"-On the other hand, unpopular essays will not even be accepted; and you must pay to have them printed : but then you seldom lose by it. Courtiers are so sensible of their deficiency in merit, that they generally reward all who know how to daub them with the appearance of it. To return to private affairs.-Friend Slude may depend upon my endeavouring to find the publications you mention. They publish the Gospel Magazine here. For a whim I write in it. I believe there are not any sent to Bristol; they are hardly worth the carriage-methodistical, and unmeaning. With the usual ceremonies to my mother and grandmother; and sincerely, without ceremony, wishing them both happy; when it is in my power to make them so, it shall be so; and with my kind remembrance to Miss Webb and Miss Thorne, I remain, as I ever was, "Yours, &c. to the end of the chapter, 66 THOMAS CHATTERTON. "P. S. I am this moment pierced through the heart by the black eye of a young lady, driving along in a hackney-coach.—I am quite in love: if my love lasts till that time, you shall hear of it in my next." "Dear Sister, " June 19, 1770. "I have an horrid cold.-The relation of the manner of my catching it may give you more pleasure than the circumstance itself. As I wrote very late Sunday night (or rather very early Monday morning,) I thought to have gone to bed pretty soon last night : when, being half undressed, I heard a very doleful voice, singing Miss Hill's favorite bedlamite song. The hum-drum of the voice so struck me, that though I was obliged to listen a long while before I could hear the words, I found the similitude in the sound. After hearing her with pleasure drawl for above half an hour, she jumped into a brisker tune, and hobbled out the ever-famous song, in which poor Jack Fowler was to have been satirized.- I put my hand into a bush: I prick'd my finger to the bone: I saw a ship sailing along: I thought the sweetest flowers to find:' and other pretty flowery expressions, were twanged with no inharmonious bray.-I now ran to the window, and threw up the sash, resolved to be satisfied, whether or not it was the identical Miss Hill, in propria persona. -But, alas! it was a person whose twang is very well known, when she is awake, but who had drank so much royal bob (the gingerbread-baker for that, you know,) that she was now singing herself asleep. This somnifying liquor had made her voice so like the sweet echo of Miss Hill's, that if I had not considered that she could not see her way up to London, I should absolutely have imagined it her's.-There was a fellow and a girl in one corner, more busy in attending to their own affairs, than the melody. (This part of the letter, for some lines, is not legible.) ..... the morning) from Marybone gardens; I saw the fellow in the cage at the watch-house, in the parish of St. Giles; and the nymph is an inhabitant of one of Cupid's inns of Court.-There was one similitude it would be injustice to let slip. A drunken fishman, who sells souse mackarel, and other delicious dainties, to the eternal detriment of all two-penny ordinaries; as his best commodity, his salmon, goes off at three half-pence the piece; this itinerant merchant, this moveable fish-stall, having likewise had his dose of bob-royal, stood still for awhile, and then joined chorus, in a tone which would have laid half a dozen lawyers, pleading for their fees, fast asleep this naturally reminded me of Mr. Haythorne's song of 66 Says Plato, who oy oy oy should men be vain?' However, my entertainment, though sweet enough in itself, has a dish of sour sauce served up in it; for I have a most horrible wheezing in the throat: but I don't repent that I have this cold; for there are so many nostrums here, that 'tis worth a man's while to get a distemper, he can be cured so cheap. “June 29th, 1770. My cold is over and gone. If the above did not recall to your mind some scenes of laughter, you have lost your ideas of risibility." "Dear Mother, "I send you in the box, six cups and saucers with two basons for my sister.-If a china tea pot and cream pot, is in your opinion, necessary, I will send them; but I am informed they are unfashionable, and that the red china, which you are provided with, is more in use. A cargo of patterns for yourself, with a snuff box, right French, and very curious in my opinion. "Two fans-the silver one is more grave than the other, which would suit my sister best.—But that I leave to you both. "Some British herb snuff, in the box; be careful how you open it. (This I omit lest it injure the other matters.) "Some British herb tobacco for my grandmother: some trifles for Thorne. Be assured whenever I have the power, my will won't be wanting to testify that I remember you.— 66 Your's, 66 July 8, 1770. "T. CHATTERTON. "N. B.-I shall forestall your intended journey, and pop down upon you at Christmas. "I could have wished you had sent my red pocket book, as 'tis very material. "I bought two very curious twisted pipes for my grandmother; but both breaking, I was afraid to buy others, lest they should break in the box; and being loose, injure the china. Have you heard any thing further of the clearance ? "Direct for me at Mrs. Angel's, Sack-maker, Brook Street, Holborn. "Mrs. Chatterton." "Dear Sister, "I have sent you some china and a fan. You have your choice of two. I am surprised that you chose purple and gold. I went into the shop to buy it but it is the most disagreeable colour I ever saw-dead, lifeless, and inelegant. Purple and pink, or lemon and pink, are more genteel and lively. Your answer in this affair will oblige me. Be assured, that I shall ever make your wants my wants; and stretch to the utmost to serve you. Remember me to Miss Sandford, Miss Rumsey, Miss Singer, &c. &c. &c. "As to the songs, I have waited this week for them, and have not had time to copy one perfectly: when the season's over, you will have 'em all in print. I had pieces last month in the following Magazines: "Gospel Magazine, Town and Country, viz. Maria Friendless, False Step, |