LETTER LV 101 



i.e. Miss Young ; who kept my Koom cool, & my Person sweet 

 by giving me clean Linnen & open windows. My Doctor, who 

 has succeeded Aldrich in his House at Sunbury, gave me his 

 Attendance gratis as being Minister of his Parish, & perhaps as 

 a Kelation to Lady Musgrave, to which Family He is related, 

 & very intimate wth them. I began doing Duty at Sunbury but 

 yesterday, tho' I was at Church there twice on Sunday. This is 

 the first Letter that I have sat down to write in Form, so You 

 have a little Proof of Friendship in it. I hope it will find You 

 well, & reconciled to your Situation ; which, tho' you have as 

 much true Philosophy as any Man I know, yet is not to your 

 Taste, if it is really solitary. You have I suppose by this Time 

 made a small Acquaintance about You, & perhaps have a Friend 

 or two who will help to scrape your Blade Bone, after clearing 

 the way to it at Dinner. Methinks I hear your "Wine-Cart at 

 the Gate, I house it wth You, I assist at racking it off, but I am 

 not so happy as to drink it wth You. To You the Distance 

 between Us is as Nothing, to Me You might as well be at Naples. 

 No, my dear Gill, tho' a Journey to You, (especially as You 

 propose it, with my Nurse wth Me,) would be one of the happiest 

 to me & perhaps one of the healthfuUest Things that could be 

 proposed, yet it is greatly out of my Power ; as much indeed as 

 it is in my Wish. She is much obliged to You for your hospit- 

 able Intentions. Would to God we had it in our Power to go 

 where we pleased, & to trouble a Friend for but one Bed, Your's 

 should be one of the first Visits wth Us ; We have been hard 

 Drinkers for ten Years in order to get at the Bottom of the Cup, 

 where, they say, Hope lies ; but they are confounded deep Cups, 

 for my Head has been often giddy in the Time, & yet my Draught 

 seems not near finished. My Uncle's marriagable Daughters now 

 begin to set me, & before I get at my Hope I may be under the 

 Table. Yet She is still alive, & tells me that if Something was 

 not intended for my Good, my Life would not have been given 

 me in this last Illness : If I remember right, I did not pray for 

 it once during the Time, but as it might be somehow of use to 

 his Honour & Service, & of Comfort to Her who has laid me 

 under new Obligations. Do not You fix your Eye upon Cromwell 

 & Tortworth,* or indeed upon any thing particular ; for the fixt 

 Eye will be an aking one, beleive me. I have looked at Peter- 

 boro' 'till it now seems lost in a Mist ; indeed low Spirits are 

 great Dimmers of the Eyes, for to tell You the Truth, at present 

 I seem to see Nothing ; Even that which I have, I may litterally 

 say I possess as if I possest it not. I have read Johnson's tenth 

 Satire of Juvenal, I hope You have, it is a fine Imitation tho' not 

 so close as the 3d. He manages the Conclusion very well, I 



* Cromhall and Tortworth, Oriel livings in Gloucestershire. 



