at this diftance, nor help the General, whom I greatly love, to catch one Fish. My only Confolation is to think you happier than myself, and to begin to envy you, which is next to hating (an excellent remedy for Love). How comes it that Providence has been fo unkind to me, (who am a greater object of Compaffion than any fat Man alive) that I am forc'd to drink Wine, while you riot in Water, prepar'd with Oranges by the hand of the Duchefs of Queensberry? that I am condemn'd to live on a Highway fide, like an old Patriarch, receiving all Guests, where my Portico (as Virgil has it)

Mane falutantum totis vomit ædibus undam,

while you are wrapt into the Idalian Groves, fprinkled with Rofe-water, and live in Burrage, Balm and Burnet, up to the Chin, with the Duchefs of Queensberry? that I am doom'd to the drudgery of dining at Court with the Ladies in waiting at Windfor, while you are happily banish'd with the Duchefs of Queensberry? So partial is Fortune in her Difpenfations! for I deferv'd ten times more to be banish'd than you, and I know fome Ladies, who merit it better than even her Grace. After this I must not name any, who dare do so much for you, as to fend you their Services: But one there is, who exhorts me often to write to you, I fuppofe to prevent or excufe her not doing it herfelf; the feems (for that is all I'll fay for a Courtier) to wifh you mighty well. Another, who is no Courtier, frequently mentions you, and does certainly with you well- I fancy, after all, they both do so.

I writ to Mr Fortefcue and told him the Pains you took to fee him. Dr A. for all that I know, may yet remember you and me, but I never hear of it. The Dean is well; I have had many accounts of him

from

from Irish Evidence, but only two Letters these four Months, in both which you are mentioned kindly: He is in the North of Ireland, doing I know not what with I know not whom. Čleland always fpeaks of you: he is at Tunbridge, wondring at the fuperior Carnivoracity of the Doctor. He plays now with the old Duchess of M-, nay dines with her, after she has won all his Money. Other News know I not, but that Counsellor Bickford has hurt himself, and has the ftrangest Walking-staff I ever faw. He intends fpeedily to make you a vifit at Amesbury. I am my Lord Duke's, my Lady Duchefs's, Mr Dormer's, General Dormer's, and

Your, &c.

Dear Sir,

Sept. 11. 1730.

I MAY with great truth return your Speech, that I think of you daily; oftner indeed than is confiftent with the Character of a reasonable Man; who is rather to make himself eafy with the things and men that are about him, than uneafy with those which are not. And you, whofe abfence is in a manner perpetual to me, ought rather to be remembred as a good Man gone, than breathed after as one living. You are taken from us here, to be laid up in a more bleffed State with Spirits of a higher kind: Such I reckon his Grace and her Grace, fince their banishment from an earthly Court to an heavenly one, in each other and their Friends; for I conclude none but true Friends will confort or aflociate with them afterwards. I can't but look upon my self (fo unworthy as a Man of Twitnam feems to be

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rank'd

rank'd with fuch rectify'd and fublimated Beings as you) as a feparated Spirit too from Courts and Courtly Fopperies. But I own, not altogether fo divefted terrene Matter, nor altogether fo fpiritualized, as to be worthy admiffion to your depths of Retirement and Contentment. I am tugg'd back to the World and it's regards too often; and no wonder, when my retreat is but ten Miles from the Capital. I am within Ear-fhot of Reports, within the Vortex of Lies and Cenfures. I hear fometimes of the Lampooners of Beauty, the Calumniators of Virtue, the Jokers at Reason and Religion. I presume thefe are Creatures and Things as unknown to you, as we of this dirty Orb are to the Inhabitants of the Planet Jupiter: Except a few fervent Prayers reach you on the Wings of the Poft, from two or three of your zealous Votaries at this diftance; as one Mrs Howard, who lifts up her Heart now and then to you, from the midft of the Colluvies and Sink of Human Greatnefs at W-r: One Mrs B. that fancies you may remember her while you liv'd in your mortal and too tranfitory State at Petersham: One Lord B. who admir'd the Duchefs before fhe grew quite a Goddefs; and a few others.

To defcend now to tell you what are our Wants, our Complaints, and our Miseries here; I must seriously say, the lofs of any one good Woman is too great to be born eafily: and poor Mrs Rollinfon, tho' a private Woman, was fuch. Her Husband is gone into Oxfordshire very melancholy, and thence to the Bath, to live on, for fuch is our Fate, and Duty. Adieu. Adieu. Write to me as often as you will, and (to encourage you) I will write as feldom as if you did not. Believe me

Your, &c.

Dear

I

I

Dear Sir,

08. 1, 1730.

A M fomething like the Sun at this Seafon, withdrawing from the World, but meaning it mighty well, and refolving to fhine whenever I can again. But I fear the Clouds of a long Winter will overcome me to fuch a degree, that any body will take a farthing-candle for a better Guide, and more ferviceable Companion. My Friends may remember my brighter days, but will think (like the Irishman,) that the Moon is a better thing when once I am gone. I don't fay this with any allufion to my Poetical Capacity as a Son of Apollo, but in my companionable one (if you'll fuffer me to use a phrafe of the Earl of Clarendon's). For I fhall fee or be feen of few of you, this Winter. am grown too faint to do any good, or to give any pleasure. I not only, as. Dryden fairly fays, Feel my Notes decay as a Poet; but feel my Spirits flag as a Companion, and fhall return again to where I firft began, my Books. I have been putting my Library in order, and enlarging the Chimney in it, with equal intention to warm my Mind and Body (if I can) to fome Life. A Friend, (a Woman-friend, God help me!) with whom I have spent three or four hours a day these fifteen years, advised me to pass more time in my ftudies: I reflected, fhe must have found fome Reafon for this Admonition, and concluded fhe wou'd compleat all her kindneffes to me by returning me to the Employment I am fitteft for Converfation with the dead, the old, and the worm

eaten.

Judge therefore if I might not treat you as a Beatify'd Spirit, comparing your life with my ftupid

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Pid ftate. For as to my living at Windfor with Ladies, &c. it is all a dream; I was there but two nights and all the day out of that company. I fhall certainly make as little court to others, as they do to me; and that will be none at all. My Fair-Weather-Friends of the Summer are going away for London, and I fhall fee them and the Butterflies together, if I live till next Year; which I would not defire to do, if it were only for their fakes. But we that are Writers, ought to love Pofterity, that Pofterity may love us; and I would willingly live to fee the Children of the present Race, meerly in hope they may be a little wifer than their Parents,

I am, &c.

To J. GAY, Efq;

Dec. 16, 1731.

I AM aftonished at the Complaints occafion'd by a late Epistle to the Earl of Burlington; and I fhould be afflicted were there the leaft just Ground for 'em. Had the Writer attack'd Vice, at a Time when it is not only tolerated but triumphant, and fo far from being concealed as a Defect, that it is proclaimed with Oftentation as a Merit; I fhould have been apprehenfive of the Confequence: Had he fatirized Gamefters of a hundred thousand pounds Fortune, acquired by fuch Methods as are in daily practice, and almost uneverfally encouraged: Had he overwarmly defended the Religion of his Country, against such Books as come from every Prefs, are publickly vended in every Shop, and greedily bought by almost every

Rank