bought with money. Perish thee and thy Gold with thee! What shall we do? I have the worst face in the world to ask a favour with, & besides, I would not propose a disagreeable thing to one I so much admire for the whole world; but you can say anything-you are an impudent, honest Dog, & can'st set a face upon a bad matter; prithee sally out to Leicester fields, & when you have knock'd at the door (for you must knock first) and art got in, begin thus: "Mr. Hogarth, I have been with my friend Shandy this morning;" but go on y! own way, as I shall do mine. I esteem you, & am, my dear Mentor, Yrs most Shandascally, L. STERNE. LETTER XLI To the Right Hon. Mr. Pitt FRIDAY, [March 28? 1760.] SIR, Though I have no suspicion that the enclosed dedication* can offend you, yet I thought it my duty to take some method of letting you see it, before I presumed to beg the honour of presenting it to you next week with the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. I am, sir, Your most humble servant, LAU. STERNE. [To the second edition of the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy.] LETTER XLII To Stephen] Croft], Esq. [LONDON,] May, 1760.* DEAR SIR, I return you ten thousand thanks for the favour of your letter-and the account you give me of my wife and girl. — I saw Mr. Ch[olmle]y to-night at Ranelagh, who tells me you have inoculated my friend Bobby. - I heartily wish him well through, and hope in God all goes right. On Monday we set out with a grand retinue of Lord Rockingham's (in whose suite I move) for Windsor- they have contracted for fourteen hundred pounds for the dinner, to some general undertaker, of which the K[ing] has bargained to pay one-third. Lord George Sackville was last Saturday at the opera, some say with great effrontery - others with great dejection. * [No date in the first edition.] + Prince Ferdinand, the Marquis of Rockingham, and Earl Temple, were installed Knights of the Garter, on Tuesday, May 6, 1760, at Windsor. * I have little news to add. There is a shilling pamphlet wrote against Tristram. — I wish they would write a hundred such. Mrs. Sterne says her purse is light; will you, dear Sir, be so good as to pay her ten guineas, and I will reckon with you when I have the pleasure of meeting you. My best compliments to Mrs. C. and all friends. - Believe me, dear sir, your obliged and faithful LAU. STERNE. LETTER XLIII To the Same [LONDON,] May, 1760.† DEAR SIR, —I this moment received the favour of your kind letter. The letter in the Ladies Magazine‡ about me, was written by the noted Dr. Hill § who wrote the Inspector, and undertakes that magazine- the people of York are very uncharitable to suppose any man so gross a beast as to pen such a character * The Clockmaker's Outcry against the Author of Tristram Shandy, 8vo. + [No date in the first edition.] The Royal Female Magazine, for April, 1760. § [Dr. John Hill.] of himself. In this great town no soul ever suspected it, for a thousand reasons-could they suppose I should be such a fool as to fall foul upon Dr. Warburton, my best friend, by representing him so weak a man—or by telling such a lie of him-as his giving me a purse, to buy off his tutorship for Tristram ! or I should be fool enough to own I had taken his purse for that purpose! You must know there is a quarrel between Dr. Hill and Dr. M [onse]y,* who was the physician meant at Mr. Charles Stanhope's, and Dr. Hill has changed the place on purpose to give M[onse]y a lick. Now that conversation (tho' perhaps true) yet happened at another place, and with another physician; which I have contradicted in this city for the honor of my friend M[onse]y, all which shows the absurdity of York credulity and nonsense. Besides, the account is full of falsehoods first, with regard to the place of my birth, which was at Clonmel, in Ireland - the story of a hundred pounds to Mrs. W. -,† not true, or of a pension promised; the merit of which I disclaim'd - and indeed there are so many other things so * [Dr. Messenger Monsey.] + The widow of Mr. Sterne's predecessor in the living of Coxwould. |