Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

eldest has been one of the ushers in Westminster

school since the year 1714.

He is a man in years, yet hearty and able to study many hours in a day. This, in short, is the case of an honest, poor, worthy clergyman; and I hope you will take him under your protection. I cannot pretend that my recommendation should have any weight with you, but as it is joined to and under the wing of Mr. Pope.

I took hold of this opportunity to write to you, to let you know you had such an humble servant in being that often remembers you, and wishes to see you in this island. My family, I thank God, is well my daughter had, last summer, the smallpox really, and in the natural way, and she is not marked at all. My wife and daughter desire that you will accept of their humble services, and say that they want much to see you.

I obeyed your commands, and did Mr. Whalley all the little service I was capable of: it was little enough that was in my power, God knows. He comes again before us soon after Easter: he seems to be in great hopes, I wish they may be well founded.

I think it is now time to release you, which I will not do until I have told you, I may say repeat to you, that I have a house for you, or houseroom, come when you please, provided you come soon. I am, with true respect and esteem, your most obliged and most humble servant,

this

OXFORD.

Your lord lieutenant would do well to encourage poor man; he deserves it better than Bulkeley. VOL. XII.

[ocr errors]

FROM

Dear Sir,

FROM MR. GAY.

MARCH 31, 1730,

I EXPECT, in about a fortnight, to set out for Wiltshire, and am as impatient as you seem to be to have me to get on horseback. I thought proper to give you this intelligence, because Mr. Lewis told me last Sunday, that he was in a day or two, to set out for the Bath; so that very soon you are likely to have neither of your cashiers in town. Continue to direct for me at this house: the letters will be sent to me, wherever I am. My ambition, at present, is levelled to the same point that you direct me to; for I am every day building villakins, and have given over that of castles. If I were to undertake it in my present circumstance, I should, in the most thrifty scheme, soon be straitened; and I hate to be in debt; for I cannot bear to pawn five pounds worth of my liberty to a tailor or a butcher. I grant you, this is not having the true spirit of modern nobility; but it is hard to cure the prejudice of education. I have made your compliments to Mr. Pulteney, who is very much your humble servant. I have not seen the doctor, and am not likely to see his Rouen brother very soon; for he is gone to China. Mr. Pope told me, he had acquainted the doctor with the misfortune of the sour hermitage. My lord Oxford told me, he at present could match yours, and from the same person. The doctor was touched with your disappointment, and has promised

to

to represent this affair to his brother, at his return from China. I assure you too, for all your gibes, that I wish you heartily good wine, though I can drink none myself. When lord Bolingbroke is in town, he lodges at Mr. Chetwynd's, in Dover street. I do not know how to direct to him in the country. I have been extremely taken up of late in settling a steward's account. I am endeavouring to do all the justice and service I can for a friend; so I am sure you will think I am well employed. Upon this occasion, I now and then have seen Jo. Taylor, who says he has a demand upon you for rent, you having taken his house in the country, and he being determined not to let it to any body else: and he thinks it but reasonable, that you should either come and live in it, or pay your rent. I neither ride nor walk; but I design to do both this month and to become a laudable practitioner.

The duchess wishes she had seen you, and thinks you were in the wrong to hide yourself, and peep through the window, that day she came to Mr. Pope's. The duke too is obliged to you for your good opinion, and is your humble servant. If I were to write, I am afraid I should again incur the displeasure of my superiours. I cannot for my life think so well of them as they themselves think they deserve. If you have a very great mind to please the duchess, and at the same time to please me, I wish you would write a letter to her, to send to her brother, lord Cornbury, to advise him in his travels; for, she says, she would take your advice rather than mine; and she remembers, that you told her in the park, that you loved and honoured her family. You always insisted upon a lady's making advances

to you; I do not know whether you will think this declaration sufficient. Then too, when you were in England, she writ a letter to you, and I have been often blamed since for not delivering it.

The day the pension bill was thrown out of the house of lords, lord Bathurst spoke with great applause. I have not time to go to Mr. Pope's in a day or two very probably I shall see him, and acquaint him about the usquebaugh. I will not embezzle your interest money; though, by looking upon accounts, I see how money may be embezzled. As to my being engaged in an affair of this kind, I say nothing for myself, but that I will do all I can : for the rest I leave Jo. Taylor to speak for me. To day I dine with alderman Barber, the present sheriff, who holds his feast in the city. Does not Chartres's misfortunes grieve you? For that great man is likely to save his life, and lose some of his money. A very hard case!

P. S. I am just now come from the alderman's feast, who had a very fine dinner, and a very fine appearance of company.

The post is just going away.

* He was condemned at the Old Bailey, Feb. 27, 1729-30, for a rape.

ΤΟ

TO LADY WORSLEY*.

MADAM,

APRIL 19, 1730.

My lady Carteret (if you know such a lady) commands me to pursue my own inclination; which is, to honour myself with writing you a letter; and thereby endeavouring to preserve myself in your memory, in spite of an acquaintance of more years than, in regard to my own reputation as a young gentleman, I care to recollect. I forget whether I had not some reasons to be angry with your ladyship, when I was last in England. I hope to see you very soon the youngest great grandmother in Europe: and fifteen years hence (which I shall have nothing to do with) you will be at the amusement of "Rise up, daughter, &c." You are to answer this letter; and to inform me of your health and humour; and whether you like your daughter better or worse, after having so long conversed with the Irish world, and so little with me. Tell me what are your amusements at present; cards, court, books, visiting, or fondling (I humbly beg your ladyship's pardon, but it is between ourselves) your grandchildren? My lady Carteret has been the best queen we have known in Ireland these many years; yet is she mortally hated by all the young girls, because (and it is

* Frances, lady Worsley, only daughter of Thomas, lord viscount Weymouth, was the lady of sir Robert Worsley, bart., and mother to Frances, lady Carteret. She is frequently mentioned with great respect by Dr. Swift.

[blocks in formation]
« ZurückWeiter »