an uneafy hat; all this may qualify them to make excellent wives for fox-hunters, and bear abundance of ruddy complexion'd children. As foon as they can wipe off the sweat of the day, they muft fimper an hour and catch cold, in the Princefs's apartment: from thence (as Shakespear has it) to dinner, with what appetite they may-and after that, till midnight, walk, work, or think, which they please. I can eafily believe, no lone-house in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery, is more contemplative than this Court; and as a proof of it I need only tell you, Mrs. L* walked with me three or four hours by moonlight, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, who gave audience to the vicechamberlain, all alone, under the garden-wall.

In fhort, I heard of no ball, affembly, baffet-table, or any place where two or three were gathered together, except Madam Kilmanfegg's, to which I had the honour to be invited, and the grace to stay away.

*

I was heartily tired, and pofted to park: there we had an excellent difcourfe of quackery, Dr. S was mentioned with honour. Lady walked a whole hour abroad without dying after it, at least in the time I stay'd, tho' fhe feem'd to be fainting, and had convulfive motions feveral times in her head.

I arrived in the forest by Tuesday noon, having fled from the face (I wish I could fay the horned face) of Mofes, who dined in the mid-way thither.

I pass'd the rest of the day in those woods where I have so often enjoy'd a bock and a friend; I made a Hymn as pafs'd thro', which ended with a figh, that I will not tell you the meaning of

Your Doctor is gone the way of all his patients, and was hard put to it how to dispose of an estate miferably unwieldy, and fplendidly unuseful to him. Sir Samuel Garth fays, that for Ratcliffe to leave a library, was as if a Eunuch should found a Seraglio. Dr. S lately told a lady, he wonder'd she could be alive after him: she made anfwer, fhe wonder'd at it for two reasons, because Dr. Ratcliffe was dead, and because Dr. S was living. I am

Your &c.

LETTER XV.

Othing could have more of that melancholy which once ufed to please me, than my laft day's journey; for after having pafs'd through my favourite woods in the foreft, with a thousand reveries of past pleasures, I rid over hanging hills, whofe tops were edged with groves, and whose feet water'd with winding rivers, listening to the falls of cataracts below, and the murmuring of the winds above: The gloomy verdure of Stonor fucceeded to thefe; and then the fhades of the evening overtook me. The moon rofe in the cleareft fky I ever faw, by whofe folemn light I paced on flowly, without VOL. VIII,

M

company, or any interruption to the range of my thoughts. About a mile before I reach'd Oxford, all the bells toll'd in different notes; the clocks of every college answer'd one another, and founded forth (fome in a deeper, some a softer tone) that it was eleven at night. All this was no ili preparation to the life I have led fince, among thofe old walls, venerable galleries, ftone portico's, ftudious walks and folitary scenes of the University. I wanted nothing but a black gown and a falary, to be as mere a bookworm as any there. I conform'd my felf to the college hours, was roll'd up in books, lay in one of the most ancient, dusky parts of the Univerfity, and was as dead to the world as any hermit of the defert. If any thing was alive or awake in me, it was a little vanity, fuch as even those good men used to entertain, when the monks of their own order extoll'd their piety and abftraction. For I found myself receiv'd with a fort of refpect, which this idle part of mankind, the Learned, pay to their own species; who are as confiderable here, as the bufy, the gay, and the ambitious are in your world.

Indeed I was treated in fuch a manner, that I could not but sometimes ask myself in my mind, what college I was founder of, or what library I had built? Methinks, I do very ill to return to the world again, to leave the only place where I make a figure, and, from feeing myfelf feated with dignity on the most confpicuous fhelves of a library, put

myself into the abject posture of lying at a lady's feet in St. James's square.

I will not deny, but that, like Alexander, in the midst of my glory, I am wounded, and find myself a mere man. To tell you from whence the dart comes, is to no purpose, fince neither of you will take the tender care to draw it out of my heart, and fuck the poifon with your lips.

-'s, I fee a creature

Here, at my Lord Hnearer an angel than a woman (tho' a woman be very near as good as an angel; I think you have for-, merly heard me mention Mrs. Tas a credit to the Maker of angels; fhe is a relation of his lordfhip's, and he gravely propos'd her to me for a wife; being tender of her interefts, and knowing (what is a fhame to Providence) that fhe is lefs indebted to fortune than I. I told him, 'twas what he could never have thought of, if it had not been his misfortune to be blind; and what I never could think of, while I had eyes to fee both her and myself.

I must not conclude without telling you, that I will do the utmost in the affair you defire. It would be an inexpreffible joy to me if I could ferve you, and I will always do all I can to give myfelf pleafure. I wish as well for you as for myfelf; I am in love with you both, as much as I am with myself, for I find myself moft fo with either, when I leaft suspect it.

LETTER XVI.

HE chief caufe I have to repent my leaving the town, is the uncertainty I am in every day of your fifter's state of health. I really expected by every post to have heard of her recovery, but on the contrary each letter has been a new awakening to my apprehenfions, and I have ever since suffer'd alarms upon alarms on her account. No one can be more fenfibly touch'd at this than I; nor any danger of any I love could affect me with more uneafincfs. I have felt fome weakneffes of a tender kind, which I would not be free from; and I am glad to find my value for people fo rightly placed, as to perceive them on this occafion.

I cannot be fo good a Christian as to be willing to refign my own happiness here, for hers in another life. I do more than wish for her fafety, for every with I make I find immediately changed into a prayer, and a more fervent one than I had learn'd to make till now.

May her life be longer and happier than perhaps herself may defire, that is, as long, and as happy as you can wish: May her beauty be as great as poffible, that is, as it always was, or as yours is. But whatever ravages a mercilefs diftemper may commit, I dare promife her boldly, what few (if any) of her makers of vifits and compliments dare to do: fhe fhall have one man as much her admirer as ever.