To Benjamin Franklin from Agatha Drummond, [19 November 1771]
From Agatha Drummond3
AL: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Cannongate eight o Clock. [November 19,4 1771]
Most respectfull complements from Mrs. Drummond to Doctor Frankland. She could not get an oportunety to Day, to beg he would allow her to send him to London Mr. Pens Pickture which the Doctor will remember to see at Kames.5 She will take it out of a Clumsay Frame and have it very easily and well packd. Has again the pleasure to wish him a safe journey, and begs to be rememberd to Mr. Marchent.
3. Lord Kames’s wife (1711–95) was often called Lady Kames by BF and others; see above, IX, 6, 9; XIII, 478. But she followed Scottish usage by reverting to her maiden name as Mrs. Drummond, and BF learned to follow her lead; see his reply to this note below, Jan. 11, 1772.
4. BF and Marchant dined with the Kameses on the 19th, and apparently did not see them again before leaving Edinburgh on the 21st. Nolan, op. cit., p. 201. Hence the reference to “to Day” presumably means the 19th.
5. BF had become interested in this painting, ostensibly of William Penn, on his visit to the Kameses in 1759, and had asked to have it sent him so that he could arrange for a copy: above, IX, 7–9. His request had apparently been forgotten until his hosts were reminded of it on his return visit more than a decade later.