As I shall be a good deal here this summer, I hope you did not take a surfeit of Strawberry-hill, but will bestow a visit on it while its beauty lasts; the gallery advances fast now, and I think in a few weeks will make a figure worth your looking at. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, May 17, 1763. ON vient de nous donner une très jolie fête au château de Straberri: tout était tapissé de narcisses, de tulipes, et de lilacs; des cors de chasse, des clarionettes, des petits vers galants faits par des fées, et qui se trouvaient sous la presse, des fruits à la glace, du thé, du café, des biscuits, et force hot-rolls. This is not the beginning of a letter to you, but of one, that I might suppose sets out to-night for Paris, or rather, which I do not suppose will set out thither; for though the narrative is circumstantially true, I don't believe the actors were pleased enough with the scene, to give so favourable an account of it. The French do not come hither to see. A l'Anglais happened to be the word in fashion; and half a dozen of the most fashionable people have been the dupes of it. I take for granted that their next mode will be à l'Iroquoise, that they may be under no obligation of realizing their pretensions. Madame de Boufflers1 I think will die a martyr to a taste, which she fancied she had, and finds she has not. Never having stirred ten miles from Paris, and having only rolled in an easy coach from one hotel to another on a gliding pavement, she is already worn out with being hurried from morning till night from one sight to another. She rises every morning so fatigued with the toils of the preceding day, that she has not strength, if she had inclination, to observe the least, or the finest thing she sees! She came hither to-day to a great breakfast I made for her, with her eyes a foot deep in her head, her hands dangling, and scarce able to support her knitting bag. She had been yesterday to see a ship launched, and went 1 The comtesse de Boufflers, who, after the revolution in France of the year 1789, resided in England for two or three years, with her daughter-inlaw, the comtesse Emilie de Boufflers, [Or.] from Greenwich by water to Ranelagh. Madame Dusson, who is Dutch-built, and whose muscles are pleasure-proof, came with her; there were besides, lady Mary Coke, lord and lady Holderness, the duke and duchess of Grafton, lord Hertford, lord Villiers, Offley, Messieurs de Fleury, D'Eon,3 et Duclos. The latter is author of the Life of Louis Onze; dresses like a dissenting minister, which I suppose is the livery of a bel esprit, and is much more impetuous than agreeable. We breakfasted in the great parlour, and I had filled the hall and large cloister by turns with French horns and clarionettes. As the French ladies had never seen a printing-house, I carried them into mine; they found something ready set, and desiring to see what it was, it proved as follows: The Press speaks For Madame de Boufflers. The graceful fair, who loves to know, For Madame Dusson. Feign not an ignorance of what I speak ; 'Tis the same language Belgium utter'd first, Each country says the same to eyes like yours. 2 George Bussy Villiers, younger and only surviving son of William Villiers third earl of Jersey. He succeeded to the earldom on the 28th of August 1769, and on his death on the 22d of August 1805, was succeeded by his son the present earl. [Ed.] 3 The chevalier D'Eon was, on his arrival in England, secretary to the duke de Nivernois, the French ambassador, and upon the duke's return to France, was appointed minister plenipotentiary, but on the comte de Guerchy being some time afterwards nominated ambassador, the chevalier was ordered to resume his secretaryship; at which he was so greatly mortified, that he quarrelled with and libelled the comte de Guerchy, for which libel he was indicted and found guilty in the Court of King's Bench, on the 9th of July 1764. [Ed.] You will comprehend that the first speaks English, and that the second does not; that the second is handsome, and the first not; and that the second was born in Holland. This little gentilesse pleased, and atoned for the popery of my house, which was not serious enough for Madame de Boufflers, who is Montmorency, et du sang du premier Chrétien; and too serious for Madame Dusson, who is a Dutch Calvinist. The latter's husband was not here, nor Drumgold, who have both got fevers, nor the duc de Nivernois,5 who dined at Claremont. The gallery is not advanced enough to give them any idea at all, as they are not apt to go out of their way for one; but the cabinet, and the glory of yellow glass at top, which had a charming sun for a foil, did surmount their indifference, especially as they were animated by the duchess of Grafton, who had never happened to be here before, and who perfectly entered into the air of enchantment and fairyism, which is the tone of the place, and was peculiarly so