THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) 117 



On the 10th October the de Saussures went to a masquerade 

 given for the King of Denmark. 



' All the most beautiful and richest ladies in England were there 

 in fancy dress of singular taste and magnificence. Several ladies, and 

 among them Lady Spencer, one of our acquaintances, wore more than 

 a hundred thousand pounds sterling worth of diamonds ! My wife 

 was dressed as a Spaniard in pink and silver, which suited her admirably 

 I have never seen her look better ; and all the sensible or frugal 

 men were only in dominoes ! ' 



One of de Saussure's correspondents, Francois Tronchin, pleasantly 

 alludes to 'the King, who was at Madame de Saussure's feet.' It 

 was possibly on this occasion, though he is recorded to have met 

 and danced with her previously at the Hague. 



Next day de Saussure, leaving his wife at Putney with her 

 cousins the Boissiers, who had a banking house in London, started 

 at midnight by coach to visit the mines in Cornwall. A letter 

 written immediately after his return describes his experiences : 



' The journey was very laborious and fatiguing, but made well 

 worth while by the beauty and singularity of all I saw. The Cornish 

 climate is, I believe, the softest, the pleasantest, and the healthiest 

 in Europe ; the land never experiences great heat or great cold ; 

 myrtles, pomegranates, laurels, grow in the open air, and hardly ever 

 suffer from frost ; provisions cost nothing ; fish is so cheap that for 

 two shillings ten people can be fed, and the air is so pure that epidemics 

 are unknown. The only drawback is the absence of trees at least of 

 large trees ; whether from the sea-winds or the character of the soil, 

 they fail to flourish. The crops, however, are successful.' 



Senebier in his Memoir asserts that de Saussure contracted in 

 Cornwall a diphtheritic sore throat, the effects of which on his 

 health were lasting. According to his biographer, he was attended 

 by his friend, Dr. Turton, and after suffering a dangerous relapse 

 from a visit to a flint-glass manufactory, was still an invalid when 

 he started homewards at the New Year. 1 



This story is not borne out by any available evidence, and it 

 is difficult to credit it in the face of de Saussure's testimony to 



1 Senebier wrote from recollections that were often inaccurate. For instance, 

 he asserts that do Saussure met Banks and Solander on their return from their 

 famous voyage, and was shown ' the curiosities of Otahiti.' In fact, de Saussure 

 supped with Banks the night before his start. There is nothing in the letters 

 written during the last weeks of the de Saussures' stay in England to confirm 



