LETTER XIX .-- 31 



know my natural Indolence, I seldom take up any Thing a second 

 Time. 



I presume while I am writing this, you are preparing for 

 Oxford, where I intend This shall meet You ; if You ask why I 

 did not write before, you know less of Me than I thought You 

 did : I have been backwards & forwards in Town ; I have four 

 different Businesses on my Hands which are bitter Foes to ye 

 idle Part of my Temper : I am making Sermons, making Love, 

 making a Church, and making a Law Suit : But poorly calculated 

 for the Two first, & strangely defective in ye knowledge of the 

 two last, You who know me will pity me, and thinking me out of 

 my Element will wonder how the Devil I got there. But ye world 

 forces a great many Scenes upon Us, which we never desir'd to 

 be actors in ; and in Order to mortify us for being proud of what 

 we do know, shows us a multitude of Things that we do not. 

 The Subject of my Suit, (if indeed it must be so, & I cannot 

 adjust it amicably, which I shall strive with all my might to do) 

 is ye Tythe of Hops, a Plantation which is increasing every Year 

 & has drawn the Eyes of ye Eenter of ye great Tythes. The 

 Difference pr annum is likely soon to be £20, a considerable 

 Revenue in Proportion to ye whole, & what must not tamely be 

 given up. Alas for me ! I had rather give it up than defend it, 

 but I think I owe it to my Successors. 



My Building Scheme is owing to a Legacy left by a Lady of 

 £1000 towards a new Church within 10 years after her Death : 5 

 are gone, & now we must make an Effort to bring it to bear : an 

 amicable Chancery Suit is the mildest method we can proceed by 

 in this Affair ; and when that is settled, there remains a whole 

 Parish to reconcile to ye Scheme. Various Interests draw several 

 ways ; and we find more Difficulty in making the Farmers agree 

 to have a new Church than we had to raise above £1700. How 

 much Reason have we to pray for the Spirit of Unity & Concord ! 

 I now having claimed Your Pity, & serv'd Myself first (as the 

 Way of the "World is) will grant You a little of mine for the 

 Business You are at present engag'd in : I know You hate 

 Elections both in the Great & httle ; But I hope You have at 

 present no occasion for my Compassion, and that your Inclina- 

 tion & Interest go ye same way. I saw Jo : Warton for one 

 Hour when I was last in Town, He was going out of it the next 

 Day, & said that it had no Charms for Him now, but that He 

 should do his Business & quit it with Pleasure. A great Change ! 

 — I find Mr Littleton corresponds with Him. — He tells me that 

 Hampton is expell'd from Corpus C.C. but as He declined giving 

 an Account of the Occasion I am in the Dark, I hope your 

 Brother Musgrave is well, when does He set out on his Travells ? 

 Miss Musgrave gave me a little Hint yesterday as if Sr Philip & 

 Family were to make a Party to Oxford soon (I suppose at ye 



