![]() | The history of Lady Julia Mandeville | ![]() |
To the Countess Melespini.
Paris, June 24, 1759.
Madam,
YOU will receive this form the hands of that son I have before had the honor of recommending to your esteem.
I have accompanied him myself hither; where, being perfectly satisfied with his behavior, and convinced that generous minds are best won to virtue by implicit confidence, I have dissmissed the tutor I intended to have sent with him to Italy, shall return to
I have given him letters to the most worthy person in every court I intend he should visit; but, as my chief dependence for the advantages of this tour are on the Count and yourself, I have advised him to spend most of his time at Rome, where, honored by your friendship, I doubt not of his receiving that last finishing, that delicate polish, which, I flatter myself, if not deceived by the fondness of a parent, is all he wants to make him perfectly amiable.
To you, Madam, and the Count, I commit him; defend him from the snares of vice and the contagion of affectation.
You receive him an unexperienced youth, with lively passions, a warm and affectionate heart, an enthusiastic imagination, probity, openness, generosity; and all those advantages of person and mind, which a liberal education can bestow. I expect him from your hands a gentleman, a man of honor and politeness, with the utmost dignity of sentiment and character, adorned by that easy elegance, that refined simplicity of manner, those unaffected graces of deportment, so difficult to describe, but which it is scarce possible to converse much with you without acquiring.
Sensible of the irresistible power of beauty, I think it of the utmost consequence with what part of the female world he converses. I have from childhood habituated him to the conversation of the most lovely and polite amongst the best part of the sex, to give him an abhorrence to the indelicacy of the worst. I have endeavoured to impress on
Continuing the same anxious cares, I send him to perfect his education, not in schools or academies, but in the conversation of the most charming amongst women: the ardent desire of pleasing you, and becoming worthy your esteem, inseparable from the happiness of knowing you, will be the keenest spur to his attainments; and I shall see him return all the fond heart of a parent can wish, from his ambition of being honored with your friendship.
To you, Madam, I shall make no secret of my wish, that he may come back to England unconnected. I have a view for him beyond his most sanguine hopes, to
I am, Madam, With the most lively esteem, Your obedient and devoted, J. Mandeville.
Oh! Heavens! whilst I have been writing, and thinking nothing of it, the pavilion, which it seems has been some time prepared, is raised opposite the window of the saloon, at the end of a walk leading to the house. We are to sup in it this evening; it is charmante;
Farewel for an hour or two.
You have no notion what divine dresses we have making for the masquerade. I shall not tell you particulars, as I would not take off the pleasure of surprize; but they are charming beyond conception.
Do you not doat on a masquerade, Bellville? For my own part, I think it is the quintessence of all sublunary joys; and, without flattering my Lord's taste, I have a strange fancy this will be the most agreeable one I ever was at in my life: the scenes, the drapery, the whole disposition of it is enchanting.
Heavens! How little a while will it be that I can write myself, A. Wilmot.
![]() | The history of Lady Julia Mandeville | ![]() |