676 BELLES LETTRES EXTRAORDINARY. 



in the Countery he have worked at one pies for fortey years a good Carecter 

 from his master at Mr Eveartt he his a soled sobur onnist man and a good 

 millman this man dos leves at Crocketton His nem is Solaman michell 

 my Kekmenaistron* Edward Miles your humbel sarvent. 

 he have nofamely But a wiff" 



Thrice happy Mr. Edward Miles, who could consider a helpmate 

 so lightly ! What a grace, " beyond the reach of art/' is contained 

 in the forcible language of the above, unfettered by the pedant's rules, 

 untrammeled by the ties of punctuation ! See how steadily he pro- 

 ceeds to his goal in one vast Alexandrine stride ; there are no flourishes 

 of rhetoric to turn aside the attention no ambiguous periphrasis to 

 bewilder the mind, save at the climax of the letter, where its position 

 is most appropriate. Let us hope that he attained the object of his 

 desires. 



We will now ascend a little higher in the scale. The following 

 letter is the production of an emigrant French priest, and was ad- 

 dressed to the late Earl C . Having no longer a cure of 



souls, the, churchman seemed anxious to become a " body curer" 

 instead a compound of Sir Hugh Evans and Dr. Caius. 



Asmansworth, Novr. 22th 1814. 

 " My Lord, 



Mr. Jolly, french priest. Tooke the liberty, and the Honour, to Informe 

 your Lordship ; if his Lordship Desire to be cure'd By the Poison's of the 

 Gout, he will Give to his Lordship, the Recept of it ; and the Roule who is to 

 fallow, and his Lordship Shall be cure'd Radically Before Long-time, and if 

 his Lordship Got the Gout in his Marrow Bonet he shall be cure'd if his 

 Lordship will fallow Mr. Jolly Roule &c. 



Mr. Jolly will oblige Any time his Lordship, with great Care and atten- 

 tion." 



To the Hon Earl C 



I am afraid the " Jolly Rule " would hardly answer for a gouty 

 patient I should be inclined to have more faith in the etcetera. 

 Perhaps Mr. Jolly had an opportunity the following year of recom- 

 mending his prescription to his own monarch, Louis Dixhuit and 

 who knows ? such mutations were then common he may probably 

 have figured as a Bishop and a Minister of Public Instruction. J 



Let us return to the plains of Arcady, to the classical downs of 

 Wiltshire, famed as the retreat of poets and men of letters ! The 

 author of the following precious document, bears a name already 

 illustrious, with a slight orthographical difference, in the highest 

 range of our national poesy ; and under the same name, several of 



* This learned Theban knew the value of a hard word when he threw in this 

 bit of Greek ; perhaps it may be thought by some to be symbolical of " re- 

 commendation." I however prefer the original Hellenic. 



f Verbatim. 



% The occupations followed by the emigre Noblesse were, many of them, 

 abandoned with reluctance. I remember a little Marquis, one of the old school, 

 of ancient title, and quite the beau of the fauxbourg St. Germain, who de- 

 clared that the happiest period of his existence was when he retailed snuff in a 

 small shop in Gracechurch Street ! It was a favourite anecdote of his when 

 offering a prise de tabac from his enamelled box, painted by Petitot. 



