*By this time you have surely finished your Tour, touched at
Edinburgh, where you found a Letter, which you have not answered,
and are now contemplating the beauties of the Weald of Sussex. I
shall demand a long and particular account of your peregrinations,
but will excuse it till we meet; and for the present, expect only a
short memorandum of your health and situation, together with that
of my much-honoured friend Mrs. Abigail Holroyd. A word, too, if
you please, concerning Father and Sister; to the latter I enclose a
receipt from Mrs. G., who is now with me at Port Eliot.
Blind as you accuse me of being to the beauties of Nature, I am
wonderfully pleased with this country. Of her three dull notes,
_Ground_, _Plants_, and _Water_, Cornwall possesses the first and
last in very high perfection. Think of a hundred solitary streams
peacefully gliding between amazing Clifs on one side and rich meadows
on the other, gradually swelling by the aid of the Tide into noble
rivers, successively losing themselves in each other, and all at
length terminating in the Harbour of Plymouth, whose broad expanse
is irregularly _dotted_ with two-and-forty Line of battle Ships. In
_Plants_, indeed, we are deficient; and though all the Gentlemen now
attend to Posterity, the country will for a long time be very naked.
We have spent several days agreeably enough in little parties; but in
general our time rolls away in an equal kind of insipidity. Our civil
Landlord possesses neither a pack of hounds, nor a stable of running
horses, nor a large farm, nor a good library. The last only would
interest me; but it is singular that a Man of fortune, who chuses
to pass nine months of the year in the country, should have none of
them.* One possession he has indeed most truly desirable; but I much
fear that the Danae of St. Germains has no particular inclination
for me, and that the interested Strumpet will yield only to a Golden
Shower.[198] My situation is the more perplexing as I cannot with
any degree of delicacy make the first advance. A propos, do you
still think of starting for the Town ... [illegible] will be very
serviceable on the occasion.
[Sidenote: LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS.]
*According to our present design, Mrs. G. and myself shall return to
Bath about the beginning of next month. I shall probably make but a
short stay with her, and defer my Derbyshire Journey till another
year. Sufficient for the summer is the evil thereof, of one distant
country Excursion. Natural inclination, the prosecution of my great
Work, and the conclusion of my Lenborough business, plead strongly
in favour of London. However, I desire, and one always finds time
for what one really desires, to visit Sheffield Place before the end
of October, should it only be for a few days. I know several houses
where I am invited to think myself at home, but I know no other
where I seem inclined to accept of the invitation. I forgot to tell
you, that I have declined the publication of Lord C[hesterfield]'s
letters.[199] The public will see them, and upon the whole, I think
with pleasure; but the whole family were strongly bent against it;
and especially on d'Eyverdun's account, I deemed it more prudent to
avoid making them my personal enemies.
Yours,
E. G.*
Pray did you use the house in Bentinck Street?
[198] Alluding to negotiations between Mr. Eliot and himself for
a seat in Parliament.
[199] Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son, Philip Stanhope,
were sold by that son's widow, Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope, and
published in 1774, "from the originals in her possession." M.
Deyverdun was at this time tutor to the young Lord Chesterfield
[1755-1815], a distant kinsman of the deceased Earl. According to
Walpole, an injunction was applied for to prevent the publication
of the letters. Terms were, however, arranged by which the
publication was permitted, on condition that the family expunged
certain passages, and regained possession of such copies as
had been made of the unpublished _Portraits_, or _Characters_
(Walpole to Mason, April 7, 1774).
178.
_To his Stepmother._
Bentinck Street, October the 20th, 1773.