LETTER LYIII 107 



Set of Crocks. Myself indifferent, but in waiting for ye Eemedy 

 which your Uncle mentioned, whereof however I have every 

 day less & less Opinion, for I begin to think I am almost 

 gone beyond that Cure. My Horse still breaths, for that is his 

 strongest Mark of Life. I am glad your Uncle is so stout, & 

 sorry that your Father has got into so unsafe a Method of 

 health as Confinement : He did know better, but Time over- 

 powers us, I am a proper One, am I not ? to harangue when 

 I am of Vapour Hall in ye County of Megrim. 



There is an End of the Thresher's Labours. Stephen Duck 

 drowned himself at Eeading in his way from Bath : No one can 

 assign a Cause but sudden Lunacy : & this after a Bide ? 



My best wishes attend You & Your's. Let me hear of You, 

 if I must not see You soon. Ned's Respects attend you. 



I am, dear Gil, Afftely Yours, 



J. M. 



Letter 58. 



Sunbury, 



May Ist, 1756. 

 Dear Gil : 



You will think it odd that as I have written so lately, & 

 had before that been a tedious Debtor to You, I should write 

 again so soon. But a very serious Concern demands it. I have 

 invited You to come & see me : I now invite You not to come, 

 yet never methinks more desired You to be present ; for as I 

 have made You share in my unsettled State, I would have You 

 a Witness of my settled. I am going to be married, & as this 

 Affair will keep me in a perpetual Motion between London & 

 Sunbury, & make a strange Revolution in my House, I have no 

 House properly speaking to invite You to. But the Suddenness 

 of this Affair after a more than ten Years Siege will demand some 

 Explanation. And You who interest Yourself in all my Concerns 

 will forgive me for being selfishly particular on such an Occasion. 

 You will likewise forgive me for making a great Pleasure give 

 way to a greater, & almost the only greater, for the Friend of 

 my Bosom can give way only to the Wife of my Bosom. 



I remember the Turn of an Epigram, but whether it was my 

 own or no I do not remember, the Merit of it, I think, consisted 

 most in the present Application ; & therefore I may without 

 Vanity make the Doubt. It ended in these words 



flammis 



Et Quern non potuit vincere, vicit Aquis. 



I mentioned in my last Miss Young's being overturned into 

 the River. That accident & the Difficulty of getting Country 

 Lodgings engaged Mr Young to lay a Scheme to make Sunbury 



