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Document : 317

Title: Letter from Andrew Dalzel of Edinburgh University, 1 Jun 1785

Author(s): Dalzel, Andrew

Edin. Coll. June 1. 1785
My dear Sir,

I perused, with very great pleasure, your
Letter of the 22d. of last month, which I received several days
ago; and am very happy to hear that your situation with
M. Chauvet promises to turn out both agreeable and
advantageous. I approve very much of your availing yourself
of the opportunity of acquiring as much acquaintance
as poſsible with the French Language, not only because
there are ſo many good books written in French, which
a gentlemen of liberal Education ſhould be able to
read as easily as his own Language, but because the
understanding & speaking of french has become ſo
universal, That one cannot be in good Company
without feeling the neceſsity of ſome knowledge and
facility of this ſort.
The method in which you arrange your hours of study

appears to be very judicious & proper. I am sensible
that it is a very difficult thing to compose ones mind
for study either in or near such a great & bustling
& diſsipated place as London, at least before the
novelty of the different scenes be in ſome degree over.
I have found this to be the case in a great degree with
myself, not only in London but even in Oxford. If you
bring yourself to apply 7 or 8 hours in the day, you
will do a great deal. With respect to English
books, I agree with you that to study Hume's list
& the 1st book of Blackstone carefully ill be as
much as you can well manage, considering the rest
of your employments. The being in the house of
Commons on great occasions is a vast advantage you
poſseſs. I ſhould have liked extremely to have been
at your party when you attended the post Debate on

the Irish propositions. Such long [¿] however would require
a strong Constitution. You will have a pleasure through
Life in recollecting the noble [¿] made by the
rival orators. There is no place, next to the house
of Commons, wher eyou will lear english more properly
spoken than in the Theatre and therefore there is no harm,
but the contrary, in your going thither pretty often:
although I am not altogether pleased with the state of
the pieces represented in the Hay-Market Theatre.
I ſhould wish much to ſee Mrs Siddons in Comedy. I find
she has been much criticized in Rosalind, & yet I [¿]
it must have been a fine piece of playing. I suspect
a party in the Interest of Mrs [¿] raie the [¿]
against her in comedy, in an unreasonable degree. But a
complete judgment ſhould not be [¿] from [¿] playing
ſuch a part as Rosalind.
I have no news from this place to give you. We have
had the Gen. Aſembly, where there was ſome [¿]
and debating, in which a great keenneſs was display'd as

if the tax on ſervant maids, or the Irish propositions had been
the ſubjects. The continuance of your Correspondence will be
exceedingly agreeable to me. As however I am going to ſet
off to morrow on a jaunt to airshire & galloway, & my [¿]
will be ſomewhat desultory, I ſhall not desire you to write till about
a month hence, when I ſhall have the pleasure of receiving
regularly the Letters you direct to me here. Edin. will be
very dull for a considerable while, till the [¿] & Mrs. Siddons
[¿] it. Believe me to e, with great regard & affection,

my drst. [¿]
Yours moſt ſincerely
And. Dalzel