Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

RECENT.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

647

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

I have no former nude im I am tr recall that will, a free f ther in its place; vida, j y rather quas poured are 1500 A goode Sving in Wrekin, inne Stafordre, or permas Morate e, of the ime denommen I a mention Stropkure, becaue I me A more remote from the man DOLT TÉ I county that I am from enter of others. B, medel.

ins wait on M. N-; hew in al eft, yet so as a Í proats of your conger hung a 2 I relvet waren tar before him. The next tested ght of this. Brás, parasternary may not receive me it a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ime of it this me that Fe vi bably do fomers fr

[ocr errors]

me me

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

xther; but you hal teve and, that is c f Ea Dery; not for el at the LETT St. Patrick's, frm at 23 de wer your hopes sacs & >ride; ** EPT ULE WE perabimus." Com ¤ me a vu na". week is elapies ince va tega ne ained; you may ira me e II ortnight now at faret vil se a me.-However, wm dmr, ow our letters

A

iracy.-I expect va se spa every week, i man ter, impatiently.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

convey, I will take occafion when you

come

-

"To find out, like a friend, "Something to blame, and mickle to commend."

So I fay no more at prefent on that head. I love to read verfes, but I write none. Peti, nihil me ficut ante juvat feribe"re!"-I will not fay none; for I wrote the following at breakfast yesterday, and they are all I have wrote fince I faw you. They are now in one of the roothoufes of Virgil's Grove, for the admonition of my good friends the vulgar; of whom I have multitudes every Sunday evening, and who very fortunately believe in fairies, and are no judges of poetry:

"Here in cool grot, and moffy cell, "We tripping fawns and fairies dwell: "Tho' rarely feen by mortal eye, "Oft as the moon, afcended high, "Darts thro' yon limes her quiv'ring beam, "We frisk it near this crystal stream.

[blocks in formation]

I fuppofe the rotund at Hagley is completed, but I have not feen it hitherto; neither do I often journey or vifit any where, except when a fhrub or flower is upon the point of bloffoming near my walks. I forget one vifit I lately made in my neighbourhood, to a young clergyman of tafte and ingenuity. His name is Pixell; he plays finely upon the violin, and very well upon the harpsichord; has fet many things to mufic, fome in the soft way, with which I was much delighted. He is young, and has time to improve himfelf. He gave me an opportunity of being acquainted with him by frequently vifiting, and introducing company to my walks. I met him one morning with an Italian in my grove, and our acquaintance has been growing ever fince.-He has a share in an eftate that is near me, and lives there at prefent; but I doubt will not do fo long;-when you come, I will fend for him.Have you read my Lord Bolingbroke's Effays on Patriotism, &c. and have you read Merope? and do you take in the Magazin des Londres ?

1-2

and pray how does your garden flouri£! I warrant you do not yet know the ference betwixt a ranunculus and ar anemone. God help ye!-Come to EL and be informed of the nature of plants, "from the cedar on M

Lebanon to the hyffop that fpringet "out of the wall."-Prav do not to decorate your new garden, when you may tranfplant all kinds of flow into your verses. If by chance y make a vifit at I———— fifty years here, from fome diftant part of England, fl you forget this little angle where 1: ufed to mufe and fing? "En al

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

quam, &c. Poft aliquot, tua regua se mirabere, ariftas.'

[ocr errors]

I expect by the return of Tom tex ceive a trifle that will amufe you. a fmall gold feal of Vida's head, gr by Vertue to a relation of mine, w publifhed Vida, and introduced Verz into bufinefs.-Perhaps you rem Mr. Tristram of Hampton, and the ar we spent there from fchool; it was I am, very cordially, your's.

LETTER XX.

Mr. Shenflone to CW, E

Dear Sir, The Leafowes, Nov. 2, 173 IT never can be that I owe you

three letters; as to two I will a with you; one that I received tog with my books, and the other foon 2 but that I am indebted for more thefe

"Credat Judæus Apella, «Non ego."

Even that fame " Judeus Apella" affords me this very opportunity of ing my compliments to you and a W, and of affuring you, that if not purpofed to have feen you, I wrote to you long ago.

to allow t

Mafter Harris talks very refpe of your garden; and we have no dif fave only in one point-he fays, that labour very hard in your vocab whereas I am not willing all the work you ever did, or will dea it, is worth a fingle bunch of ra However, I dare not contradict him much, because he waits for my letter,

Ho

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

The sale, tags, tinfti, gimp, perfume, and

Then brods from Mars's Hij his awful eyes,
Aud *What a world i never want!' b: cries."

thandle there.

