mouth than his hand-but for all that, he writes very prettily.

Mr. Duncombe is very happy, and you, I am fure, have your fhare of fatisfaction in fo pronting a youth as your nephew is. I read his copy of verfest: I will not fay I was pleafed with them, because my judgment would do the author no credit; but I fhewed them to a friend of mine, a man of letters, and a good-natured critic, and he was much entertained. I urged him to look them over again with exactnefs, and he then found no other fault, but with damata fatit, of which phrafe he queftioned the latinity, and he apprehended a in Arabios, and do in Endten, to be both fhort: this was his criticifia. If it be right, it gives me no uneadnefs, and Iam fore it will give you none. You fe I am forced to go to other heads for criticifm, and therefore you muft not expect that from me; but pray fend me as many verfs as you pleafe for entertainment, and if they entertain me as well as thefe did, I defy the critics to put me out of humour with them.

The living you obferved given to one of my name, was to a relation ||, but he has been in poficilion of it a twelvemonth; fuch is the exactness of our news-writers. I fhall leave this country within a week till term. The beginning of October, I thall be at a friend's in Surry, Mr. Frankland's, at Stoke near Guildford. I am, dear Sir, your, &c.

weeks, and I am glad to employ it in converfing with you.

I thank you most heartily for your very kind congratulation, upon my pro motion to this good living; I am, I own, pleafed with it, and hope I may fay, I am fure I ought to fay, contented. I blefs Providence for fo ample a prov fion for me, and leave it entirely to his goodness as to the future enjoymen of it: but though I am contented my felf, you, I find, with the folicitude of a friend, will be extending your care for me fill farther, and prophefying I know not what promotions. If you have a d vinity in you, and things fhould happe fo, I hope I fhall have the grace to confider every fuch acceffion, as only a opportunity of doing good, and, if lan in that temper, I am fure you wold ftand in the foremost rank of thefe I fhould be happy to oblige; and, if I am not, I give you liberty to condemn me, as much as I fhall one day abhor myfel I do not love many words, and therefor fhall only affure you, that I am proud of the compliment you pay to my fincerias, in unbofoming yourfelf as you do to m and that you may affure yourlelf, at times, of every kind affiance from m that a true friend can give.

It is a pleasure to me, to hear that your little boy improves fo much, ardi congratulate you upon the indications it gives of a good and compassionate temp It is a foil, I knew, that you will c tivate with moit particular pleafare. 1 fhall be very glad to introduce Ja Brutus + into the company of Lady kyll tt; I am fure the is a friend to de true spirit of Roman liberty. I am, desi Sir your, &c.

you do; but your doing it gives me more pleasure than ever; it fooths that vanity, which is in fome fort natural to us all, and gives me the fatisfaction of perufing what you write, and of hearing news of the lettered world. I think your dedication to Earl Cowper very genteel, and in no degree guilty of the common fault of thofe pieces, flattery. I fhall be pleafed to fee this tragedy of Lillo's; his George Barnwell has fomething very touching in it. I think I do not quite like this interweaving feripture-phrafes. This may found odd from a clergyman, but I fay it from the motive of that character. It is to expofe thofe venerable books too much to the hazard of ridicule; it is, perhaps, fomething like diveling the magistrate of his robes of honour, and turning him to a mad and prejudiced populace, in the nakednefs of a common man. The books of fcripture are, no doubt, mot excellent themselves; but their veneration (as the world is) mutt, like magiftracy, be in fome meafure fupported by outward circumftance and ceremony. Truth is very amiable naked, but fubjected the more to be injured by thofe who have no taste of her beauty.

You will much oblige me in fending me the public judgment about books that come out, now and then, that I may know the better how to give orders to my bookfeller. I am, dear Sir, your, &c.

me before I was aware, and therefore I fhall go the old way to work, own the receipt of your letter, and afk pardon for my unmannerly filence. 1 received it at this place, and carried it with me into Surry, determining to anfwer it from thence. I was very little at home, and all that little moft laboriously idle, so I brought it back again to Rochester, and it now lies before me. You will pardon me, if I burn it as foon as I have anfwered it, to get out of the way of fuch an ungrateful remembrancer, for I am pretty fure I fhall have no reproaches from you.

