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Brighthelmstone Sunday Augt. 7. 1785
Hond Sir,
Having a few moments to Spare, I can't employ them better than by devoting
them to your amusement. I am here upon the point of embarking on board the
Capt Burton for Dieppe: I arrived here yesterday by the Coach at about
Six o' Clock, and shou'd have found the intermediate time hang rather heavy
on my hands had it not been for an agreable woman who is sitting opposite
me, a Mrs Holdham, wife of Mr. Holdham, whose name was Shuttleworth,
which being a younger Brother of my Old Friend Bob. S. he changed for
his Mother's Estate. Her Husband lives at a Place called Sochez or Sauchai
or some such name, five miles from Dieppe with a Mr Wynne Brother of a
Sir Wynne with whom they are upon a Visit till they can suit
themselves with a House. an Accident which befel the Lady & myself
in common at the Coach Office at Charing Cross threw us into the same
Vehicle the Stage Coach instead of the Post Coach alias Machine which we
had both paid for, and as She is a pleasing well bred woman I, at least
have no reason to repent the Change. The Rest of our Company consisted
of a Mr Bourgeois, a Perfumer, I think he is, in the Haymarket, a very
decent intelligent useful Man, and three Maid Servants who came
down to prepare a House for the reception of Lady who is
expected here to day. Mr Bourgeois having found a friend here whom he was
to visit, and the Maids being gone upon their business, Mrs. H who had
been disappointed by some accident of a Gentleman whom her Husband
had engaged to conduct her, was not sorry, I suppose for want of a better
Cavaliere Servante, to put herself under my protection. We went to the
Play, and supped together, I was going to say tête a tête, which wod
not have been true as the tête a tête was spoilt by one of the aforesaid
Maid Servants whom She had engaged to be her Bedfellow, and who
came in at the time that was prescribed to her, before we thought of
going to the Play which does not finish here till very late. In justice
to truth and to the Lady I cou'd do no less than tell you who She had
for a bed fellow, lest you should suspect any body else.
The Playhouse is much prettier; and the Performers much better than
I could have expected, the women in particular a very decent Set, at
the head of whom figures Mrs Wilson; the rest, almost all of them either
act well, or look well, or both, and even sing well; the Men, but so, so.,
indeed they were in every respect Over womaned, the females being so
numerous that Two of them, in the Castle of Andalusia (that was the Play)
took the Men's Parts.
Mr Stanhope, Lord Harington's Brother, Mrs. H. tells me, is pulling the Devil
by the tail at Dieppe — over hearing two Bailiffs, who had just been arresting
a friend of his, mention his own name, he had just time enough to make
his escape from them in Slippers in a Cock boat, sacrificing the place he
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Identifier: | JB/540/176/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1785-08-07 |
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540 |
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176 |
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001 |
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Correspondence/copy |
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