Sunday 17 1784

I received my Little Dear Girls Good Friday Letter and
am glad that you have got that serious {^^tho} salutary time
so well over. I thought of my poor G. every day in that
week. Indeed I do the same every week but however as I know
the sort of solemnity with which it was kept in convents. I
was a little afraid you would be fatigued – you make me
very happy my dear girl by speaking so prettily to me.
I am glad you liked my letter & I will say that if your
Mama loves you beyond what most mothers love their children
it is because there are very few if any who have such a
little girl to love as I have – your little Uncle writes me
word that he has received again a very pretty letter from
you. Ldy Anastatia likewise & that you had given {?James}
my old acquaintance 24 sols which she says was too Generous.
I am going to send her over a nun: with Mrs {?Mottaline}
One of the Miss Barry’s Catholic young women at [illeg]
who is protected by the priests & the Suffields She has very
Little Money: but is they say a very good creature & thinks
she has a great mind to be a nun. She is to make me a Visit
this week. That she may let L^dy Anastatia know how Cossey looks

the Dining Room is making into two bed chambers indeed it is
pretty far advanced. The dining room door is taken quite away &
the top made in an arch. You turn to the left & then another
arch leads you strait a long a passage at the end of which
is the great Room door and the two doors sideways lets you
into two very pretty sized rooms with corner chimneys
the great chimney being so divided to the first room there
is a little closet by the window occasioned by the passage at
bottom which was obliged to be cut off. This is the shape I
was going to draw it but I cannot so I hope you will
comprehend it without. In taking up some of the boards to make
chimneys they discovered that one of the beams was almost
entirely rotten so much so that it was a mercy of providence
had not before come thro the parlour ceiling down upon our
heads. It is frightful to think of the condition it was in having
all that is now prop’t up & mended very well. Mr Dove who
built Tenham Mr Wodehouse’s is our overseer & I trust he understands
it very well as the parlour ceiling was by this means a little
damaged. I mean by securing the beams. The whole room
will be builded up a little a new paper & some new covers to the
chairs &c I have not had any pleasure in being busy without my little

Girl for my aid de Camp. I have not yet been able to prevail
upon myself to go to the play but after various Embassy’s from
Mr Parrot, who has this winter bought the theatre & is sole
manager of it for to bespeak one have at last complied &
tomorrow is perform’d by desire of Sr Wm & Lady Jerningham a
comic opera called the Duenna with a farce called the Divorce.
I am told that it will be very full. I dine at Mrs Bagots & go with
her. Mrs Bacon Mrs Custance & Mrs Wodehouse prefer going [illeg]
I shall give you an account of it in my next letter. The regiment
that you left at Norwich have received orders to remain here another
year. Has Miss Petre inform’d you that Buckenham House is
going to be enlarged, of a drawing room,
library, & chappel. This will make it a
very considerable mansion. The present
chappel will turn into a very good bedchamber &
there will be rooms also over the new ones. A propos Mrs Read
who is just return’d quite fashionable from Bath. Was at the play last
night with her child. I suppose the nurse was not far behind.
Poor Mrs Pitchford is in great affliction. She has lost Her little
girl Anne a child of 4 years old, whom she was most part[?icularly]
fond of is dyed in the same way that Miss Fanny Wodehouse did of
a feaver of six or seven weeks. Mrs Wodehouse is now in Residence
at Norwich & her little girl is grown very tall & pretty. She Is P & {?short}
the Boy is also a fine Child, he is in Breeches, I mention’d to the General

Lady that I thought you ought to have a hat to run about the garden
in for the sun will entirely spoil your complexion. I hope the request will
be complied with. My little girl shall not have yellow. She shall have
pink or any colour she likes for a gown. We expect the Chevalier
on Wednesday next. Betty is to go to the Play tomorrow
night for the first time in her life. N has since I return’d her
hair done up over a cushion with a curl of each side & some
[damaged]I bought her at Lile. She looks very well.

Mrs leigh is with child as also the two Mrs Wodehouses
& Lady Beauchamp so the county goes on peopling. Mrs Constance
has xxx two girls one was born after we went abroad. I must
now have an account of the second school & the high pensioners
you mention’d to me in your last Dine all together? They surely do not dine
with you. In Abbayes they are at the Abbess’ table. Good bye my little sweet Dear Girl.

