and knowledge for a woman, and her house is the resort of one set of ’les beaux esprits.  It is a satisfaction and a sort of credit to be acquainted with those gentlemen; and it puts a young fellow in fashion.  ‘A propos des beaux esprits’, you have ’les entries’ at Lady Sandwich’s; who, old as she was, when I saw her last, had the strongest parts of any woman I ever knew in my life?  If you are not acquainted with her, either the Duchesse d’Aiguillon or Lady Hervey can, and I dare say will; introduce you.  I can assure you, it is very well worth your while, both upon her own account, and for the sake of the people of wit and learning who frequent her.  In such companies there is always something to be learned as well as manners; the conversation turns upon something above trifles; some point of literature, criticism, history, etc., is discussed with ingenuity and good manners; for I must do the French people of learning justice; they are not bears, as most of ours are:  they are gentlemen.

Our Abbe writes me word that you were gone to Compiegne:  I am very glad of it; other courts must form you for your own.  He tells me too, that you have left off riding at the ‘manege’; I have no objection to that, it takes up a great deal of the morning; and if you have got a genteel and firm seat on horseback, it is enough for you, now that tilts and tournaments are laid aside.  I suppose you have hunted at Compiegne.  The King’s hunting there, I am told, is a fine sight.  The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and boobies.  The poor beasts are here pursued and run down by much greater beasts than themselves, and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.

I hope you apply the time you have saved from the riding-house to useful more than to learned purposes; for I can assure you they are very different things.  I would have you allow but one hour a-day for Greek; and that more to keep what you have than to increase it:  by Greek, I mean useful Greek books, such as Demosthenes, Thucydides, etc., and not the poets, with whom you are already enough acquainted.  Your Latin will take care of itself.  Whatever more time you may have for reading, pray bestow it upon those books which are immediately relative to your destination; such as modern history, in the modern languages, memoirs, anecdotes, letters, negotiations, etc.  Collect also, if you can, authentically, the present state of all the courts and countries in Europe, the characters of the kings and princes, their wives, their ministers, and their w——­s; their several views, connections, and interests; the state of their finances, their military force, their trade, manufactures, and commerce.  That is the useful, the necessary knowledge for you, and indeed for every gentleman.  But with all this, remember, that living books are much better than dead