Me de Boufflers, la Reine des Aristocrates refugies en Angleterre, was to see us yesterday in the evening, and to invite Mie Mie and me to come sometimes to hear her daughter-in-law play upon the harp.  I did not expect melody in their heaviness, but I shall certainly go, as the recitative part will be in French, and that you know is always some amusement to me.

The Duke, I hear, will be in London to-night, and so may come to Richmond to dine with us to-morrow.  If he does, I shall be a little embarrassed between my two Dukes, for the Duke of Newcastle(282) expects me to dine and to lie at his house at Wimbledon.  If I can reconcile two such jarring attachments, I will; if not, I believe I shall prefer my neighbour, as loving him very near as much as myself.  Well, Mr. C(ampbell) and Lady C(aroline) are going out in their phaeton, so I shall now have done. . . .

(282) Thomas, third Duke of Newcastle (1752-1795)

(1790, Aug.? or Oct.?) Saturday, Isleworth.—. . .  Mr. C(ampbell) called upon me yesterday.  He came to see my two pictures, which I had cleaned by Comyns, and are very pretty, as Mr. C. allows, but he will not assent to Comyns’s opinion that they are Cuyp’s, although much in his style.  Comyns values them at what they cost me, which was 50 gs. or thereabouts.  Mie Mie has them in her dressing-room, and is vastly pleased with them.  We all dine to-day at the Castle.(283) Me la Comtesse Balbi(284) chooses to give a dinner there to all her friends, the Me’sdames Boufflers, the Comte de Boisgelin,(285) M. d’Haveri(?), &c.  The Duke, Mie Mie, and I are invited, and the Duke intends to bring Mr. Grieve with him, and as a Member de la Chambre Basse he will pass muster, but he is most wretched at the lingo.  They will assemble in the evening at the Duke’s, where I suppose that there will be tweedle dum, and tweedle dee, for the whole evening, till supper.  George will not, after this, call our house a hermitage; if it is, it is a reform of a merry Order, in which neither St. Francis or St. Bruno have any share.

Lady Graham(286) has got her Duche very soon.  A report was spread here yesterday that Prince Augustus(287) was dead, but it is contradicted in the papers of to-day.  Mr. C(ampbell) is gone to town, but he and Mr. Grevil return to dinner.

I hope that Frederick liked my letter, and that in my letter to Gertrude there was some bad French for her to correct, and then I Shall hear from her again.  I hope that William will be indulged in staying here a day or two with his sister, and that George will not fly away on his Pegasus to Oxford the instant he comes, although I know that the Muses are impatient to see him, and will set their caps at him the moment he comes.  I hope that you approve of my choice of what the colour of his gown is to be.  I think a light blue celeste, which Lord Stafford had, would be detestable, and scarlet is too glaring.  No; it must be a good deep green.  I want to know the name of his tutor.  I hope that he will have a very good collection of books in his own room, a sufficient allowance, and a hamper of claret, en cas de besom.  I think, if there are to be no hounds or horses, we may compound for all the rest.  But these I believe the Dean will never suffer to be matriculated. . . .