LETTER XIX

To the Same

[SUTTON.]

DEAR BLAKE, Tho I know you could not possibly expect us on so terrible a day as this has fallen out, yet I could do no less than send over on purpose to testify our concern for not being able to get to you. We have waited dress'd and ready to set out ever since nine this morning to 12 in hopes to snatch any intermission of one of the most heavy rains I ever knew, but we are destined not to go for the day grows worse and worse upon our heads, and the sky gathering in on all sides leaves no prospect of any but a most dismal going and coming, and not wthout danger as the roads are full of water. What remains, but that we undress ourselves.

Since you left us, we have considered (you know wt) in all its shapes and circumstances, and the more the whole is weighed, the worse and more insiduous appears every step of the

managemt of that affair.

God direct

God direct you in it,

'tis our hearty prayer, for I am, with

my wife

best respects to you,

truly yours,

L. S.

Compt to ladies.

LETTER XX*

To

[SUTTON.]

SIR, I received the favour of yours; and it will be a great pleasure to me to discharge the neighbourly office you stand in want of to your satisfaction. I have taken proper measures to get chapmen for it, by ordering it to be publicly cried at my two parishes; but I find a greater backwardness amongst my two flocks

* This letter, which, if genuine, must belong to the pre-Shandean period, was first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1793, with the following introductory passage:—

July 10.

MR. URBAN, That the celebrated Yorick could, on proper occasion, descend to be a man of business, the following letter of his, to a neighbouring clergyman, will sufficiently evince. It is undated, but was written soon after the publication of the early volumes of Tristram Shandy.

EUGENIO.

in this respect than I imagined. This is owing, it seems, to a greater prospect of hay and other fodder than there was any expectation of about five weeks ago, when, they tell me, your crop would have sold for 40s. more than at present. I believe there may be some grounds for this; for, all the late mowed meadows produce plenty, of which yours (which was cut last Saturday) will be no unacceptable proof; for, they say, you have as much grass as they could well mow: so that, by their account, the want of the fodder raised the value of the crop. It is now with the utmost difficulty, and a whole mornings waste of my lungs, that I have got two sufficient men of **: to bid up to what you had offered twelve pounds. I have put them off under pretence of writing you word; but, in truth, to wait a day or two to try the market, and see what can be got for it. I therefore beg you will write me a line or two for farther directions, which must come soon, for the barley, they inform me, must be cut on Friday or Saturday; so there is no time to lose. If I hear nothing from you, I have but two things to chuse, either to set men to mow it for you, or let the men who bid the most for it take it; though I fear the two men have bid

***

near all I can get you. I beg my compliments, with my wife, to your lady; and am, Sir, with great esteem, yours,

L. STERNE.

SUTTON, Wednesday.

DEAR SIR, I have sent you a large Quantity of Pepiermint wh I beg you will disstil carefully for me. I observe you do not charge anything in yr letter for the trouble and expense of making the last. I beg you'l not use any ceremony with this, for I hoped you would take it in pence. However, you may give Ricord a single bottle, and if yr own shop is destitute of so precious a vehicle, I give you leave to do the same for yourself.

* A chemist or apothecary at York.

SIR,

LETTER XXII *

To James Dodsley

[YORK, October? 1759.]

What you wrote to me in June last, in answer to my demand of 50l. for the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy "That it was too much to risk on a single volume, which, if it happened not to sell, would be hard upon your brother" I think a most reasonable objection in him against giving me the price I thought my work deserved. You need not be told by me how much authors are inclined to over-rate their productions:- for my own part, I hope I am no exception; for if I could find out by any arcanum, the precise value of mine, I declare Mr. Dodsley should have it 20 per cent. below its value.

I propose, therefore, to print a lean edition, in two small volumes, of the size of Rasselas, and on the same paper and type, at my own expense, merely to feel the pulse of the world, and that I may know what price to set upon

* Sterne wrote to Dodsley in June, 1759, offering him the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy for 501. The offer was declined, and this letter is Sterne's reply to Dodsley.