I fee no reason for fuch a prodigious outcry upon the "Plain Account 1," &c. I really think it a good book, and as to the facrament in particular, as orthodox as archbishop Tillotion: his prayers are very long, but, in my poor opinion, fome of the best compofitions of the fort that ever I read; and if I could bring my mind to that fteady frame of thinking with regard to the Deity, that is prefcribed by him, I believe I fhould be fo far as happy as my nature is, perhaps, capable of being. There is fomething comfortable in addreffing the Deity, as the father, not the tyrant of the creation.

I would fain think as well of Mr. Pope's probity as I do of his ingenuity; but his compliments to Bolingbroke, upon topics of behaviour, in which he is notorioufly infamous, fhock me fo, that it quite difconcerts my good opinion of him. I have bought his works, however, in the pompous edition, and read them with peculiar pleafure. The brightnefs of his wit, his elegant turns, his raifed fentiments in many places, and the mufical cadence of his poetry, charm me prodigiously.

I think I must with you joy of the approaching peace §. It seems much for I hope it will have a good fue. If any his Majesty's, and the English honour. thing new of moment appears, you will communicate it in your usual obliging manner. I am, dear Sir, your, &c.

↑ "Of the Sacrament," by Bil p Hoadly.

Between the Emperor, France, Spain, and Saldinia, by the mediation of Great Britain.

I

Dr. Herring to William Duncombe, Esq. Dear Sir, Rochefter, Dec. 17, 1735. AM exceedingly ashamed that I should be fo long in answering two very kind letters of yours. I have been hindered in fome measure by the bufinefs of our audit, and you will pleafe to accept that excufe, fo far as it will juftly go. With your letters I received a molt obliging prefent of a book, for which, however, I am quite angry with you, and will think of fome method of fhewing my refentment. It is the most agreeable book I ever beheld; and I own (though perhaps there is fomething childish in it) I read Horace with a better goût, and a better understanding, for the fine embellishments. Did you ever fee a Dutch edition of Telemaque, of peculiar beauty?

I hope to be in London fome time in the fpring, and will give you notice of it; and if you chufe to defer it till then, fhall be glad to wait upon you to Lord Hardwicke. I fhall be very glad to fee you in the fummer; if nothing happens to interrupt my fcheme, I propofe to fpend a greater part of it than ufual at Blechingley.

Mr. D'Oyley+fpent an evening with me lately: he is much your humble fervant, and a very genteel and agreeable companion. I had feen Mr. B's imitations (for fo they are called) before you wrote to me, and think the feveral ftyles are mett ingenioutly hit off. I am, dear Sii, &c.

From the fame to the fans.

Dear Sir, E. chingley, F.b. 25, RECEIVED your letter, and was indeed exrently affected with the bad news of your lef. It is molt certainly a pro

* The works of Horace, engraved on copperplates by Mr. Eine.

Vicar or St. Nicholas, Rucher.

The Pic of Tebacco, in imitation of fix feveril authors [viz. Dr. Young, Ambrofe Philips, Footen, Ciever, Pope, and Swift), by Mr. Hawks Browne. The plan was fogyited to lum, 2007 imitation of Phip" fuppled, by the Lac Dr. John Toasty.

I am glad you have got the better of your own indifpofition; the lofs of bo parents would have been a blow to your poor boy, in which his friends would have felt for him exceedingly.

I read over your wife's letter, and i melted me into tears; and, to fav the truth (fhe is now incapable of being flattered), I was not lefs edified with the fincerity, and wifdom, and conftancy of her mind, than I was affected with the tenderuefs of her concern for her hutband and her child...........I thank you for the favour of the ring, and am, dear Sir,

yours, &c.

