Free Rousseau's Dog by David Edmonds Page B

friend Sir Thomas Brand he complained about his boredom. He had been confined to bed with gout in both legs, and declared that he had not laughed since Lady Hertford went away: “Good folks, they have no time to laugh. There is God and the king to be pulled down first; and men and women, one and all are devoutly employed in the demolition. They think me quite profane for having any belief left.”
    Traffic was not all in one direction. The French, too, flocked to England. And, notwithstanding their cherished differences, the two sides peered at each other across the Channel to spot the latest trends in fashion. What was
à la mode
in Paris immediately became
le dernier cri
in London—and vice versa.
    Grimm listed the objects of mutual desire:
    We in France now set as high a value upon English postillions as the English ever placed upon our poor Huguenot waiting maids; we have the same taste for their horses, their punch, and their philosophers, as they have for our wines, our liqueurs, and our opera dancers; … we are mad for their steel, they are eager for our silver; we can no longer support anything but English carriages, gardens, and swords, theycannot admire anything but our workmen, particularly our cabinetmakers and our cooks. We send them our fashions and in return bring back theirs. … In short we seem reciprocally to have imposed upon ourselves the tasks of copying each other, so as to efface entirely all vestiges of our ancient hatred.
    In that, at least, Grimm was an optimist.
    Grimm also noted the French partiality for English translations, which appeared with great rapidity, evidence of the impressive degree of cultural exchange. They included Hume’s philosophical papers. There had been a cult following for Samuel Richardson ever since the publication of his
Clarissa
(1747). French pilgrims sought out English locations described in
Clarissa.
Rousseau’s opinion was that “in no other language is there a novel equal to
Clarisse,
or even approaching it.”
    H ERTFORD HAD TAKEN the monumental Hôtel de Lassay for his personal use; a visitor said she had never seen a house as beautiful, but the rooms were inconvenient and dirty. There, according to a British visitor, Hume made “a good honest droll good-natured sort of figure at their table, and really puts you in mind of the mastiff-dog at the fire side.”
    Away from the piety of the Hertfords’ somewhat spare table, Hume’s embassy position and his association with Lord Hertford ensured his entrée to the luxurious divertissements of the court and the drawing rooms of the aristocratic elite. However, many of Hume’s tasks must have seemed insufferably mundane. The neophyte assistant secretary had among his official duties the issuing of embassy news to the London press. On June 6, 1765, he sent a report to the
London Chronicle
on the king’s birthday celebrations in Paris:
    Paris. On Tuesday the fourth of June, being the anniversary of his Majesty’s birthday, the Earl of Hertford, Ambassador from England,invited all the English of rank and condition in the place, to the number of seventy persons, who dined with him and celebrated that solemnity. The company appeared very splendid, being almost all dressed in new and rich cloaths on this occasion; the entertainment was magnificent, and the usual healths were drunk with great loyalty and alacrity by all present.
    Then, between July 21, 1765, when Hertford left Paris having given up his appointment; and November 17, 1765, when the Duke of Richmond took his place, Hume was
chargé d’affaires
and his responsibilities became more serious. In these four months he handled negotiations on various detailed problems left over from the Treaty of Paris, such as the demolition of the fortifications of Dunkirk. Hume solved none of these issues, but Conway praised his negotiating skills.
    H UME SHOULD HAVE been cheerier than ever before. He had a