PARNELL. an time do not defpife others that can say needful amalement in what, I k. Bunyan very aptly calls Vanity I have been at it many times this in, and have bought many kinds of It is a part of phiPhi, to adapt one's pains to one's of life; and the fitary enfocial re in which I move makes me think it y that I can retain a reh for fach sa: I can drawi toit. Mean time. I pot rinfun too much upon this head. bo, like the famous concave mirrour laris, would, in two mirates, vithe Jew's pack: I mean, that ould immediately destroy all the , colour, and beauty, of every that is not merely ufefal.-Bat I le too far, and you do not want fpeculations. My intent when I fat was to tell you, that I fhall profee you very icon, and certainly in in the mean time, and at all Sir, your, &cc.

[blocks in formation]

whom we called good-natured men. This
part of his character was fo vilible in his
countenance, that he was generally be-
loved at úght; I, who muld be allowed to
know him, do affare you, that his un-
dertanding was no way inferior to his
benevolence. He had not only a found
judgment, but a lively wit and genuine
As there were many times
humour.
eclipfed by his native bathfulness, so his
benevolence only faffered by being shewn
to an excels. I here mean his giving too
indifcriminately into toote jovial meetings
Of company, where the warmth of a 10-
cial temper is discovered with least re-
ferve; but the virtues of his head and

heart would foon have fhone without al-
loy. The foibles of his youth were
wearing off; and his affection for me and
regard to my advice, with his own good
fente, would foon have rendered him ail
that I could have withed in a fucceffor.
I never in my life knew a perfon more
fincere in the expretion of his love or
diane. But it was the former that
fuited the propensity of his heart; the
latter was as tranfient as the starts of
palion that occañoned it. In fhort, with
much true genius and real fortitude, he
was, according to the Ength acceptation,

66

a truly honeft mos;" and I think I may alo add, a truly English character; bat 66 babes, dixi? imn babui fratrem " anicam, Chreme!" All this have I lod in him. He is now in regard to this world no more than a mere idea; and this idea, therefore, though deeply tinged with melancholy, I mut, and furely ought to, cherish and preferve.

I believe I wrote you fome account of his nefs laft fpring; from which to all appearance he was tolerably well recovered. He took the air, and viited about with me, during the warmer months of fummer; but my pleasure was of fhort duration. “Aji larei "lethalis ar ads!" The periphe.mony under which he laboured in the foring had terminated in an adhesion of the lungs to the pleura, fo that he could never le but upon his righúde; and this, as the weather grew colder, oceniered an ob fruftion that could never be firmounted.

Though my reafon forewarned me of the event, I was not the more prepared for it. Let me not dwell on it-It is altogether infapportable in every refeût; and my imagination feems more alasons

[ocr errors]

644

in educing pain from this occafion, than
I ever yet found it in adminiftering to my
pleafure. This hurts me to no purpose
I know it; and yet, when I have avo-
cated my thoughts, and fixed them for
a while upon common amufements, I
fuffer the fame fort of confcioufnefs as if
I were guilty of a crime. Believe me,
this has been the moft fenfible affliction I
ever felt in my life; and you, who know
my anxiety when I had far lefs reafon to
complain, will more easily conceive it
now, than I am able to defcribe it.

I cannot pretend to fill up my paper
with my ufual fubjects.-I fhould thank
you for your remarks upon my poetry;
but I defpife poetry: and I might tell
little rural improvements;
my
you of all
but I hate them.-What can I now ex-
pect from my folitary rambles through
them, but a feries of melancholy reflec-
tions and irksome anticipations ?-Even
the pleasure I fhould take in fhewing
them to you, the greatest they can afford
me, must be now greatly inferior to what
it might formerly have been.

[ocr errors]

How have I prostituted my forrow on
occafions that little concerned me! I am
Elegy
ashamed to think of that idle
"upon Autumn," when I have fo much
more important caufe to hate and to con-
demn it now; but the glare and gaiety
of the spring is what I principally dread;
when I fhall find all things restored but
my poor brother, and fomething like
thofe lines of Milton will run for ever in
my thoughts:

Thus, with the year,
Seafons return; but not to me returns

A brother's cordial fmile, at eve or morn."
I fall then feem to wake from amufe-
merts, company, every fort of inebria-
tion with which I have been endeavour-
ing to lull my grief afleep, as from a
dream; and I hall feel as if I were,
that inftant, defpoiled of all I have
chiefly valued for thirty years together;
of all my prefent happiness, and all my
future profpects. The melody of birds,
which he no more must hear; the cheer-
ful beams of the fun, of which he no
more mult partake; every wonted plea-
fure will produce that fort of pain to
which my temper is moft obnoxious. Do
not confider this as poetry.-Poetry on
more than literal
fuch occafions is no
truth. In the prefent cafe it is lefs; for

half the tenderness I feel is altogethe fhapeless and inexpreffible.

