W1/6574

Samuel Whitbread II, Francfort, to Elizabeth Grey. Marked no 28.

31 August 1787

From: 1787 To: 1787

My dear dear Bess Where shall I begin? & when I have begun how shall I be able ever sufficiently to thank you for extreme pleasure I received upon my arrival here yesterday? I had better say nothing for I shall not be able to make you comprehend by Word how much I was & am still delighted. Four letters; & all as much what I could wish them; as yourself are what I could wish you to be; & moreover the Purse safe arrived; & that also, independent of the merit it derives in my Eyes from the Donor, extremely pretty. Indeed my Bess I must refer you to your own feelings for an adequate Idea of mine & content myself with saying that my dearest Bessy, I thank you ten thousand thousand times with my whole heart. I must ask your forgiveness for the impatience I experienced, but did not express upon my arrival at Strasbourg at not finding any letters from you. I must entreat it a second time for my Impatience occasioned by the letters not arriving from hence according to my orders & as anxiety & indifference are incompatible I am sure you will grant both these requests; I may even flatter myself that you will be happy that I have offended, & be happy to forgive the offences. The mystery of the disappointment is now unravelled. My letter from Strasbourg miscarried & never reached the Banker here; therefore I found them all lying in a charming heap, I read them over & over again & was, & am happy to a very great degree. That my letter from Geneva should arrive in so good time, & quiet the fears which it pleases me to think did exist, I am happy to hear. & be assured as I before assured You, that no Folly on my part shall put at a greater distance than it now is the inexpressible pleasure I shall have in meeting you. Your answer to the letters from Geneva would, if any can, (for they each in their turns & as they are read seem better than the rest) claim the preeminence over the rest, were it not for one expression, at which I was grinding between my Teeth, 'la Michante'! I mean where you tell me that Susan occasioned my leaving Fallodon twenty four hours sooner than was necessary to convey me to Melchbourn. What will you never cease laughing at me? or is it a refined Gratification of Vanity to induce me constantly to tell You that at the time I quitted Fallodon, & from that time to this, no name of the whole list of proper names was so grateful to me as that of Elizabeth. & that the person who added Grey to that Christian name was the only female for whom I in the least felt a spark of affection. indeed it was impossible for another to partake for she had engrossed the whole. but do you recollect that my constant answer to the kind sollicitations of the whole Family was 'I have promised'. & when one has promised, The performance is indispensable, even at the expence of pleasure & feeling. That I promised at a time when I was not so perfectly acquainted with the pleasures of Fallodon & before I at all knew how betwitchingly one of it's Inhabitants curled her lip & uttered Good Sense & good Humour, I have all along allowed. I was even brute eno' to wish to go to York; but I think Yourself deemed my thanks to Charles for not giving into that Scheme a sufficient apology for my having even suggested anything so foolish. I promise You more unfeigned thanks were ever delivered, & I still do & ever shall think that my obligation to him was immense. Your confession is what cannot be better. I have unmasked the Hypocrite; truely there is a great pleasure in being told what one already knows. You did know all this. I will not compliment you upon your penetration for it was impossible you should not have discovered it. You seem to upbraid me with the shortness of the visits I made in Hertford Street. I allow they were short even to rudeness. but remember they were frequent. the first was restraint of time. the second was optional. & I rather chose to be called rude than omit calling when I had only five Minutes to spare. & that was often the case. & if upon my return I find the Pony's feet bad, I shall know that it is to be attributed to galloping over the Stones. But I was not so hasty in the Evening; & never I think quitted untill repeated Yawning on my right, not left hand had informed me that it was time to depart. And at the Opera I was attacked one Night with this singular Speech 'Mr W You have talked for four hours incessantly, Your Neighbour must have been very interesting'. I was not conscious of my looquacity, which is an additional proof that You had no reason to exclaim 'how stupid he finds me. but what a fool I am for giving into this trap, You know all this, & I am only recapitulating for the gratification of your Vanity. but You cannot have a greater pleasure in readint than I in writing these truths. To conclude this; I must say that I even had a reason for the Method I took to tell You what You already knew in P. Square. that I will tell you perhaps some day. & if You will not be all Perfection; You shall be all but perfection. rest assured of one thing that my Opinion of You let it be expressed in whatever Words your Answerers choose to put it; will remain the same; for it is not founded upon Whim, but upon Judgment- Judgment, not blinded, but enlightened by Affection. Punch was indebted to his own discernment for giving my opinion, he could not Judge from Words, for I had not made any Answers to his witty attacks. he could not however more immediately have hit off my opinion had he only added the Monosyllable. for my very dear Bess, I think you all but perfection. est ce que cela vous contente?- By the by I am happy not to have trumpeted Gregory's praises in vain, he deserves praise, aye, & for his prudence. You draw too flattering a picture of that one person, & you may overset his head. but even if he does submit as you say he does, he has no merit; for you will recollect that no Father can be better, few are so good as his; & that his repeated & exemplary acts of Kindness render very light the burthen of a few particularities; they never fell heavy but in one instance & even that suffering will be amply repaid. but if you could really find the person of the Merit you describe; I think I could name a reward. He should meet with a Woman, Sensible without Affectation good humoured without Insipidity, Complying without servility Handsome without being too conscious of it & that Woman should love him as well as He loves her. Now if you fancy You know a person answering your description, I am confident I know one corresponding in every iota with the one I have just sketched. & with your good assistance, they shall be very soon brought together. do not put in an interdict to this happy scheme.-- I have plenty of paper before me, therefore will not complain that I have so nearly finished one sheet. nor will I talk of burning it as You do yours from Newcastle. I have given up fishing, so must you or we do not correspond upon fair terms. Notwithstanding the little thirst after praise it displays, your letter from Newcastle delights me, & I am only sorry that Nesfield in his promise in not writing. It would have given me great pleasure to have heard his account, which he promised me at Paris should be full of Rouge, Heart Kicks &c &c. Yes he said he should discover the truth. & altho' I did not confess he said he was very confident that there must have been a little bit of a letter. Oh Yes, Sam, just a little little scrap. I thank You for beginning your letter under the encumbrance of Crape. Altho' you do not give me a very good Specimen of a Miss's letter I can guess you looked well. dress leads me on. You talk to me very often upon my Criticism in dress, & seem to think that I bestow too much attention upon the most frivolous part of a Woman her dress. but You know it is said; 'that the Apparel oft bespeaks the Man'. I believe that true. how much truer is it of a Woman! If You believe this position You will no longer blame my nicety upon that head, when I am interested about the Person upon whom the criticism is exercised. You will to a general observation in answer to this. I plead Guilty. but You are well aware that a Person has no right to make particular Observations, he must resort to general to make himself understood. But however You may have laughed at me for the contrary, & however Mary may may have been impertinent eno' to persuade You, I detest to see a Woman at home dressed, or more than Clean, & if I thought at any time a person whom I was going to see & whom I liked, dressed herself more on that account it would spoil half the pleasure of the Visit. As to whims about dress those every man will have, & I have mine. Have not You Your's?- but to proceed. I am glad that Your Balls went off tolerably well; but I own that I was half in a passion when I read in your last that you fell down. but as soon as I saw the Ancle, not the Knee was hurt, I was better pleased. & shall now only hint that there is such a thing as chalk to be had at public balls. I shall expect You to tell me into how many coloured beads I was changed at N- when we meet & all the Witticisms, & all You heard about me.- I was at Eton with Sr. J. Erskine but have not seen him since. He besieged the Pulteney Fortress & was repulsed. I should think such a thing very dear at 200'000£.- I perfectly remember what You allude to '40,000 - just to keep the hunters'. but remember, & You know it well that in the situation I was then, people frequently say diametrically the reserve of what they really mean. that was my Case, for upon my Faith I should utterly despise myself, if I gave that, or ever had given it a Consideration. You are right in your own endownment & I am rich in your affection. so situated as I am the rest is not worth a moment's care or reflection. Mary writes me word for she is my little Factotum that she has made strict enquiries & hears my Horses are in good order. that she has spent some time at Bedwell & that the family were in high good humour. & hopes her letters are not dull. She can bait a Hook. This day four Weeks I shall arrive in London. & there I shall find this girl. Next to the seeing You (for you literally take place of all) I do not think I can experience much greater pleasure than in meeting her. She is so thoroughly good. & I hope they will contrive to bring Emma to Bedwell to greet me. After all this & the arrangement of the Credentials I shall start for the true seat of every thing I love, & You may depend upon it that it will not be my fault, if the day marked in your little Friend is not brought forward.