| Description | (Directed to Mr. Bourdon's, rue de Maurepas.)
My dear Son,
Your last letter of the 4th instant gave me more pleasure than any I ever received from you, as it not only reliev'd me from all anxiety respecting your health, but it satisfyed me that your prudence is equal to the danger of your situation and that you are capable of discriminating shadows from substance, and makeing such remarks as a philosopher would naturaly do. I fervently pray for a continuance of your health and that strength of mind which is necessary to shield you against all the follys and, more particularly, the vices of the age, as the only means of obtaining either present or future happiness.
When your sister and I return'd from London we call'd upon Mr. Hershall the astronomer near Windsor and saw his great telescopes, the largest of which are fixed in the open air and weigh several tons. It is govern'd by wheels, by pullys, and ropes, in such a way as to point it to any of the planets or any of the stars near the ecliptick. The great speculum is full four feet diameter. The tube of it is five feet diameter and forty feet long, and Mr. Hurscall gets into it by a door on one side and runs up and down it as easy as upon and down his own stairs. He hath discover'd lately two burning mountains or vulcanos in the moon, and when the largest teliscope is quite compleat he expects to make many other important discoveries and extend our ideas of the immensity of the Creation.
Mr. and Mrs. Matthews are yet at Soho. She is mending very fast, and I have now hopes she will perfectly recover.
Pray send me all your bills, including Mr. Bourdon's, and let me know how your account stands at Mr. De Lassert's. So soon as I receive the same I will send you an order for the payment.
I should have wrote you more particulars, as well as a line to Mr. Bourdons, but I have just got four gentlemen arived from London to order an engine for a rolling mill there.
Pray give me an account of all your countrymen that you have seen at Versailles.
It will be yet a fortnight before I go to Cornwall, and therefore I beg a letter from you by the return of post.
If you should see Collins, tell him that I believe copper is fall'n to 73£ a ton, which will be almost the ruin of Cornwall. If Mr. Sayde should call upon you, don't go with him: I have many private reasons against it.
Present my best respects to Mr. Bourdon senior and junior, and to the ladies. I am, dear Matt, your most affectionate father,
M. Boulton
[Edited transcript.] |