would never be satisfied with enjoying-some of them are unapproachable by you either on foot or in your carriage. Had you twenty toes (whercas I suppose you have but ten) you could not reach them; and coach-wheels have never been seen there since the flood. Before it indeed, as Burnet says, (that the earth was then perfectly free from all inequalities in its surface) they might be seen there every day. We have other walks both upon hill tops, and in vallies beneath, some of which by the help of your carriage, and many of them without its help, would be always at your command.

On Monday morning last, Sam brought me word that there was a man in the kitchen who desired to speak with me. I ordered him in. A plain, decent, elderly figure made its appearance, and being desired to sit, spoke as follows: " Sir, I am Clerk of the Parish of "All Saints in Northampton; brother of Mr. C. the Upholsterer. It "is customary for the person in my office to annex to a Bill of Mortality which he publishes at Christmas, a copy of Verses. "You would do me a great favour, Sir, if you would furnish me with one." To this I replied, " Mr. C. you have several men of

66

6.6

66

66.

66

genius in your town, why have you not applied to some of them? There is a namesake of yours in particular, C—, the Sta

tuary, who, every body knows, is a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the world for your purpose." "Alas! Sir, "I have heretofore borrowed help from him, but he is a gentle

66

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 waggon 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 writen 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. Accordingly, 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 me 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

66

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.

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 were 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.

The ball was

Even as you suspect, my dear, so it proved. 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 MSS. 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