- & now to say something of our Journey hither. We left Strasbourg on Monday afternoon, & slept the night at Lauterbourg the next day arrived at Manheim, which we quitted after the Wednesday Morning after having seen the Elector's Gallery of Pictures for Mayence, whence we reached Francfort yesterday noon. Our Journeys You will perceive were easy; I was determined to be patient, for I had conceived it possible that my letters might be gone to Strasbourg, & that I should have had to await their return. this luckily did not happen. & how happy I was made I have told you. & I tell you again. I can repeat it as often as I can this 'I love You dear Bess'. Thanks to my Good Stars, I am now so near home that these accidents with regard to the letters cannot happen again. I have told You I believe that We should quit Spa on Saturday the 22nd. So that You will calculate the time & accordingly direct your answers to this either to Spa or Calais. for the first You need certainly not allowed more than eight days from Fallodon, & the latter five. We draw nearer & nearer, Monson has been tasting Hock this morning, & declares it excellent so that I shall regale my Father with half a Hld from hence. As I do not think it likely that any more of your letters will come hither we shall set out tomorrow in hopes of reaching Cologne on Sunday Night. from the excessive & heartbreaking Slowness of the German Postillions I doubt the possibility of this. We shall at all events do our utmost to reach Dusseldorf on Monday. where we shall remain all Tuesday, & probably reach Spa on Thursday. from Dusseldorf I shall again write to You. It would be a Joke my affecting to say all I have to say to you at once: therefore I will send the Postscript to this from Dusseldorf. Let me advise You, as You sometimes seem alarmed at the Quantity of paper You have consumed (tho' never with reason) to write closer. I am never tired of reading your Compositions, & have Eyes just good eno' to see & decypher. by the bye I am indebted to some friend at the Genl. Post Office for your two letters with the Purse, it is marked upon them that much of the foreign postage was left unpaid. I believe that letters into Germany pay more than those for France. If I had lost them I should have been au desespoir. I will retract my assertion about the Waistcoat as you have been good eno' to endeavour to get materials; but you must be employed for me. You have so marvellously well succeeded about the Purse that I am anxious to have something more of your doing. let it be a Pocket book or any thing be it but something. I have quitted you some Minutes at the repeated sollicitations of Monson to go down into the Cellar & taste the Wine. In self defence I was at last obliged to comply. I have found some of the year 1748 so exceedingly to my taste, that I have ordered two Aums(?) to be sent to London. One I destine for P. Square, & the other, if Sr. Charles will admit it into his Cellars, for Fallodon. risking always the ridicule that will be thrown upon my taste should it prove bad; if it does I must beg him to accept the Will for the Wine, & it will not be at all necessary that it should be drank because it was my present but I trust it will prove good. I had almost forgotten the Puzzle. I thank You for it & shall keep it most charily. but would You believe that I am so much thicker that You are willing to think me, that I have not yet totally unravelled it. the general Meaning I of Course find out, & believe me, You cannot be thinking of me at any time that I am not thinking upon you, & that with delight You may enjoy Yourself sufficiently to reflect, that if at any time Present myself to your Imagination You are at the same time occupying the whole of mine by the time that I arrive at Dusseldorf I shall have had more time to consider it than the reading of your letters & the writing this has hitherto allowed me. all Events do not blame my stupidity; nothing that a riddle can contain exceeds the truth or fervor of the Confession I am always making & ready to make; that I think perpetually & with new delight & satifaction upon You; that the more I think upon the more amible I find You. & the more I love You. & so my dear Bess to conclude a long scrawl; I beg You to remember me to all at Fallodon. & to believe me now & ever, Most sincerely & affectionately Your's & Your's only S.Whitbread Do not tax your own letters with incoherence, I may mistake if for a sly sarcasm upon mine. Adieu. Adieu dearest Bess.

item

Whitbread, Samuel II,
Grey, Elizabeth,
Grey, Charles,
Gregory,
Nesfield, William,
Whitbread, Mary,
St John, Emma,
Monson, Thomas,
Erskine, James

Geneva, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Spa, Fallodon, travel, wine, dresses