heart. I am told you do not come back this winter, which I grieve at, till you convince me it is for your advantage. I am also told Mrs. Pitt has left you much better in health, and that your liking and opinion of each other is just what I foretold. I hope my dear Miss Greville is in good health; pray assure her of my affectionate services. I have been ten days at Richmond, and confined ever since I came with a violent cold. I rejoice at Lord Cornbury's good health, and am his very faithful servant. The princess lies in the beginning of December. Lady Charlotte Edwine is gone to Bristol, I fear far gone in a consumption. Mrs. Greville was extremely kind and obliging to me when I was last at the Grove: I think all that country excessively fine. Miss Longs were there all the time: we played at quadrille; and every thing was so agreeable, that instead of staying as I proposed, a week, I stayed five.

3

I was just going to give you and Lord Cornbury an account of Mr. Pope; but he is come to see me, and will do it himself. I have also desired him to say something for me; for I can say so little for myself, that by all I can say, you will not believe me half so much as I sincerely am, my dear Mrs. Price,

Your most faithful and affectionate

humble servant,

M. BLOUNT.

I cannot quite forgive your writing to all your acquaintance, some of which, I think, deserved that

3 Mrs. Greville was sister to Mrs. Price, grandmother to Uvedale Price, Esq. and I believe she was the

"Greville, whose eyes have power to make

A Pope of every swain."

They were daughters of Lord Arthur Somerset, and of course interested in the divorce of the Duchess of Beaufort, who is mentioned in the latter postscript, and who, after her divorce, was married to Colonel Fitzroy, and had by him the present Duchess of Norfolk.-Bowles.

favour less than I did, before you gave me that pleasure.

They have given over talking of the Duchess of B. I do not hear her named now: I was sensible of the grief that affair gave you. Adieu. I hope your son is well.

LETTER LV.

MR. POPE TO MRS. PRICE, AT SPA 1.

PRAY, Madam, tell my Lord Cornbury, I am not worse than he left me, though I have endured some uneasiness since, besides that which his indisposition, when I parted, gave me. I am amply rewarded by his very kind letter, and the good news it brought me of his amendment. I have had a correspondence with my Lord Clarendon, who has in the most obliging manner. imputed his journey to Spa to the encouragement I gave him to travel, and to the experience that he was abler to do so than he imagined himself. I earnestly wish his return, but not till he can bring himself whole to us, who want honest and able men too much to part from him: I hope, therefore, to see him this sessions in full health and spirit. Madam, as to yourself, it would be some compliment in me to put any lady in the same line with him; but as I know he likes your company, and as I know you deserve he should, I make no apology either to you or to him. Sint tales animæ concordes! (as you very well understand) is the best wish I can form for you both and I leave it to his lordship to translate, if you pretend you cannot. Sure I am you have already translated it into your life and manners, if not into your language. I desired Mrs. Blount to write this sentence to you, and with it

• Communicated by Uvedale Price, Esq.—Bowles. VOL. VI.

D d

her service to Lord Cornbury, but she would not trust herself with so much Latin: I know some ladies that would. If you do not come home, it imports you to be extremely the better for being abroad, for we shall be extremely the worse for it: so pray mend as fast as you can, the only way you can be mended. I am, Madam,

Your most faithful humble servant.

LETTER LVI.

TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT.

Bristol, Monday (1742).

I AM glad I sent you my last letter on Saturday, without expecting yours, which did not come till the day after the post, by passing first through Mr. Allen's hands at Bath. I thank you for it, and must now give you some account of this place. I rise at seven, drink at the well at eight, breakfast at nine, dine at two, go to bed at ten, or sooner. I find the water very cold on my stomach, and have no comfort but in the asses' milk I drink constantly with it, according to Dr. Mead's order. The three days I was at Mr. Allen's, I went for two or three hours to Bath, but saw no public place, nor any persons, but the four or five I writ you word of. It grieved me to miss twice of Lady Cox in that time. I had a line from Mr. Slingsby Bethel, to acquaint me his brother was well; and I will write to him from hence, as soon as I can give him a physical account of myself.

I hardly knew what I undertook when I said I would give you some account of this place. Nothing can do it but a picture, it is so unlike any scene you But I will begin at least, and reserve the rest to my next letter. From Bath, you go along the

ever saw.

river, or its side, the road lying generally in sight of it on each bank are steep rising hills clothed with wood at top, and sloping toward the stream in green meadows, intermixed with white houses, mills, and bridges; this for seven or eight miles: then you come in sight of Bristol (the river winding at the bottom of steeper banks to the town), where you see twenty odd pyramids smoking over the town (which are glasshouses), and a vast extent of houses red and white. You come first to Old Wells, and over a bridge built on both sides like London bridge, and as much crowded with a strange mixture of seamen, women, children, loaded horses, asses, and sledges with goods, dragging along all together, without posts to separate them. From thence you come to a key along the old wall, with houses on both sides, and, in the middle of the street, as far as you can see, hundreds of ships, their masts as thick as they can stand by one another, which is the oddest and most surprising sight imaginable. This street is fuller of them than the Thames from London bridge to Deptford, and at certain times only, the water rises to carry them out; so that, at other times, a long street, full of ships in the middle, and houses on both sides, looks like a dream. Passing still along by the river, you come to a rocky way on one side, overlooking green hills on the other: on that rocky way rise several white houses, and over them red rocks, and, as you go further, more rocks above rocks, mixed with green bushes, and of different-coloured stone. This, at a mile's end, terminates in the house of the Hot Well, whereabouts lie several pretty lodging-houses open to the river, with walks of trees. When you have seen the hills seem to shut upon you, and to stop any further way, you go into the house, and looking out at the back door, a vast rock of an hundred feet high, of red, white, green, blue, and yellowish marbles, all blotched and

variegated, strikes you quite in the face; and turning on the left, there opens the river at a vast depth below, winding in and out, and accompanied on both sides with a continued range of rocks up to the clouds, of an hundred colours, one behind another, and so to the end of the prospect, quite to the sea. But the sea nor the Severn you do not see the rocks and river fill the eye, and terminate the view, much like the broken scenes behind one another in a playhouse. From the room where I write, I see the tide rising, and filling all the bottom between these scenes of rocks; on the sides of which, on one hand, are buildings, some white, some red, every where up and down like the steepest side of

Richmond to the Thames, mixed with trees and shrubs, but much wilder; and huge, shaggy marbles, some in points, some in caverns, hanging all over and under them in a thousand shapes. I have no more room, but to give Lady Gerard my hearty services, and to wish you would see, next summer or spring, what I am sure would charm you, and fright most other ladies. I expect Mr. Allen here in four or five days. I am always desiring to hear of you. Adieu. Remember me to Mr. Lyttleton, Lord Cornbury, Mr. Cleland.

LETTER LVII.

TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT.

DEAR MADAM,

Saturday the 24th (1742). I HAVE just received yours, for which I most kindly thank and love you. You will have this a post the sooner, by Mr. Allen's messenger coming hither. I have had a kind letter from the judge, with very friendly mention of you, and concern that he could not

5 Mr. Baron Fortescue.