THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) 107 



piece was a translation of The Oracle well played. The best actors 

 from all the theatres had been collected in the King's honour. Garrick 

 danced a quadrille with all the actors at the end of the principal piece. 

 The pit encored him with noisy obstinacy. Fine theatre. Thence to 

 supper with Mrs. Blosset and to the ball at the Redout with the eldest 

 Miss Blosset. Ladies pay half a guinea, men a guinea. Fine room, 

 fine company. Girls escorted by their " abbesses " ; youths accost 

 them in passing, everything well conducted, with a singular air of 

 propriety. Talked to Lord Palmerston, who explained to me the 

 customs and the company and gave me an excellent itinerary, with 

 three letters of introduction of the most obliging character, one for 

 Sir George Savile, M.P. for the county of York, one for Lord John 

 Cavendish, M.P. for the town, and one for Lord Rockingham, the 

 Lord -Lieutenant of the county. Returned to bed at 2 A.M. nervous 

 lest my wife might be lost in her sedan chair.' 

 ' 18th August. 



1 [The morning was spent in buying a carriage from M. I'Espinasse 

 for twenty guineas and in inspecting various kinds of mathematical 

 instruments.] 



' Drove with Turton into the country with Lady Diana Boling- 

 broke, 1 wife of Mr. Beauclerk. . . . The estate Mr. Beauclerk inhabits 

 is very pretty, there is a fine collection of exotic trees with a pleasant 

 path winding among them, diversified with points of view, little ponds, 

 shady and sunny spots. Dined with My Lady, who knows and under- 

 stands French, but does not like speaking it. After dinner looked at 

 some instruments with Mr. Beauclerk. He studies mathematics with 

 his wife, and is a man of great attainments. He took me to drive 

 in a cabriolet in Richmond Park close to his house, pretty landscapes : 

 returned to tea and drove back at night to London, talking of high- 

 waymen, but seeing none.' 



' Went with my wife and Turton to breakfast with the Misses 

 Blosset, met Mr. and Mrs. Earle, with whom we made a very pleasant 

 acquaintance, he tall, a fine gentleman, she pale, thin, plain, affected 

 by the death of a brother whom she had come to see, and found dead 

 in London. 2 



1 Topham Beauclerk was a man of taste and the owner of a great library- 

 He is best remembered as the friend of Dr. Johnson. Lady Diana, a daughter of 

 the Duke of Marlborough, had been divorced by her first husband, the second 

 Lord Bolingbroke. She was an artist of some ability and much esteemed by 

 Horace Walpole. 



2 Mrs. Earle was a Miss Bouchier and the heiress of Benningborough Hall, 

 Yorkshire, where the de Saussure's subsequently stayed. She lived to be eighty. 



