In October, 1769, he writes to Elliot:-- "I have been settled here two months, and am here body and soul, without casting the least thought of regret to London, or even to Paris....

I live still, and must for a twelvemonth, in my old house in James's Court, which is very cheerful and even elegant, but too small to display my great talent for cookery, the science to which I intend to addict the remaining years of my life.

I have just now lying on the table before me a receipt for making _soupe a la reine_, copied with my own hand; for beef and cabbage (a charming dish) and old mutton and old claret nobody excels me.

I make also sheep's-head broth in a manner that Mr.Keith speaks of for eight days after; and the Duc de Nivernois would bind himself apprentice to my lass to learn it.

I have already sent a challenge to David Moncreiff: you will see that in a twelvemonth he will take to the writing of history, the field I have deserted; for as to the giving of dinners, he can now have no further pretensions.