[change of orientation]

France put p^d to London

Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle de Jerningham aux
Dames Ursulines Rue St Georges
a Paris

Sunday 17 1784

I received my Little Dear Girls Good Friday Letter and
am glad that you have got that serious {^^tho} salutary time
so well over. I thought of my poor G. every day in that
week. Indeed I do the same every week but however as I know
the sort of solemnity with which it was kept in convents. I
was a little afraid you would be fatigued – you make me
very happy my dear girl by speaking so prettily to me.
I am glad you liked my letter & I will say that if your
Mama loves you beyond what most mothers love their children
it is because there are very few if any who have such a
little girl to love as I have – your little Uncle writes me
word that he has received again a very pretty letter from
you. Ldy Anastatia likewise & that you had given {?James}
my old acquaintance 24 sols which she says was too Generous.
I am going to send her over a nun: with Mrs {?Mottaline}
One of the Miss Barry’s Catholic young women at [illeg]
who is protected by the priests & the Suffields She has very
Little Money: but is they say a very good creature & thinks
she has a great mind to be a nun. She is to make me a Visit
this week. That she may let L^dy Anastatia know how Cossey looks

the Dining Room is making into two bed chambers indeed it is
pretty far advanced. The dining room door is taken quite away &
the top made in an arch. You turn to the left & then another
arch leads you strait a long a passage at the end of which
is the great Room door and the two doors sideways lets you
into two very pretty sized rooms with corner chimneys
the great chimney being so divided to the first room there
is a little closet by the window occasioned by the passage at
bottom which was obliged to be cut off. This is the shape I
was going to draw it but I cannot so I hope you will
comprehend it without. In taking up some of the boards to make
chimneys they discovered that one of the beams was almost
entirely rotten so much so that it was a mercy of providence
had not before come thro the parlour ceiling down upon our
heads. It is frightful to think of the condition it was in having
all that is now prop’t up & mended very well. Mr Dove who
built Tenham Mr Wodehouse’s is our overseer & I trust he understands
it very well as the parlour ceiling was by this means a little
damaged. I mean by securing the beams. The whole room
will be builded up a little a new paper & some new covers to the
chairs &c I have not had any pleasure in being busy without my little

Girl for my aid de Camp. I have not yet been able to prevail
upon myself to go to the play but after various Embassy’s from
Mr Parrot, who has this winter bought the theatre & is sole
manager of it for to bespeak one have at last complied &
tomorrow is perform’d by desire of Sr Wm & Lady Jerningham a
comic opera called the Duenna with a farce called the Divorce.
I am told that it will be very full. I dine at Mrs Bagots & go with
her. Mrs Bacon Mrs Custance & Mrs Wodehouse prefer going [illeg]
I shall give you an account of it in my next letter. The regiment
that you left at Norwich have received orders to remain here another
year. Has Miss Petre inform’d you that Buckenham House is
going to be enlarged, of a drawing room,
library, & chappel. This will make it a
very considerable mansion. The present
chappel will turn into a very good bedchamber &
there will be rooms also over the new ones. A propos Mrs Read
who is just return’d quite fashionable from Bath. Was at the play last
night with her child. I suppose the nurse was not far behind.
Poor Mrs Pitchford is in great affliction. She has lost Her little
girl Anne a child of 4 years old, whom she was most part[?icularly]
fond of is dyed in the same way that Miss Fanny Wodehouse did of
a feaver of six or seven weeks. Mrs Wodehouse is now in Residence
at Norwich & her little girl is grown very tall & pretty. She Is P & {?short}
the Boy is also a fine Child, he is in Breeches, I mention’d to the General

Lady that I thought you ought to have a hat to run about the garden
in for the sun will entirely spoil your complexion. I hope the request will
be complied with. My little girl shall not have yellow. She shall have
pink or any colour she likes for a gown. We expect the Chevalier
on Wednesday next. Betty is to go to the Play tomorrow
night for the first time in her life. N has since I return’d her
hair done up over a cushion with a curl of each side & some
[damaged]I bought her at Lile. She looks very well.

Mrs leigh is with child as also the two Mrs Wodehouses
& Lady Beauchamp so the county goes on peopling. Mrs Constance
has xxx two girls one was born after we went abroad. I must
now have an account of the second school & the high pensioners
you mention’d to me in your last Dine all together? They surely do not dine
with you. In Abbayes they are at the Abbess’ table. Good bye my little sweet Dear Girl.

[change of orientation]

France put p^d to London

Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle de Jerningham aux
Dames Ursulines Rue St Georges
a Paris