Letters – Godfrey Bosville to John Wentworth – 27 Mar 1778

							Thorp near Malton March 27th 1778.

Dear Sir,

      We are happy to hear of your safe arrival among your friends in England, though we are sorry for the disagreeable occasion of it, that the Rebellion is so formidable in America as to drive our Governors from thence, and that we can no longer with propriety call them our fellow subjects, who speak the same language in another hemisphere. Their former enemy’s, and now their good friends the French, may teach them a better system of Morality than we have done. They forget the time when Monsieur Montealm was coming to give them a few of his instructions; but it is a pleasure to see some of the best of that country, that think it no disgrace to be reckon’d among the friends to Old England. You will scarce know my family again; some that were children when you was here are now grown up; I have Grandchildren in Scotland of a tolerable size, and I think you will be surprised at the bigness of Thomas, and recollect what he was when you left him. My old habitation of Gunthw[ai]t where you now and then favor’d me with a friendly visit, you can go to see me no more at. Mr. Drummond, second son to the late Arch Bishop of York, nephew to Lord Kinmoul, has liv’d there these years and keeps the old place exceedingly neat. This, my new residence; I am busy making some additions to, which has prevented our coming to London this Winter. I wish you and your Lady may come to Scharborough [sic] in the summer, and then we shall hope to have you both here, to see what we are doing; I should be glad of some inducement to bring you this way. Your very sincere friend Paul Wentworth I was once disappointed of getting here, but I hope it will not be always so. You will find in Great Russell Street a house full of your friends and relations, and one that has seen you since I did. This day I have got some of my new neighbourhood to dine with me, and drink Sir Thomas Blacketts health, to which we shall add yours; It is Sir Thomas’s birthday and we have always then some little joviality among us. Mrs. And Miss Bosville desire their best respects to you and your Lady, & shall be glad to renew their old acquaintance. If you go into the West Riding, let me remind you to look at the new front of Lord Strafford’s house, You know that I am not a Sportsman, and I admire the Improvem[en]ts Ld. Strafford has made, much more than those who have field avocations. I have as you know attempted some imitations of that kind myself; and tho’ my Oaks at Gunthwait may have pleased no body else, they have pleas’d me, and that is sufficient. His taste he has shown in a place in Northamptonshire where there is Wood and Water, and when I us’d to pass by it in my infancy to Westminster School, there was but little of the one & I thought none at all of the other, but now he has made Bolton a very pretty place. 

      My Compliments to your Lady: I had but a very small share of her company when she was in Yorkshire, for she was then in the care of Ld. Rockington. and Sir Thos. Wentworth; so coud [sic] not expect that much of her company wou’d be conferred upon Dear Sir

      Your most Obedient Servant

      Godfrey Bosville