to-day;-à-propos, when do you design to come hither? Let me know, that I may have no measures to interfere with receiving you and your grandsons. Before lord Bute ran away, he made Mr. Bentley a commissioner of the lottery; I don't know whether a single or a double one; the latter, which I hope it is, is two hundred a year. Thursday, 19th. I AM ashamed of myself to have nothing but a journal of pleasures to send you; I never passed a more agreeable day than yesterday. Miss Pelham gave the French an entertainment at Esher; but they have been so feasted and amused, that none of them were well enough, or reposed enough to come, but Nivernois and Madame Dusson. The rest of the company were, the Graftons, lady Rockingham, lord and lady Pembroke, lord and lady Holderness, lord Villiers, count Woronzow the Russian minister, lady Sondes, Mr. and Miss Mary Pelham, lady Mary Coke, Mrs. Anne Pitt, and Mr. Shelly. The day was delightful; the scene transporting; the trees, lawns, concaves, all in the perfection in which the ghost of Kent would joy to see them. 4 Secretary to the duc de Nivernois. [Or.] 5 The ambassador and plenipotentiary sent by the court of France to treat for the peace. He left England on the 22d of May 1763, on his return to Paris. [Ed.] At twelve we made the tour of the farm in eight chaises and calashes, horsemen, and footmen, setting out like a picture of Wouvermans'. My lot fell in the lap of Mrs. Anne Pitt, which I could have excused, as she was not at all in the style of the day-romantic, but political. We had a magnificent dinner, cloaked in the modesty of earthenware; French horns and hautboys on the lawn. We walked to the Belvidere on the summit of the hill, where a theatrical storm only served to heighten the beauty of the landscape, a rainbow on a dark cloud falling precisely behind the tower of a neighbouring church, between another tower and the building at Claremont. Monsieur de Nivernois, who had been absorbed all day, and lagging behind, translating my verses, was delivered of his version, and of some more lines which he wrote on Miss Pelham in the Belvidere, while we drank tea and coffee. From thence we passed into the wood, and the ladies formed a circle on chairs before the mouth of the cave, which was overhung to a vast height with woodbines, lilacs, and liburnums, and dignified by the tall shapely cypresses. On the descent of the hill were placed the French horns; the abigails, servants, and neighbours wandering below by the river; in short, it was Parnassus, as Watteau would have painted it. Here we had a rural syllabub, and part of the company returned to town; but were replaced by Giardini 6 and Onofrio, who, with Nivernois on the violin, and lord Pembroke on the bass, accompanied Miss Pelham, lady Rockingham, and the duchess of Grafton, who sang. This little concert lasted till past ten; then there were minuets, and as we had seven couple left, it concluded with a country dance. I blush again, for I danced, but was kept in countenance by Nivernois, who has one wrinkle more than I have. A quarter after twelve, they sat down to supper, and I came home by a charming moonlight. I am going to dine in town, and to a great ball with fire-works 6 Felice Giardini, the celebrated violinist, born at Turin in 1716, and a pupil of Somis, one of Corelli's best scholars, arrived in London in 1750, when he appears to have created almost as great a sensation as Paganini in our own days. He resided in this country until 1784, when he went to Naples, under the patronage of sir W. Hamilton. In 1789 he returned to England; but his reputation was no longer what it had been, and he then went to Moscow, where he died at the age of eighty, in povertyand wretchedness. [Ed.] 7 at Miss Chudleigh's, but I return hither on Sunday, to bid adieu to this abominable Arcadian life; for really when one is not young, one ought to do nothing but s'ennuyer; I will try, but I always go about it awkwardly. Adieu! Yours ever. P. S. I enclose a copy of both the English and French verses. A Madame de Boufflers. Boufflers, qu'embellissent les graces, Elle à qui l'amour du savoir Répétons sons nom mille fois, Sur tous les cœurs Boufflers aura des droits, A l'amour prêteront leur voix. A Madame D'Usson. Ne feignez point, Iris, de ne pas nous entendre; Et dans un langage plus tendre Paris vous l'a répété mille fois. C'est de nos cœurs l'expression sincère, En tout climat, Iris, à toute heure, en tous lieux, Vous apprendrez combien ils savent plaire. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY, Arlington-street, May 21, 1763. You have now seen the celebrated madame de Boufflers. I dare say you could in that short time perceive that she is agreeable; but I dare say, too, that you will agree with me that vivacity is by no means the partage of the French-bating the étourderie of the mousquetaires and of a high-dried petit-maître or 7 Afterwards duchess of Kingston. [Or.] |