you dissent they must be revised. but I will stop here. for vous voyez que me voila presque fache. You have done the Ear rings great honour & me a great pleasure by your approbation of them. the day before yesterday you wore them I hope, & will again to night. but I must not think of what is now going forward at Newcastle: or it will interrupt my present state of satisfaction to think that any one should dance with you but myself. So I am only to have a waistcoat perhaps. I swear that if I do not find one done or doing when I come to Fallodon I will go without till there is one begun.- perhaps.I must now give you some account of our Journey from Thun. We quitted it with regret on the second of August, & that evening slept in the Valley of Lauterbrunnen. the next day I proposed sending our Horses to Grindewald & taking ourselves the footpath over the Alps. which was accordingly done. the day proved most intensely hot, & the walk much longer than we had imagined. As I was down at Fallodon I could not be supposed to suffer so much from the Sun as my Companion. the heat & fatigue forced from him the lucky exclamation that made me happy three days sooner than I otherwise should have been & we arrived at Grindelwald after a fag of six hours. there is but one Inn. the lower part was occupied by a party assembled upon the occasion of a wedding from eight o'clock that we went to bed till five, the hour at which we arose; the singing dancing drinking & hallooing was incessant. Guess at the night that was passed. Just so was I served in the very same Inn two years ago, on account of a Funeral. they reserve all their feasts till I arrive & then half kill me with their Joy.- from Grindlewald we crossed to Myringen in the Valley of Oberharly. & on Sunday thro' the Canton of Underwald to HanspStaad, thence by water to Lucerne. our intention had been to have passed from Myringen, to the top of the Grionsel, thence over the Furia to Urseren. from Urseren to Altdorf, & so across the Lake to Lucerne but you invisibly deranged this project & instead of employing four days to get Lucerne we employed only one. I did not write to you from Lucerne. I should have been too much agitated & hurried to have written common Sense; but even Nonsense should been dispatched ahd I not recollected that the letter I should send from Basle would have reached Fallodon sooner than one dispatched from Lucerne. High time it was that I should arrive at Basle, to get a coat &c. so tattered & dirty a devil you never beheld. & I believe by my equipment & shooting the falls at Khunfelden the boatman must have taken me for a German deserter making off for France with all speed.- Monson took the Cavalry & went yesterday to see the fall of the Rhine at Schaffhousen, & will I hope be here tonight. I find an English Family here whose name I do not yet know. altho' Papa was so good as to ask me to sit next to his Spouse. last night at Supper, & to dinner today, & Miss gave me some breakfast this morning on the strength of a conversation I had with him yesterday afternoon in the Table d'hote room, soon after my arrival. wherein we found ourselves both acquainted with Mr. Coxe, & both acquainted with the Dean of Winchester. I believe he is a Prebend of Winchester disguised in Laics(?). seriously they are very civil to feed me. for I want a little feeding. My Servant says, Monsieur est maigre, apparement il a fait mauvaise chere. but I am quite well.- I cannot but be sensible to & highly grateful for the anxiety you express in the last letter, that precedes the receipt of mine from Gevena. depend upon it, dearly as I love you, I would not foolishly run any risk that might delay the pleasure I shall have in returning to You, or cause you unnecessarily a moment's uneasiness & if ever that Simpleton Charles shakes his wise head & talks about heat, or hurry, or nonsense of riding Post as I used to do. Tell him that you are perfectly convinced that I have too much regard for you to play the Fool with myself. No, Bessy, if I had nothing to live for before I have you to live for now. that consideration makes insignificant me, consequetial. However I am highly gratified by your alarms, unnecessary as they are. I hope they were quieted by the receipt of my letter, which I wrote & put in the Post immediately on my arrival at Geneva. It is our intention to take another week's excursion, & to return hither. If Monson can arrive here to night we shall probably start on Friday. I shall lead him thro' the Munster Thal to Bience, to Sobure, Freibourg, Berne, & back by Arberg to Basle. we are undecided whether to continue our Journey on Horseback or to take an open Carriage, as it is all high road; but I believe we shall continue with our steeds. I send your letter by to day's Post. tomorrow I shall be employed in answering two or three out of no less than thirteen besides Charles's & your five from Fallodon which came here to my hands. instead of being by the faithless world forgot, I think they kill me with more kindness. if all the eighteen were from you. & the nineteenth from Charles I should lock myself up & read them for ever & still swear there was not eno'. but I must not complain, but rejoice that none of my friends are neglectful of me. one of my letters brings money & twelve good accounts. a sufficient claim for answers to every one. Mawy writes without answers regularly, so I shall trespass upon her goodness. Laconick Epistles of the description You mean would be delicious. but tell me these three Words. I can fill them up, but you must tell me them yourself I insist upon it in your answer to this. no refusal I will know, & if we fill them up alike I shall be completely happy. I will not say shall; I am at present completely so. but that will support the State. Do You dare upbraid me about the selection of melancholy passages in Young? do you dare say that I had a propensity to melancholy at Fallodon, in the happiest days I ever spent? I have a little Young here & if it were not the vilest print I ever beheld & the worst Edition I would mark him & give him to You. Here I see I have got into a scrape. You will say a very good excuse for Idleness. Well, I will mark him & give him to you bad as he is. & in return you shall promise never to read him when I desire you not.- Pray why do not you direct all your letters Yourself? the direction even is something valuable. Tell Charles I will answer his letter for which I am very much obliged very soon. The Gay Parson, I received a letter from Yesterday also, & I presume You may be this moment in his Company. I hope he will not, in the exemplification of any of his feats, put his fist much nearer to you than it did in Hertford Street, when he shewed you how he struck the Coster boy. or by chance those teeth that it would be an absurdity even to file might suffer. If honesty & good humour are allowed their proper merit surely no one will stand higher than Nesfield. I shall expect a long letter with the account of this weeks proceedings & shall now think of drawing this scrawl to a conclusion. & I quit my occupation with regret. Not only because it is pleasurable to me but because it. I know, conveys an equal pleasure to you. there is a good Boy. & now for a general recantation of all fishing.- By heavens I never did the most distantly suspect that you had forgotten me, I never did dread that my letters would be tedious. I think I know You too well to imagine I love you without a return. Pardon my fishing.------ remember me most kindly to all at Fallodon. & believe my very dear Bess that I love you most sincerely & that I am & shall ever remain most sincerely & affectionately Your's & Your's only S. Whitbread Adieu Direct again to Spa. I hear that it is dull this year but n'importe. we shall be there but a short time. for this as I live is our 8th of August & three whole Calendar Months are quite gone. what say You to that.

item

Whitbread, Samuel II,
Grey, Elizabeth,
Monson, Thomas,
Le Duc,
Grey, Charles,
Grey, Henry,
Grey, Thomas,
Nesfield, William,
Young, Edward

Switzerland, Basle [City], Lucerne, Zurich, Thun, Grindelwald, Meiringen, travel, weather, walking, waterfall, Rhine