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Dear Sir,

Y

To the fame.

June 2, 1725.

OU fhew your self a juft Man and a Friend in thofe Gueffes and Suppofitions you make at the poffible reasons of my Silence, every one of which is a true one. As to forgetfulnes of you or your's, I affure you, the promifcuous Conver fations of the Town ferve only to put me in mind of better, and more quiet, to be had in a Corner of the World (undisturb'd, innocent, ference, and fenfible) with fuch as you. Let no Accefs of any Diftruft make you think of me differently in a cloudy day, from what you do in the most fun-fhiny Weather. Let the young Ladies be affured I make nothing new in my Gardens without wishing to fee the Print of their Fairy Steps in every part of 'em. I have put the laft Hand to my Works of this kind, in happily finishing the fubterraneous Way and Grotto. I there found a Spring of the clearest Water, which falls in a perpetual Rill, that ecchoes thro' the Cavern day and night. From the River Thames you fee thro' my Arch up a Walk of the Wilderness to a kind of open Temple, wholly compos'd of Shells in the Ruftic Manner; and from that distance under the Temple you look down thro' a floping Arcade of Trees, and fee the Sails on the River paffing fuddenly and vanishing, as thro' a Perspective Glafs. When you fhut the Doors of this Grotto, it becomes, on the inftant, from a luminous Room, a Camera obfcura; on the Walls of which all the Objects of the River, Hills, Woods, and Boats, are forming a moving Picture in their vifible Radiations: And when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different Scene: it is finished with Shells interfperfed with Pieces of Looking

Looking-Glafs in angular Forms; and in the Cieling is a Star of the fame Material, at which when a Lamp (of an orbicular Figure of thin Alabaster) is hung in the middle, a thousand pointed Rays glitter and are reflected over the Place. There are connected to this Grotto by a narrower Paffage two Porches with Niches and Seats; one toward the River, of smooth Stones, full of Light, and open; the other toward the Arch of Trees, rough with Shells, Flints, and Iron Ore. The Bottom is paved with fimple Pebble, as the adjoining Walk up the Wilderness to the Temple, is to be Cocklefhells, in the natural Tafte, agreeing not ill with the little dripping Murmur, and the Aquatic Idea of the whole Place. It wants nothing to compleat it but a good Statue with an Infcription, like that beautiful antique one which you know I am

fo fond of:

Hujus Nympha loci, facri cuftodia fontis

Dormio, dum blande fentio murmur aquæ. Parce meum, quifquis tangis cava marmora, fomnum Rumpere; feu bibas, five lavere, tace.

Nymph of the Grot, these facred Springs I keep, And to the Murmur of these Waters fleep. Whoe'er thou art, ah gently tread the Cave, Ah bathe in filence, or in filence lave..

You'll think I have been very poetical in this Defcription, but it is pretty near the Truth. I wish you were here to bear Teftimony how little it owes to Art, either the Place itself, or the Image I give of it.

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I

Dear Sir,

To the fame.

Sept. 13, 1725.

Should be afham'd to own the receipt of a very kind Letter from you, two whole Months from the date of this; if I were not more afham'd to tell a Lye, or to make an Excufe, which is worfe than a Lye (for being built upon fome probable Circumftance, it makes ufe of a degree of Truth to falfify with: It is a Lye Guarded). Your Letter has been in my Pocket in conftant wearing, till that, and the Pocket, and the Suit, are worn out; by which means, I have read it forty times, and I find by so doing, that I have not enough confider'd, and reflected upon many others you have oblged me with; for true Friendship, as they fay of good Writing, will bear reviewing a thoufand times, and still discover new Beauties.

I have had a Fever, a fhort one, but a violent: I am now well. So it fhall take up no more of this Paper:

I begin now to expect you in Town, to make the Winter to come more tolerable to us both. The Summer is a kind of Heaven, when we wander in a Paradifaical Scene of Nature among Groves and Gardens; but at this Season, we are like our poor firft Parents turn'd out of that agreeable tho' folitary life, and forc'd to look about for more people to help to bear our labours, to get into warmer Houses, and hive together in Cities.

I hope you are long fince perfectly restor❜d, and rifen from your Gout, happy in the delights of a contented Family, fmiling at Storms, laughing at Greatness, and merry over a Chriftmas-fire, exercifing all the Functions of an old Patriarch in Charity and Hofpitaly. I will not tell Mrs B. what

2

I think

I think she is doing, for I conclude it is her opinion, that he only ought to know it for whom it is done; and she will allow herself to be far enough advanc'd above a fine Lady, not to defire to fhine before Men.

Your Daughters perhaps may have fome other Thoughts, which even their Mother muft excufe them for, because fhe is a Mother. I will not however fuppofe thofe Thoughts get the better of their Devotions, but rather excite 'em, and affift the warmth of them; while their Prayer may be, that they may raife up and breed as irreproachable a young Family as their Parents have done. In a Word, I fancy you all well, eafy, and happy, just as I wish you; and next to that I wish you all with me.

Next to God, is a good Man: Next in dignity, and next in value. Minuifte eum paullo minus ab Angelis. If therefore I wish well to the good and the deferving, and defire They only shou'd be my Companions and Correfpondents; I muft very foon, and very much think of you. I want your Company, and your Example. Pray make hafte to Town, fo as not again to leave us. Difcharge the Load of Earth that lies on you, like one of the Mountains under which the Poets fay the Giants (that is, the Men of the Earth) are whelmed. Leave Earth to the Sons of Earth: your converfation is in Heaven. Which that it may be accomplish'd in us all, is the Prayer of him who maketh this fhort Sermon. Value (to you) Three Pence.

Adieu.

LETTERS

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