than a slave among freemen. The dignity of my prefent station damps the pertnefs of inferior puppies and fquires, which, without plenty and ease on your fide the Channel, would break my heart in a month.

Madam,

See what it is to live where I do. I am utterly ignorant of that fame Strado del Poe; and yet, if that Author be against lending or giving money, I cannot but think him a good Courtier; which, I am sure, your Grace is not, no not fo much as to be a Maid of honour. For I am certainly informed, that you are neither a free-thinker, nor can sell bargains; that you can neither fpelt, nor talk, nor write, nor think like a Courtier; that you pretend to be respected for qualities which have been out of fashion ever fince you were atmoft in your cradle; that your contempt for a fine petticoat is an infallible mark of difaffection; which is further confirmed by your ill taste for Wit, in preferring two old fashion'd Poets before Duck or Cibber. Befides, you fpell in fuch a manner as no court-lady can read, and write in fuch an old fashion'd style as none of them can understand.-You need not be in pain about Mr Gay's stock of health. I promise you he will spend it all upon laziness, and run deep in debt by a winter's repofe in town; therefore I intreat your Grace will order him to move his chops less and his legs more for the fix cold months, elfe he will fpend all his money in phyfic and coach-hire. I am in much perplexity about your Grace's declaration, of the manner in which you difpofe what you call your love and refpect, which, you say, are not paid to Merit, but to your

own Humour. Now, Madam, my misfortune is, that I have nothing to plead but abundance of Merit, and there goes an ugly obfervation, that the Humour of ladies is apt to change. Now, Madam, if I should go to Aimsbury with a great load of merit, and your Grace happen to be out of humour, and will not purchase my merchandize at the price of your refpect, the goods may be damaged, and no body elfe will take them off my hands. Befides, you have declared Mr Gay to hold the first part, and I but the fecond; which is hard treatment, fince I fhall be the newest acquaintance by fome years; and I will appeal to all the reft of of your fex, whether fuch an innovation ought to be allowed? I fhould be ready to fay in the common forms, that I was much oblig'd to the Lady who wished the could give the best living, &c. if I did not vehemently suspect it was the very fame Lady who fpoke many things to me in the fame style, and also with regard to the gentleman at your elbow when you writ, whofe Dupe he was, as well as of her Waiting-wo. man; but they were both arrant knaves, as I told him and a third friend, though they will not believe it to this day. I defire to present my most humble refpects to my Lord Duke, and with my heartieft prayer for the prosperity of the whole family, remain your Grace's, &c.

I Doubt, habit hath little power to reconcile us with

fickness attended by pain. With me, the lowness of spirits hath a most unhappy effect; I am grown lefs patient with folitude, and harder to be pleas'd with company; which I could formerly better digeft, when I could be easier without it than at present. As to fending you any thing that I have written fince I left you (either verse or profe) I can only say, that I have order'd by my Will, that all my Papers of any kind fhall be deliver'd you to difpofe of as you please. I have feveral things that I have had schemes to finish or to attempt, but I very foolishly put off the trouble, as finners do their repentance: for I grow every day more averse from writing, which is very natural, and, when I take a pen, fay to myself a thousand times, non eft tanti. As to those papers of four or five years paft, that you are pleas'd to require foon; they confift of little accidental things writ in the country; family amusements, never intended further than to di vert ourselves and fome neighbours: or fome effects of anger on Public Grievances here, which would be infignificant out of this kingdom. had a fancy, three years ago, to per, and call it an Intelligencer. But it continued not long; for the whole Volume (it was reprinted in London, and, I find, you have seen it) was the work only

Two or three of us write a Weekly pa

of two, myself and Dr Sheridan. If we could have got fome ingenious young man to have been the manager, who fhould have published all that might be fent to him, it might have continued longer, for there were hints enough. But the Printer here could not afford fuch a young man one farthing for his trouble, the fale being so small, and the price one half-penny; and fo it dropped. In the Volume you faw (to answer your questions) the 1, 3, 5, 7, were mine. Of the 8th I writ only the Verfes very uncorrect, (but against a fellow we all hated); the 9th mine, the 10th only the Verses, and of those not the four laft flovenly lines; the 15th is a Pamphlet of mine printed before with Dr Sh-'s Preface, merely for laziness not to disappoint the town; and fo was the 19th, which contains only a parcel of facts relating purely to the miseries of Ireland, and wholly useless and unentertaining. As to other things of mine fince I left you; there are in profe a View of the State of Ireland; a Project for eating Children; and a Defence of Lord Carteret; in verfe a Libel on Dr D- and Lord Carteret; a Letter to Dr D- on the Libels writ against him; the Barrack (a ftolen Copy;) the Lady's Journal; the Lady's Dreffing-room (a ftolen Copy ;) the Plea of the Damn'd (a stolen Copy ;) all these have been printed in London. (I forgot to tell you that the Tale of Sir Ralph was sent from England.) Besides these, there are five or fix (perhaps more) Papers of Verfes writ in the North, but perfect Family things, two or three of which may be tolerable; the rest but indifferent, and the humour only local, and fome that would give offence to the times. Such as they are, I will bring

them tolerable or bad, if I recover this lameness, and live long enough to fee you either here or there. I forget again to tell you, that the Scheme of paying Debts by a Tax on Vices, is not one fyllable mine, but of a young Clergy-man whom I countenance; he told me it was built up on a paffage in Gulliver, where a Projector hath fomething upon the fame Thought. This young man is the most hopeful we have: a book of his Poems was printed in London; Dr D-is one of his Patrons: he is marry'd and has children, and makes up about rool. a year, on which he lives decently. The utmost stretch of his ambition is, to gather up as much fuperfluous money, as will give him a fight of you, and half an hour of your presence; after which he will return home in full fatisfaction, and in proper time die in peace.

and even Profe fpeYet I have a thing years ago, and al

. My poetical fountain is drained, and I profefs, I grow gradually fo dry, that a Rhime with me is almoft as hard to find as a Guinea; culations tire me almost as much. in profe begun about twenty-eight moft finished. It will make a four fhilling Volume, and is fuch a perfection of folly, that you fhall never hear of it till it is printed, and then you fhall be left to guefs*. Nay I have another of the fame age, which will require a long time to perfect, and is worse, than the former, in which I will ferve you the same way. I heard lately from Mr-, who promifes to be lefs lazy in order to mend his fortune. But women who live by their beauty, and men by their wit, are