SWM (21 YO NM) WLTM SWF (FS VGL) 4 LTR
It is November, and – after an evening spent among young people intoxicated with each other and the capital’s first flurries of snow this winter – Spurtle’s fancy has turned lightly to thoughts of love.
Where is it and how do you get your hands on it?
Such conundra have been bothering locals for centuries, as this letter in a Scottish newspaper of May 1750 makes clear.
We trust readers will not be offended. The low expectations of feminine virtue and intelligence, in the extract below, are more than matched by a frank admission of shortcomings on the part of the would-be male suitor.
To the Publishers of the Caledonian Mercury
There is a young Gentleman of 21, or thereabouts, who having no Fortune, very little Wit, and not a Grain of Wisdom, intends to betake himself of wedlock: And as he is resolved not to search too narrowly into the private Character, nor anxiously solicitous about the publick Behaviour of his Mistress; so hopes no disqualified Lady will give herself unnecessary trouble in quest of a Husband, if she properly attends to a publick Hint of her necessary Qualifications.
She must be a Lady of Fortune, although he should dispense with Merit. She must be a Lady of Beauty, although she [will] have more Taste for private Devotion than publick Diversions. She must be a Lady of Wit, although not given to prattle.
And if she has common Sense it need be no Bar to her Happiness, her Husband being resolved to follow the many Examples before him, and not interest himself much in that Particular. — The Lady so fitted out for a Husband, may infallibly have sight of him every Morning, on the Road leading from Edinburgh to Bonnington, from Six to Nine, – where Attendance will be given till first of the Change.
N.B. The young Gentleman is advised not to insist on common Sense.
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