EARLY CORRESPONDENCE. 17 length of my letter, and also observe that I am aware there are many things in it which the world would condemn.” To John Thornton, Esq. Hodnet Hall, August 25, 1800. "MY DEAR THORNTON, "Your last letter was full of the worst news you could have sent me. I am very sorry to hear of your illness; pray write to me soon to tell me how you go on; but if you are ill don't hurry yourself, but make your servant send me a line, which will be a great comfort to me, let it be written by whom it may, provided it brings favourable intelligence. "I am sorry that you are edging still farther off from my haunts; but, however, what are fifty or one hundred miles to two lads with affectionate hearts and hardy outsides? Cambridge and Oxford have, as I believe, a mail running between them, so that at College we are only a few hours' drive asunder. Why did you ask me if I was at Tunbridge? You might as well suppose I was at Botany Bay, or Terra de Jeso. Tunbridge, I should conceive, would, in the present, or rather late hot weather, be the death of any thing but a salamander, a cockney, or a fine lady. Quid Romæ faciam? Cardiri nescio. Vale Royal Abbey, or as it is generally, or at least frequently called, the Vale Royal of Cheshire, is the seat of our relation, Mr. Cholmondeley, which name not being over classical, I was obliged to speak elliptically. I have been a little interrupted in my Greek by two things; first, the examining of a large chest full of old family writings, which I have almost got through; and, secondly, I have commenced a diligent reperusal of the Old Testament, which I trust I shall, Deo Juvante, finish before I go to Oxford. In the course of last week I read as far as Ruth. Excuse the irregularity of this style and character of mine, for the illness which you foretell to yourself sticks in my throat, and confuses a head which is never one of the clearest." To John Thornton, Esq. Neasdon, August, 1800. "You will think me very impatient when I again write to you; VOL. I.-3 but you must consider, that as I have less to do or think of than you have, (though I fag as hard as Bristow's time will allow,) I am the more eager to hear from you. What is the common opinion in your neighbourhood on the subject of the harvest? It is a point which so much concerns the whole empire, I may say all Europe, that I have been very anxious in inquiring every where about it, and general reports are, I think, not unfavourable; though as the harvest will undoubtedly be a late one, the distress for a month or two longer will, I fear, be terrible. It was a shocking consideration, which I had an opportunity of observing when in Yorkshire, that the number of robberies was very great, no less than three taking place in the neighbourhood of Harrogate during my stay there, and that food alone was stolen. For instance, an inn there was broken open, but all that was taken was a joint or two of meat. That want must surely be dreadful, which would brave the gallows to obtain a single meal. I have no news to tell you, though the present scene of politics has fairly succeeded in rousing me from my former inattention, and I am as eager after a newspaper as 'e'er a politician of them all.' "If you could give me a few instructions for my conduct at first going to College, I should thank you; for though I am well provided both with an introducer and adviser in my brother, yet I should be glad to hear you too on the subject. . . I send you a sketch of a building which I passed coming from the north, which will interest you as much as it did me; I could almost have pulled off my hat as we drove by. It is Sir Isaac Newton's house as it appears from the north road. Though I have heard it taken notice of, I never saw any print or drawing of it. You may perhaps think it worth while to improve upon my sketch, which, though from memory, is, I believe, accurate, and draw it yourself on a large scale, as I hope you have not entirely neglected an art which you used to make a figure in here." To John Thornton, Esq. Hodnet Hall, Sept. 19, 1800. "You ask me what is my plan of operations in my studies. I EARLY CORRESPONDENCE. 19 am afraid that I have of late a good deal relaxed from my former diligence, and my advances in Homer and algebra are not equal to what I hoped. I have, however, not totally neglected these ; and I have got on fast in Guicciardini and Machiavel, and at my spare hours have read one half of Knolles' History of the Turks, which you know Johnson highly, and I think deservedly, commends. I, for my own part, have never met with a greater mass of information, or, considering the time when it was written, a more pleasing style. If ever you should meet with it, if you are not daunted with a thick folio, closely printed, you can scarcely find a more agreeable companion for those hours in which you are not employed in other ways. You will laugh at me for studying Machiavel, but I read him principally for the sake of his style; though I frankly own I think much better of him than the generality of the world (who probably have never read him) profess to do. I am to be entered at Brazen Nose about the 10th of October, and am to