pretty girl when she went from hence, and the beaux show their good taste by liking her. I hear her father is now kind to her; but if she is not mightily altered, she would give up some of her airs and equipage to live in England. Since you are so good as to inquire after my health, I ought to inform you I never was better in my life than this winter. I have escaped both headachs and gout and that yours may not be in danger by reading such a long letter, I will add no more, but bid adieu to my dear dean. E. GERMAIN. DEAR SIR, FROM MR. GAY. LONDON, JAN. 18, 1731-2. It is now past nine o'clock. I deferred sitting down to write to you, in expectation to have seen Mr. Pope, who left me two or three hours again to try to find lord Burlington, within whose walls I have not been admitted this year and a half; but for what reason I know not. Mr. Pope is just this minute come in, but had not the good luck to find him; so that I cannot give you any satisfaction in the affair you writ last about. He designs to see him to morrow; and if any thing can be done, he says you shall hear from him. By the beginning of my letter you see how I decline in favour; but I look upon it as my particular distinction, that as soon as the court gains a man, I lose him. It is a mortification I have been used to, so I bear it as a philosopher should. The letter which you writ to me and the duke I received; and Mr. Pope showed me that directed to him, which gave me more pleasure than all the letters you have writ since I saw you, as it gives me hopes of seeing you soon. Were I to acquaint the duke and duchess of my writing, I know that they would have something to say to you, and perhaps would prevent my sending the letter this post, so I choose to say nothing about it. You are in great favour and esteem with all those that love me, which is one great reason that I love and esteem them. Whenever you will order me to turn your fortune into ready money, I will obey you; but I choose to leave it where it is till you want it, as it carries some interest; though it might be now sold to some advantage, and is liable to rises and falls with the other stocks. It may be higher as well as lower; so I will not dispose of it till I hear from you. I am impatient to see you, so are all your friends. You have taken your resolution, and I shall henceforth every week expect an agreeable surprise. The belman rings for the letter, so I can say no more. FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN. FEB. 23, 1731-2. I LIKE to know my power (if it is so) that I can make you uneasy at my not writing; though I shall not not often care to exert it, lest you should grow weary of me and my correspondence; but the slowness of my answers does not come from the emptiness of my heart, but the emptiness of my head; and that you know is nature's fault, not mine. I was not learned enough to know non credo has been so long in fashion but every day convinces me more of the necessity of it, not but that I often wish against myself; as for example, I would fain believe you are coming to England, because most of your acquaintance tell me so; and yet I turn, and wind, and sift your letters to find any thing like it being true; but instead of that, there I find a lawsuit, which is a worse tie by the leg than your lameness. And pray what is "this hurt above my heel?" Have you had a fellow feeling with my lord lieutenant of the gout, and call it a sprain, as he does? who has lied so long and often to disguise it, that I verily think he has not a new story left. Does he do the same in Ireland; for there I hoped he would have given a better example ? I find you are grown a horrid flatterer, or else you could never have thought of any thing so much to my taste as this piece of marble you speak of for my sister Penelope, which I desire may be at my expense. I cannot be exact, neither as to the time nor * The duke of Dorset. + Lady Penelope Berkeley died in Dublin, while her father was in the government, and was interred in St. Andrew's church under the altar. No monument was erected to her memory till about this time, when Dr. Swift caused a plate of black marble to be fixed in the wall over the altar piece, with this inscription. "Underneath lieth the body of the lady Penelope Berkeley, "daughter of the right honourable Charles, earl of Berkeley. "She died September the 3d, 1669. year, year, but she died soon after we came there, and we did not stay quite two years, and were in England some months before king William died. I wish I had my dame Wadgar's, or Mr. Ferrer's memorandum head, that I might know whether it was "at the time of gooseberries *." Surely your Irish air is very bad for darts; if Mrs. Kelly's are blunted already, make her cross father let her come over, and we would not use her so in England. If my duchess+ sees company in a morning, you need not grumble at the hour; it must be purely from great complaisance, for that never was her taste here, though she is as early a riser as the generality of ladies are and I believe, there are not many dressing rooms in London, but mine, where the early idle come. Adieu abruptly; for I will have no more formal humble servants, with your whole name at the bottom, as if I was asking you your catechism. *In the petition of Francis Harris to the lords justices, upon losing her purse, printed in vol. VII of this collection, p. 22, there are these verses. "Yes, says the steward, I remember, when I was at my "lady Shrewsbury's, "Such a thing as this happened just about the time of goose "berries." This steward, was Mr. Ferrers; and dame Wadgar, was the old deaf housekeeper in lord Berkeley's family, when he was one of the lords justices of Ireland. †The duchess of Dorset, FROM DEAR SIR, FROM MR. GAY. MARCH 13, 1731-2, I HOPE this unlucky accident of hurting your leg will not prevent your coming to us this spring, though you say nothing about it. All your friends expect it, and particularly my landlord and landlady, who are my friends as much as ever; and I should not think them so, if they were not as much yours. The downs of Amesbury are so smooth, that neither horse nor man can hardly make a wrong step, so that you may take your exercise with us with greater security. If you prevail with the duchess to ride and walk with you, you will do her good; but that is a motive I could never prevail with her to comply with. I wish you would try whether your oratory could get over this difficulty. General Dormer, sir Clement Cotterell, and I, set out to morrow morning for Rousham, in Oxfordshire, to stay ten days or a fortnight. The duchess will undertake to recommend the lords of her acquaintance to attend Mr. Ryves's* cause, if it should come on before our return: the duke will do the same. Her grace too has undertaken to answer your letter. I have not disposed of William Ryves, esq., was an eminent merchant in Dublin, The cause alluded to by Mr. Gay was an appeal by David Bindon, esq., another merchant, from a decree of the court of exchequer in Ireland in favour of Mr. Ryves. The appeal was dismissed, and the decree affirmed, May 4, 1733. your |