LONDON,May 10,O.S.1751.
MY DEAR FRIEND:I received yesterday,at the same time,your letters of the 4th and 11th,N.S.,and being much more careful of my commissions than you are of yours,I do not delay one moment sending you my final instructions concerning the pictures.The man you allow to be a Titian,and in good preservation;the woman is an indifferent and a damaged picture;but as I want them for furniture for a particular room,companions are necessary;and therefore I am willing to take the woman for better for worse,upon account of the man;and if she is not too much damaged,I can have her tolerably repaired,as many a fine woman is,by a skillful hand here;but then I expect that the lady should be,in a manner,thrown into the bargain with the man;and,in this state of affairs,the woman being worth little or nothing,I will not go above fourscore Louis for the two together.As for the Rembrandt you mention,though it is very cheap,if good,I do not care for it.I love 'la belle nature';Rembrandt paints caricatures.Now for your own commissions,which you seem to have forgotten.You mention nothing of the patterns which you received by Monsieur Tollot,though I told you in a former letter,which you must have had before the date of your last,that Ishould stay till I received the patterns pitched upon by your ladies;for as to the instructions which you sent me in Madame Monconseil's hand,I could find no mohairs in London that exactly answered that description;I shall,therefore,wait till you send me (which you may easily do in a letter)the patterns chosen by your three graces.
I would,by all means,have you go now and then,for two or three days,to Marechal Coigny's,at Orli;it is but a proper civility to that family,which has been particularly civil to you;and,moreover,I would have you familiarize yourself with,and learn the interior and domestic manners of,people of that rank and fashion.I also desire that you will frequent Versailles and St.Cloud,at both of which courts you have been received with distinction.Profit of that distinction,and familiarize yourself at both.Great courts are the seats of true good-breeding;you are to live at courts,lose no time in learning them.Go and stay sometimes at Versailles for three or four days,where you will be domestic in the best families,by means of your friend Madame de Puisieux;and mine,l'Abbe de la Ville.Go to the King's and the Dauphin's levees,and distinguish yourself from the rest of your countrymen,who,I dare say,never go there when they can help it.
Though the young Frenchmen of fashion may not be worth forming intimate connections with,they are well worth making acquaintance of;and I do not see how you can avoid it,frequenting so many good French houses as you do,where,to be sure,many of them come.Be cautious how you contract friendships,but be desirous,and even industrious,to obtain a universal acquaintance.Be easy,and even forward,in making new acquaintances;that is the only way of knowing manners and characters in general,which is,at present,your great object.You are 'enfant de famille'in three ministers'houses;but I wish you had a footing,at least,in thirteen and that,I should think,you might easily bring about,by that common chain,which,to a certain degree,connects those you do not with those you do know.
