If David Hume spent much of his time in Paris wining and dining in high society, frequenting the feminine salons and the masculine gatherings of the philosophes, he was yet able to carry on his duties at the Embassy of England and to be, in reality, an ‘Ambassador of Good Will’, eminently qualified to heal the diplomatic wounds occasioned by the recent war. The original notion that Hume would also act as tutor to the amiable young Lord Beauchamp seems never to have materialised, the duties being assumed by Lord Hertford's chaplain, the Reverend James Trail. The esteem of Lord Hertford developed for Hume into the warmest attachment. An intimate picture of Hume in the home life of the Hertford family in the Hôtel de Brancas is provided by young Robert Liston, tutor to the sons of Sir Gilbert Elliot.