STRAWBERRY HILL, _May_ 17, 1763.
"On vient de nous donner une très jolie fête au château de Straberri:
tout étoit 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 trouvoient sous la presse; des fruits à la glace, du thé, du
caffé, 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. _À l'Anglaise_ 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'Iroquaise_, that they may be under no obligation of realising their
pretensions. Madame de Boufflers[1] 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 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 Holdernesse, the Duke and Duchess of Grafton, Lord Hertford,
Lord Villiers, Offley, Messieurs de Fleury, D'Eon,[2] et Duclos.[3] 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:--