44 HUME ii 



and easily. In October, 1769, he writes to 

 Elliot: 



"I have been settled here two months, and am here body 

 and soul, without casting the least thought of regret to Lon- 

 don, or even to Paris. ... I live still, and must for a twelve- 

 month, in my old house in James's Court, which is very 

 cheerful and even elegant, but too small to display my great 

 talent for cookery, the science to which I intend to addict 

 the remaining years of my life. I have just now lying on 

 the table before me a receipt for making soupe a la reine, 

 copied with my own hand ; for beef and cabbage (a charm- 

 ing dish) and old mutton and old claret nobody excels me. 

 I make also sheep's-head broth in a manner that Mr. Keith 

 speaks of for eight days after ; and the Due de Nivernois 

 would bind himself apprentice to my lass to learn it. I have 

 already sent a challenge to David Moncrieff : you will see 

 that in a twelvemonth he will take to the writing of history, 

 the field I have deserted ; for as to the giving of dinners, he 

 can now have no further pretensions. I should have made 

 a very bad use of my abode in Paris if I could not get the 

 better of a mere provincial like him. All my friends en- 

 courage me in this ambition; as thinking it will redound 

 very much to my honour." 



In 1770, Hume built himself a house in the 

 new town of Edinburgh, which was then springing 

 up. It was the first house in the street, and a 

 frolicsome young lady chalked upon the wall " St. 

 Dav' 3 '- Street." Hume's servant complained to 

 her Caster, who replied, "Never mind, lassie, 

 many a better man has been made a saint of 

 before/' and the street retains its title to this 

 day. 



In the following six years, the house in St. 

 David's Street was the centre of the accomplished 



