as happy where he now is, as while he liv'd among you. But indeed I (like many a poor unprepar'd foul) have feen nothing I like fo well as what I left: No scenes of Paradife, no happy bowers equal to thofe on the banks of the Thames. Wherever I wander, one reflection strikes me; I wish you were as free as I; or at leaft had a tye as tender, and as reasonable as mine, to a relation that as well deserved your conftant thought, and to whom you would be always pull'd back (in fuch a manner as I am) by the heart-ftring. 1 have never been well fince I fet out but don't tell my mother fo; it will trouble her too much: And as probably the fame reafon may prevent her fending a true account of her health to me, I must defire you to acquaint me. I would gladly hear the country air improves your own; but don't flatter me when you are ill, that I may be the better fatisfied when you fay you are well: for these are things in which one may be fincerer to a reasonable friend, than to a fond and partial parent. Adieu.

LETTER XIV.

You can't be furpriz'd to find him a dull correfpondent whom you have known fo long for a dull companion. And tho' I am pretty fenfible, that, if I have any wit, I may as well write to fhow it, as not; yet I'll content myself with giving you as plain a history of my pilgrimage, as Purchas himself, or as John Bunyan could do of his walking through the wilderness of this world,

etc.

First then I went up by water to Hampton-Court, unattended by all but my own virtues; which were not of fo modest a nature as to keep themfelves, or me, conceal'd: For I met the Prince with all his ladies on horfeback, coming from hunting, Mrs. B and Mrs L* took me into protection (contrary to the laws against harbouring Papists) and gave me a dinner, with fome

Fff 2

thing

thing I liked better, an opportunity of conversation with Mrs. H. We all agreed that the life of a Maid of honour was of all things the moft miferable: and wish'd that every woman who envy'd it, had a fpecimen of it. To eat Weftphalia-ham in a morning, ride over hedges and ditches on borrowed hacks, come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark in the forehead from an uneasy 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 fweat 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 easily 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 moon-light, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, who gave audience to the vice-chamberlain, 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 ftay away.

:

I was heartily tired, and posted 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 Foreft 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 pafs'd the reft of the day in those woods where I have fo often enjoy'd a book and a friend; I made a Hymn as I 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 fhould found a Seraglio. Dr. Slately told a lady, he wonder'd she could be alive after him: fhe made anfwer, fhe wonder'd at it for two reafons, becaufe Dr. Ratcliffe was dead, and becaufe Dr. S— was living. I am

Your, etc.

LETTER XV.

Nothing could have more of that melancholy which once used to please me, than my laft day's journey; for after having pafs'd through my favourite woods in the foreft, with a thoufand reveries of paft pleasures, I rid over hanging hills, whose tops were edged with groves, and whose feet water'd with winding rivers, liftening to the falls of cataracts below, and the murmuring of the winds above the gloomy verdure of Stonor fucceeded to these; and then the fhades of the evening overtook me. The moon rose in the clearest sky I ever faw, by whofe folemn light I paced on flowly, without 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, fome a fofter tone) that it was eleven at night. All this was no ill preparation to the life I have led fince, among thofe old walls, venerable galleries, ftone porticos, ftudious walks, and folitary scenes of the University. I wanted nothing but a black gown and a falary, to be as mere a book-worm as any there. I conform'd myself to the college hours, was roll'd up in books, lay in one of the most ancient, dufky

parts

parts of the Univerfity, and was dead to the world as any hermit of the defart. If any thing was alive or awake in me, it was a little vanity, fuch as even those good men us'd to entertain, when the monks of their own order extoll'd their piety and abftraction. For I found myfelf receiv'd with a fort of respect, 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 fometimes afk 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 moft confpicuous shelves of a library, put myfelf into the abje& pofture of lying at a lady's feet in St. James's fquare.

I will not deny, but that, like Alexander, in the midft 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.

Here, at my Lord H's, I fee a creature nearer an angel than a woman (tho' a woman be very near as good as an angel ;) I think you have formerly heard me mention Mrs. T- as a credit to the Maker of Angels; fhe is a relation of his lordship'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 she is less indebted to fortune than I, I told him, 'twas what he never could have thought of, if it had not been his miffortune 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 pleasure. I wish as

well

well for you as for myfelf; I am in love with you both, as much as I am with myself, for 1 find myself most so with either, when I least suspect it.

HE chief caufe I have to repent my leaving the town, T

is the uncertainty 1 am in every day of your fifter's ftate 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 fince fuffer'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 uneafinefs. 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 Chriftian as to be willing to refign my own happiness here, for hers in another life. I do more than with for her fafety, for every wish I make I find immediately changed into a prayer, and a more fervent one than I had learn'd to make till now.

1

May her life be longer and happier than perhaps herfelf may defire, that is, as long and as happy as you can wifh: 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. As for your part, Madam, you have me fo more than ever, fince I have been a witnefs to the generous tenderness you have fhewn upon this occafion.

Your, etc.

LETTER