Friend-I felicitate myself upon this lucky Occafion, and shall fly to you with all the Expedition that Love, Winds, and Poft-horfes can speed me. Tell my dear Boy, that I received his English, French, and Latin Letters, and am extremely pleased with them every one; but am in too great an Hurry, at present, to answer fo univerfal a Scholar. Do not throw away a Letter on me, for I cannot receive it, either here, at the Head, or at Chester, as perhaps I may have the Pleasure of seeing you before this reaches London-I hope fo, at least.— Stay-I may poffibly get a Letter from you at St. Albans-venture it: It will be a great Comfort to me. Bleffings to our Children; and believe me to be, my dearest Life, your truly fond and affectionate Husband, Lover, Friend, though I does fcold you a little now-and-then when you chides me. Adieu! HENRY. LETTER LETTER DCCLXXV. HENRY to FRANCES. Dublin. JUST arrived in Town. No Chester Ship ready to fail, and the Pacquet does not go off till Morning-tide-perhaps not then, as the Wind is now flying in our Faces; but I shall deliver myf.lf on Board notwithstanding, though I may be said, Bellerophontis literas afferre, for aught I know, as my Cholic has returned upon me severely of late, and my Stomach is at this Moment a Pincushion. All Food is equal to it, for it equally resents them all."It mocks the Meat it feeds on," and turns it to an Adder in my Bofom. Mr. R is married to the Widow T: They have exactly Five Children a piece-this may not so properly be called Matrimony, as joining fue. However, it is a fair and honeft Match, as she is to abide by her prefent Jointure if he fhould die; and in the mean Time, it fufficiently pays her Club, fo that none of the Children on either Side will be injured by their Union. and W 1 There has been a Quarrel lately between M ; you know their Characters, and can determine which was the Aggreffor, and how it ended; ended; for one of them will fight, right or wrong; and the other, neither right nor wrong. I called to see Mrs. T this Evening, and after the had made fome kind Inquiries about you, she asked me if I knew a Miss N- in London, that Colonel D feened to be in Love with, by speaking of her as a young Woman of the best Sense, greatest Ingenuity, Reading, Learning, Tafte, and Genius in the World. I do not think of her as a Second Madame Dacier indeed, but with proper Abatements I gave her Character just as it is: A Person of plain good natural Understanding, but flow and unrefined; of great Application and Sedulity, which are, however, no Marks of Genius; but of an exceeding good and honest Heart, which is capable of firm and faithful Friendship, but without either Warmth or Sentiment. I am going to venture my Life* at Cousen W-'s To-night, and shall then return Home to pray for a Wind. Adieu, my dearest Fanny! By eating Supper.. HENRY. LETTER LETTER DCCLXXVI. HENRY to FRANCES. A 1 Holyhead. ANDED here juft now, fick-very fick, after a Voyage as long as Jonas took in the Whale's Belly, and am just such another Figure, I believe, as he was when he had got on fhore. Think of Three Days breakfastless, dinnerlefs, and fupperlefs Meal Times; my Stomach, that equally refents Fafting and Feasting, feeling all the while as if it had fwallowed a live Lobster. And that 'twas fighting Tooth and Nail; Against my Digestion. Archdeacon Browne and his Wife (the best humoured Couple, I believe, this Day in England) came over with me in the Pacquet, and we are to travel together as far as Chester, from whence they set off to Bath. BANGOR. The Poft had gone from the Head before I had wrote fo far; so that I have brought on my Letter hither, to tell you that I travel as fast as the Welch Horses will carry me; but am forry to say they are not fo hafty as the People are.. I am: I am going to eat the First Morfel for Three Days and an Half, and feel a tolerable good Appetite to it; but my Stomach is fo like a Cat, that its Pleafure and Grumbling, I fear, will go together. I hope for a Line at St. Alban's, to put me in Spirits on my entering London, by hearing that you are all well. Amen! Adieu, my dearest Joys! my Wife and Children, adieu! prays your affectionate Husband, and fond Father, HENRY. As LETTER DCCLXXVII. HENRY to FRANCES. Chefter. S foon as I came here To-day, I fent a Crier about the Town to challenge any Man, Woman, or Child to go Post with me to London, but a dead Silence reigns. I have, therefore, taken a Place in a Stage that sets out about Midnight, which I did in order to bind myfelf to travel Night and Day to you-which poffibly I might not have had Virtue enough to have done, had I fuffered myfelf to remain my own Mafter-that is, my own Slave. I fhall |