reside immediately, though entrance keeps a term, since I do not want to waste my time any longer. I am to have a private tutor, which I am very glad of. It is, I believe, principally a contrivance to keep me out of drinking parties, and to give me the advantage of reading to another person instead of to myself. Your observation on the subject of mathematics recalled to my mind what I once said to you at Neasdon, and in which you agreed with me, that, since perfection was not to be expected, how fortunate it was that, of the two greatest universities in the world, the one should have applied its principal powers to those sciences which Eschylus calls aporis, and the other should have followed the no less necessary or splendid pursuits of the civil law, logic, theology, and the classics. I assure you, however, I intend to pursue mathematics with diligence. Though not sufficiently advanced to have even a Pisgah view of the lands of Mathesis, yet the fruits which you have reaped there are sufficient to stimulate me to the conquest. Te Duce, Cæsar. "I remain, my dear friend, "Your obliged and affectionate, To John Thornton, Esq. Malpas, 1800. "I am well pleased to find, by your Hist. Eccl. Wellens, these young clergymen so well cleared. You may remem ber what my opinion has always been respecting extempore preaching; that it is, in particular cases, not only a legal, but even a laudable practice: and you have clearly, I think, made out that Dr. P's is one of those cases. The interests of the majority ought certainly to be preferred. However, in a matter of such infinite importance, it were greatly to be wished that the bigotted minority were by some means or other 'pulled out of the fire.' If the entreaties of the Church will not avail, might not its censures be tried? This, you will say, is high Church doctrine, and I will acknowledge it is not very conformable to the tenets of philosophy, but, I hope, not altogether repugnant to Christianity. "Have you been much out a hunting lately? D. seemed to think, I remember, that Nimrod was a mere type of you, and used to shake his wise head when you talked of a leap. He had once a long conversation on the subject with me, and said hunting encouraged vice. I had recourse to mythology, and told him the chaste Hippolytus was a hunter, which satisfied him. My reason for asking you if you are keen after it now, is because I conclude you read the less the more you hunt, so that I may have more chance of overtaking you in mathematics. I have been a good deal employed in reading the dusty volumes of the old polemic writers, which, with my Italian, leave me not much time for mathematics. My progress in algebra, though I do sometimes play at it, has been exceedingly trifling. I am quite ashamed of it. ; "I was much entertained with the battle of the Cloisters. your retreat was certainly tout à fait à propos. Your courage and conduct in this holy war, may set you on the same shelf with Roland, Astolfo, or even Guy, Earl of Warwick, the last of whom, since he conquered an ancestor of mine, (Colebrand,) must necessarily have been a wonderful hero." EARLY CORRESPONDENCE. To John Thornton, Esq. Malpas, October, 1800. 21 "I still remain here though term is begun, and I shall not, I think, go to Oxford before the end of the month. My brother is so kind as to promise, if possible, to meet me there. This will of course be much more agreeable, though I have already been introduced to many Brazen Nose men. The college is so superabundantly full that rooms are no where to be procured. I am much amused with the preparations I see making for furnishing me with household stuff, such as table-cloths, sheets, &c. &c.; it is surely a luxurious age when a boy of seventeen requires so much fuss to fit him out. I have been a much gayer fellow than usual of late, having been at a race, and also at, what I never saw before, a masquerade. This catalogue of jaunts, though not much perhaps for a girl, has been a great deal for me, and has indeed quite satisfied me. If these things are so little interesting even while they have the charm of novelty, I think I shall care very little indeed for them when that is worn off. The masquerade was not so entertaining as I expected. There certainly were some characters well kept up, but the most part behaved exactly as if they were barefaced. It was given by Sir W. Williams Wynn, and though certainly much inferior in splendour to Mr. Cholmondeley's ball, was very well conducted. Sat de nugis, ad seria reverto. My studies go on as usual. Machiavel I rather admire more than at first. My Greek studies will be soon, I fear, gravelled, if I continue at home. My brother particularly recommends me to attend the public lectures on astronomy and mathematics at Oxford, as he says, they are at present very clever. "We have some tumults in this neighbourhood. In Staffordshire the mob proceeded to domiciliary visits with halters and agreements, forcing the farmers to the alternative. All is however quiet at present." To John Thornton, Esq. Oxford, Nov. 11, 1800. "I have had so few letters from my friends at Neasdon, that I can give you no news of them. . . . I have advised them to ab |