LETTER XXXIV. From the fame to the fame.

Dear Sir,

Blechingley, Sept. 2, 1757 IT is an odd privilege to make ef

friendship, to consider it as a fort et liberty of being rude, and yet it is oft done; and I muft now plead it as a resfon of my neglecting to acknowledge yo obliging letter (I am ashamed to say of the 2d of Auguft; but indeed, if I had had lefs regard for you, I had beca more punctual.

You are extremely kind in your congratulations upon the King's favour §

point of happinefs, and is to be fure an It is generally looked upon as a honour; yet, to fay the plain truth, I am in no fort of raptures about it, may, indeed, not without my apprehenfion, that I am making work for repentance, and that my friends may hear me repeat ing, ere long, Vite me redde præari! I

Dr. Hearing was just nominated to the Eif ric of Bangor. He was confirmed at Bow chen January 14, 1737-8, and confecrated at Lambell the day following. have

From the fame to the fame. Dear Sir, Rochester, Nov. 3, 1735. HAVE taken up your kind letter three times to anfwer, and as often been nterrupted. I brought it with me to his place yefterday, and refolved not to nifs another post. I thank you most af ectionately for your obliging inquiry afer me, and I lefs God, have the faisfaction to inform you, that I am very vell, after the mol agreeable journey I ver had in my life. We travelled flow y and commodiously, and found Wales a ountry altogether as entertaining as it as new. The face of it is grand, and efpeaks the magnificence of nature, and nlarged my mind fo much, in the fame Janner as the ftupendoufnefs of the ocean Des, that it was fome time before I could e reconciled again to the level countries. heir beauties were all in the little tatte; nd, I am afraid, if I had feen Stow in ay way home, I fhould have thrown ut fome very unmannerly reflections upin it; I fhould have smiled at the little ceties of art, and beheld with contempt

Atterbury.

† His Lordship held this deanery in commen4 with his bishopric.

an artificial ruin, after I had been agreeably terrified with fomething like the rubbish of a creation. Not but that Wales has its little beauties too, in delightful ftreams and fine valleys; but the things which entertained me were the vaft ocean, and ranges of rocks, whose foundations are hid, and whofe tops reach the clouds. I know fomething of your caft of mind, I believe; and I will therefore take the liberty to give you an account of an airing one fine evening, which I fhall never forget. I went out in the cool of the day, and rode near four miles upon the fmooth fhore, with a vaft extended view of the ocean, whofe waves broke at our feet in gentle murmurs: from thence we turned into a village, with a neat church and houses, which food juft at the entrance of a deep valley; the rocks rofe high and near, at each hand of us, but were, on one fide, covered with a fine turf, full of sheep and goats, and grazing herds; and, on the other, varied with patches of yellow corn, and spots of wood, and here and there a great piece of a bare rock projecting. At our feet ran a ftream, clear as cryftal, but large and foaming, over vaft ftones rudely thrown together, of unequal magnitudes, and over it a wooden bridge, which could fcarce be faid to be made by the hands of art; and, as it was the evening, the hinds appeared, in many parts of the fcene, returning home with pails upon their heads. I proceeded in this agreeable place, till our profpect was clofed, though much illuminated, by a prodigious cataract from a mountain, that did, as it were, fhut the valley. All thefe images together put me much in mind of Pouffin's drawings, and made me fancy myfelf in Savoy, at leaft, if not nearer Rome. Indeed, both the journey, and the country, and the refidence, were most pleasing to me.

Your letters always entertain me, as your laft did by an agreeable pocm; and, in fome fort of return, I cannot help mentioning a French book to you, which I brought in the coach with me, «Le “Pasjan parvenue ‡." It is a book of gallantry, but very modeft; but the things which entertained me, were the juftnefs of fome characters in it, and the great penetration into human nature. I am your, &c.

‡ By Marivaux.