"man of so much reading, that the people of our town cannot “understand him." I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the compliment implied in this speech, and was almost ready to answer, perhaps, my good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for the same reason... But on asking him whether he had walked over to Weston on purpose to implore the assistance of my Muse, and on his replying in the affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little consoled, and pitying the poor man's distress, which appeared to be considerable, promised to supply 'him.

The wag

gon has accordingly gone this day to Northampton loaded in part with my effusions in the mortuary stile. A fig for Poets who write epitaphs upon individuals! I have written one, that serves two hundred persons,

A few days since I received a second very obliging Letter from Mr. M. He tells me that his own papers, which are, by far, he is sorry to say it, the most numerous, are marked V. I. Z.

Ac

cordingly, my dear, I am happy to find that I am engaged in a correspondence with Mr. Viz, a gentleman for whom I have always entertained the profoundest veneration. But the serious fact is,

that the papers distinguished by those signatures, have ever pleased the most, and struck me as the work of a sensible man, who knows the world well, and has more of Addison's delicate humour than any body.

A poor

A poor man begged food at the Hall lately.

The Cook gave

him some Vermicelli soup. He ladled it about some time with the spoon, and then returned it to her saying, "I am a poor man it is “true, and I am very hungry, but yet I cannot eat broth with maggots in it," Once more, my dear, a thousand thanks for your box full of good things, useful things, and beautiful things,

66

W. C.

Ever yours,

LETTER LXXVIII.

To Lady HESKETH,

The Lodge, Dec. 4, 1787.

I am glad my dearest Coz. that my last

Letter proved so diverting. You may assure yourself of the literal truth of the whole narration, and that however droll, it was not in the least indebted to any embellishments of mine.

You say well, my dear, that in Mr. Throckmorton we have a peerless neighbour, we have so: In point of information upon all important subjects, in respect too, of expression and address, and in short, every thing that enters into the idea of a gentleman, I have not found his equal, (not often) any where. Were I asked, who in my judgment approaches the nearest to him, in all his amiable qualities, and qualifications, I should certainly answer, his brother George, who if he be not his exact counterpart, endued

with precisely the same measure, of the same accomplishments, is nevertheless deficient in none of them, and is of a character singularly agreeable, in respect of a certain manly, I had almost said, heroic frankness, with which his air strikes one almost immediately. So far as his opportunities have gone, he has ever been as friendly and obliging to us, as we could wish him; and where he Lord of the Hall to-morrow, would I dare say, conduct himself toward us in such a manner, as to leave us as little sensible as possible, of the removal of its present owners. But all this I say, my dear, merely for the sake of stating the matter as it is; not in order to obviate, or, to prove the inexpedience of any future plans of yours, concerning the place of our residence. Providence and time, shape every thing, I should rather say Providence alone, for time has often no hand in the wonderful changes that we experience; they take place in a moment. It is not therefore, worth while perhaps to consider much what we will, or will not do in years to come, concerning which all that I can say with certainty at present, is, that those years will be to me the most welcome, in which I can see the most of you. W, C.

called a pattern.

LETTER LXXIX.

To Lady HESKETH.

The Lodge, Dec, 10, 1787.

I thank you for the snip of cloth, commonly At present I have two coats, and but one back. If

If at any time hereafter I should find myself possessed of fewer coats, or more backs, it will be of use to me.

Even as you suspect, my dear, so it proved. The ball was prepared for, the ball was held, and the ball passed, and we had nothing to do with it. Mrs. Throckmorton knowing our trim, did not give us the pain of an invitation, for a pain it would have been. And why? as Sternhold says-because, as Hopkins answers, we must have refused it. But it fell out singularly enough, that this ball was held of all days in the year, on my birth-day-and so I told them-but not till it was all over.

Though I have thought proper never to take any notice of the arrival of my мss. together with the other good things in the box, yet certain it is that I received them, I have furbished up the tenth Book till it is as bright as silver, and am now occupied in bestowing the same labour upon the eleventh. The twelfth and thirteenth are in the hands of -, and the fourteenth and fifteenth are ready to succeed them. This notable job is the delight of my heart, and how sorry shall I be when it is ended,

The Smith and the Carpenter, my dear, are both in the room hanging a bell, if I therefore make a thousand blunders, let the said intruders answer for them all.

I thank you, my dear, for your history of the G-s. What changes in that family! And how many thousand families have in

the

the same time experienced changes as violent as theirs! The course of a rapid river is the justest of all emblems to express the variableness of our scene below. Shakespeare says, none ever bathed himself twice in the same stream, and it is equally true, that the world upon which we close our eyes at night, is never the same with that on which we open them in the morning.

I do not always say, give my love to my Uncle, because he knows that I always love him. I do not always present Mrs. Unwin's love to you, partly for the same reason (deuce take the Smith and the Carpenter) and partly because I sometimes forget it. But to present my own, I forget never, for I always have to finish my Letter, which I know not how to do, my dearest Coz. without telling you, that I am ever yours.

W. C.

Unless my memory deceives me, I forewarned you that I should prove a very unpunctual correspondent. The Work that lies before me, engages unavoidably my whole attention. The length of it, the spirit of it, and the exactness that is requisite to its due performance, are so many most interesting

VOL. I.

M M