From Benjamin Franklin to Arthur Lee, 19 May 1778
To Arthur Lee
AL: Harvard University Library
Tuesday May 19 [1778].
Mr. Franklin presents his Compliments to Mr. Lee, and acquaints him that M. Bertin (the Minister) requests his Company at Dinner on Tuesday the 26th Inst. at Chatou.5
Mr. F. also reminds Mr. Lee of their being expected at Dinner to day, at M. Chalut’s (Fermier General) Place Vendôme.
Addressed: A Monsr / Monsieur Lee / à Chaliot
Endorsed: May 19. 1778 Invitations
5. For the long and distinguished career of Henri-Léonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin see the DBF. His home in Chatou was on the Seine near Versailles; Mme. Bertin, his niece by marriage, took BF, WTF, and John Adams there in her carriage. Adams especially admired M. Bertin’s garden and horse-powered waterworks, but not his “Collection of Rocks, drawn together at a vast Expense, some Thousands of Guineas. I told him I would sell him a Thousand times as many for half a Guinea.” Butterfield, John Adams Diary, II, 314–15.