Thus Prepared, They Go Abroad As
They Call It; But In Truth, They Stay At Home All That While; For
Being
very awkward, confoundedly ashamed, and not speaking the languages, they
go into no foreign company, at least none good,
But dine and sup with
one another only, at the tavern.[373]...
"The life of les Milords Anglais is regularly, or if you will,
irregularly, this. As soon as they rise, which is very late, they
breakfast together to the utter loss of two good morning hours. Then
they go by coachfuls to the Palais, the Invalides, and Notre-Dame; from
thence to the English coffee-house where they make up their tavern party
for dinner. From dinner, where they drink quick, they adjourn in
clusters to the play, where they crowd up the stage, drest up in very
fine clothes, very ill made by a Scotch or Irish tailor. From the play
to the tavern again, where they get very drunk, and where they either
quarrel among themselves, or sally forth, commit some riot in the
streets, and are taken up by the watch."[374]
To avoid these monsters, and to cultivate the best French society, was
what a wise young man must do in Paris. He must establish an intimacy
with the best French families. If he became fashionable among the
French, he would be fashionable in London.
Chesterfield considered it best to show no erudition at Paris before the
rather illiterate society there. As the young men were all bred for and
put into the army at the age of twelve or thirteen, only the women had
any knowledge of letters.
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