General Wade (888) is made field-marshal, and is to have command of the army, as it is supposed, on the King's not going abroad; but that is not declared . The French preparations go on with much more vigour than ours; they not having a House of Commons to combat all the winter; a campaign that necessarily engages all the attention of ministers, who have no great variety of apartments in their understandings.
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.