After all, the wifdom of the w may perhaps efteem me a gainer. i do they judge of this event, who that any thadow of amends can be re for the death of a brother, and the appointment of all my fchemes, by acceffion of fome fortune, which l can enjoy !

This is a mournful narrative: In not, therefore, enlarge it.-Amarg changes and chances, I often thi you; and pray there may be no. cion or jealoufy betwixt us during reft of our lives. I am, dear Sir, ja &c.

I

LETTER XXII.

Mr. Shenstone to C-W-,
Dear Mr. W—,

July 2

Do not know why I made you

mife of a pretty long letter. I now write will be but a mode both in regard to length and b write I mult, par maniere d'a you have brought four-pence upon yourself for a parcel of: and to no manner of purpote. not tautology, you must ofer nonfenfe fometimes anfwers ver derable purposes.-In love, i by all the rules of found legit quence itfelf.-In friendship, allow it to be fomething; not say, nequeo monfiran, The princip "tantum." correfpondence betwixt tw confifts in two important ing we do, and how we do; fons ought to give fatisfactice b expect to receive it, I am x the first place, that my o lerably good, or rather whe good, being, I think, mai it has been this last half ver.

[ocr errors]

touching my occupation,
"lo's occupation's gore
read nor write aught beads
and I give myfelf up entr
of diffipation; lounge a
ley's for near a week tog
dinners; accept of invite
till three o'clock in the
young fprightly marrie

[ocr errors]

white port and vin de paysans; ramble over my fields; iffue out orders to my hay-makers; foretell rain and fair weather; enjoy the fragrance of hay, the cocks, and the wind-rows; admire that aniverfal lawn which is produced by he fcythe; fometimes infpect, and draw mouldings for my carpenters; fometimes aper my walls, and at other times my elings; do every focial office that falls my way, but never feek out for any. "Sed vos quid tandem? quæ circumvolitas agilis thyma? non tu corpus eras fine pectore. Non tibi parvum ingenium, non incultum eft!" In fhort, at do you? and how do you do?t is all.

Tell my young pupil, your fon, he t by all manner of means fend me a in letter and if he have any billet rench for Mifs Lea at The Grange, ven in Hebrew, Coptic, or Syriac, II engage it fhall be received very iously. Thither am I going to dinhis day, and there "implebor veteBacchi, pinguifque ferina."

I this looks like extreme jollity; but $ the true state of the case, or may more properly apply the

vultu fimulat, premit atrum corde do

[ocr errors]

ept this fcrawl in place of a letter, lieve me your's, &c.

LETTER XXIII.

This did not happen till about a month or five weeks ago, when I was embarraffed with matons, carvers, carpenters, and company, all at a time. And though it were idle enough to fay, that I could not find one vacant hour for my purpose, yet in truth my head was fo confufed by thefe multifarious distractions, that I could have written nothing fatisfactory either to myfelf or you; nothing worth a fingle penny, fuppofing the postage were to coft you no more. The workmen had not finished my rooms a minute, when Lady Luxborough, Mrs. Davies, and Mr. Outing arrived, with five fervants and a fet of horses, to ftay with me for fome time. After a nine days vifit, I returned with them to Barrels, where I continued for a week; and whither (by the way) I go again with Lord Dudley in about a fortnight's time. Other company filled up the interftices of my fummer; and I hope my dear friend will accept of this apology for fo long a chaẩm of filence, during which I have been uniformly at his fervice, and true to that inviolable friendship I fhall ever bear

him.

I proceed now to thank you for the diftinction you fhew me, in fending me your picture: I do it very fincerely. It is affuredly a strong likeness, as my Lady Luxborough with all her fervants that have feen you pronounce, as well as I; confequently more valuable to a friend than a face he does not know, though it were one of Raphael's. The fmile about the mouth is bad; as it agrees but ill

enftone to Mr. G-, on the Receipt with the gravity of the eyes, and as a of his Picture.

[blocks in formation]

fmile ever fo little outré has a bad effect in a picture where it is conftant, though it may be ever fo graceful in a perion where it is tranfitory. However, this may be altered, when I can meet with a good painter. I have no other objection, but to the prominence of the belly. The hair, I think, is good; and the coat and band no way exceptionable. I have given it all the advantage I can it has a good light, and makes part of an ele gant chimney-piece in a genteel, though little breakfast-room, at the end of my houfe.

Mr. Whistler and I are now upon good terms, and two or three friendly letters have been interchanged betwixt us. He preffes me to come to Whitchurch, and I him to come over to The Leafowes; Tt3

but

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »