never to come near me till I have regularly left my name at your door, like a Mercer's Wife, that imitates people who go a visiting. I would forgive you this, if you could possibly suspect I were doing any thing that I liked better; for then your formality might look like being piqued at my negligence, which has somewhat in it like kindness: But you know I am at Stoke, hearing, seeing, doing absolutely nothing. Not such a nothing as you do at Tunbridge, chequered and diversified with a succession of fleeting colours; but heavy, lifeless, without form and void; sometimes almost as black as the moral of Voltaire's Lisbon*, which angers you so. I have had no more muscular inflations, and am only troubled with this depression of mind. You will not expect therefore I should give you any account of my Verve, which is at best (you know) of so delicate a constitution, and has such weak nerves, as not to stir out of its chamber above three days in a year. But I shall enquire after yours, and why it is off again? It has certainly worse nerves than mine, if your Reviewers have frighted it. Sure I (not to mention a score of your other Critics) am something a better judge than all the Man-Midwives and Presbyterian Parsons + that ever were born. Pray give me leave to ask you, do you find yourself tickled with the commendations of such people? (for you have your share of these too) I dare say not; your vanity has certainly a better taste. And can then the censure of such critics move you? I own it is an impertinence in these gentry to talk of one at all, either in good or in bad; but this we must all swallow :: I mean not only we that write, but all the we's that ever did any thing to be talked of.

*His Poem "sur la Destruction de Lisbon," published about that time.—Mason.

+ The Reviewers, at the time, were supposed to be of these professions.-Mason

While I am writing I receive yours, and rejoice to find that the genial influences of this fine season, which produce nothing in me, have hatched high and unimaginable fantasies in you*. I see, methinks, as I sit on Snowdon, some glimpse of Mona and her haunted shades, and hope we shall be very good neighbours. Any Druidical anecdotes that I can meet with, I will be sure to send you when I return to Cambridge; but I cannot pretend to be learned without books, or to know the Druids from modern Bishops at this distance. I can only tell you not to go and take Mona for the Isle of Man: it is Anglesey, a tract of plain country, very fertile, but picturesque only from the view it has of Caernarvonshire, from which it is separated by the Menaï, a narrow arm of the sea. Forgive me for supposing in you such a want of erudition.

I congratulate you on our glorious successes in the Mediterranean. Shall we go in time, and hire a house together in Switzerland ? It is a fine poetical country to look at, and nobody there will understand a word we say or write.

* I had sent him my first idea of Caractacus, drawn out in a short argument.Mason.

LETTER LIV.

MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

DEAR DOCTOR,

Stoke, Oct. 15, 1756.

I HAVE not been dead, but only gone to [

* was seized with a cruel fit of the gout, which held him five weeks, and as he had no other company in the house, it was impossible to leave him in that condition. Since my return I have made a visit of four days at Twickenham. I shall probably stay here till the middle of next month, and then transplant myself to London, if Mrs. Wharton and you de bon cœur have no objection to me. If any thing has happened, since I saw you, to make it inconvenient, I insist upon being told so. I have heard the story of the Lyon, and its consequences, though you say not a word about it. Pray inform me how Miss Peggy got over her operation. Leicester-house, is (as I suppose you know) settling upon its own terms. £40,000 a year for the Prince; 5000 for P. Ed; no removing to St. James's; Earl of Bute, Groom of the Stole, (there is for you); Mr. Stone, Controller of the [ ] (a concession by way of thanks). Lords of the Bedchamber I have forgot. Miss Shepherd's Mr. Ingram, and Mr. Onslow, the Speaker's son, Grooms of the → Bedchamber; are you upon the list?

*The MS. is imperfect in this place.

Shew me such another king as the K. of Prussia. Every body used to call him coxcomb; and to be sure he is one; but a coxcomb (it is plain) may make a figure far superior to the ordinary run of kings. I delight in his treatment of the K. of Poland. When he first informed him of the necessity he was under to make use of Saxony in his way to Bohemia, he added that if his Majesty chose to retire into his Polish dominions he had ordered relays on the road, and that all the respect in the world should be shewn him, and his last memorial to the Empress-Queen ended with point de reponse, en stile d'Oracle.

I recommend two little French books to you, one called Memoires de M. de la Porte, it has all the air of simplicity and truth, and contains some few very extraordinary facts, relating to Anne of Austria, and Card. Mazarin. The other is two small volumes Memoires de Madame Stael, the facts are no great matter, but the manner and vivacity of it make it interesting.. She was a sort of confidante to the late Dutchess of Maine, and imprisoned a long time in the Bastile on her account, during the Regency. The first you may buy, and the latter borrow. I desire my compliments to Mrs. Wharton, and am,

Ever yours,

T. G.

LETTER LV.

MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

Nov. 12, 1756.

DEAR DOCTOR,

I GROW impatient to be in town, and hope for the pleasure of seeing you on Tuesday next. I must confess, the present revolution of affairs, which are settling so slowly, is some spur to my curiosity, though my own interests have no more concern in it than those of any cottager in the nation. I flatter myself that necessity will at last throw the management of affairs into more capable, if not more honest hands, than usual. My Gazette says, that Mr. Pitt will be Secretary of State, and has accepted it (though ill of the gout in the country); that the D. of Devonshire has consented (which was one of the conditions of acceptance) to be at the head of the Treasury; Lord Temple, of the Admiralty; G. Grenville, Paymaster; Mr. Legge, Chanc of the Exchequer; Sir G. Lee, Sec. at War; Mr. T.* nothing. How far all this is fact, you know by this time. I do not forget your letter, when I say this, and to whom it was wrote; but I much doubt, whether you

* Mr. T. is (I suppose) Mr. C. Townshend, who wished for the place of Secretary of War in this Administration; which was, however, possessed by Lord Barrington. Mr. Townshend unwillingly accepted the place of Treasurer to the Chambers. "See Memoirs of a celebrated Literary and Political Character.” P. 74.-Ed.

L