29 Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform

To L d Grenville

Omissa

2. Outer Houses

And who is this person in whom diffidence /modesty/, a quality so amiable when added to the other attractions of female beauty takes this method /opportunity/ of displaying itself? An old [...?], who immediately after the confession made oh his incapacity /impotence/ to judge of it, goes into another room, and there where he takes the lead on pulling /tossing/ it about and disposing of it somehow or other in a company of 14 other [...?], all like him /himself/ taking there turns for modesty. By himself /In the [...?] of his own choice/, taking his own time for it, he is unable to form his judgment on it: to qualify himself it is necessary for him to take it with him into a crowd, there to thwarted and jostled and hastled[?] while he is studying it, a crowd composed of men not one of whom knows any thing near so much of it as he does.