I have paid your brother the bill I received from you, and give you a thousand thanks for all the trouble you have had; most particularly from the plague of hams,(889) from which you have saved me.  Heavens! how blank"I should have looked at unpacking a great case of bacon and wine!  My dear child, be my friend, and preserve me from heroic presents.  I cannot possibly at this distance begin a new courtship of regalia; for I suppose all those hams were to be converted into watches and toys.  Now it would suit Sir Paul Methuen very well, who is a knight-errant at seventy-three, to carry on an amour between a Mrs. Chenevix’s(890) shop and a noble collar in Florence; but alas!  I am neither old enough nor young enough to be gallant, and should ill become the writing of heroic epistles to a fair mistress in Italy-no, no:  “ne sono uscito con onore, mi pare, e non voglio riprendere quel impegno pi`u” You see how rustic I am grown again!

I knew your new brother-in-law(891) at school, but have not seen him since.  But your sister was in love, and must consequently be happy to have him.  Yet I own, I cannot much felicitate any body that marries for love.  It is bad enough to marry; but to marry where one loves, ten times worse. it is so charming at first, that the decay of inclination renders it infinitely more disagreeable afterwards.  Your sister has a thousand merits; but they don’t count:  but then she has good sense enough to make her happy, if her merit cannot make him so.

Adieu!  I rejoice for your sake that Madame Royale’ is recovered, as I saw in the papers.

(887) John JefFries.

(888)General George Wade, afterwards commander of the forces in Scotland.  He died in 1748.  A fine monument, by Roubillac, was erected to his memory in Westminster
                    Abbey.-E.

(889) Madame Grifoni was going to send Mr. W. a Present of hams and Florence wine.

(890) The proprietress of a celebrated toy-shop.-D.

(891) Mr. Foote.

(892) The Duchess of Lorrain, mother of the Great Duke:  her death would have occasioned a long mourning at Florence.
[Elizabeth of Orleans, only daughter of Philip, Duke of
Orleans
(Monsieur), by his second wife, the Princess Palatine.] -D.

To Sir Horace Mann.

Dear Sir, I have been much desired by a very particular friend, to recommend to you Sir William Maynard,(893) who is going to Florence.  You will oblige me extremely by any civilities you show him while he stays there; in particular, by introducing him to the Prince and Princess de Craon, Madame Suares, and the rest of my acquaintance there, who, I dare say, will continue their goodness to me, by receiving him with the same politeness that they received me.  I am, etc.

(893) Sir William Maynard, the fourth baronet of the family, and a younger branch of the Lords Maynard.  His son, Sir Charles Maynard, became Viscount Maynard in 1775, upon the death of his cousin Charles, the first viscount, who had been so created, with special remainder to him.-D.