1744 



LETTERS FROM MULSO 39 



In August, 1744, the same correspondent wr'tes 

 that he had for the first time seen the sea at Hearn — 

 "A sight which I have often been obHged by you with a 

 description of, and now find the justness of your description. 

 . . The Ladies at Canterbury are insufferably handsome, 

 I never met in one place such an assembly of Beauties, I 

 believe. I saved my heart by the beautiful confusion. I 

 could justly say 'defendit numerus'; I was vastly amused 

 at your account of your danger in that way. ... I have seen 

 some pretty good pictures since I have been out, but why do 

 I mention pictures to you who have seen Burleigh. . . . My 

 mother loves you so much that I am almost jealous of 

 you. She says you speak her very sentiment in your judg- 

 ment of the Odyssey. She thanks you for your advice to 

 me, and I suppose now I am returned to Leeds [Abbey] 

 I shall be forced to mount pretty often, and desert 

 my dear corner. I don't find any great propensity to 

 poetry. ... I have not seen a verse since I left you, nor 

 hardly heard one quoted, so that I am not incited to it. 

 I believe the return to this dull place would have made me 

 hang myself, if we had not brought back with us a little 

 company from Canterbury: like you and Falstaff, I hate 

 compulsion, and I am sure I stay here against my will." 



On September 4tli he writes again, exhorting his 

 friend to come and visit his family in London. He 

 continues — 



" I suppose Treufle is in high favour now ; he is in season, 

 and by this time has beat round all the manor where you 

 obtained leave to shoot. . . . Tell me how you all go on at 

 Oxford. Tell me if Jenny has resumed her Empire, and 

 totally expelled her rival the Stamfordian. Tell me if 

 she shall be your Penelope, for since your reading the 

 Odyssey, I suppose you have learned to despise the whip- 

 syllabub names of Amoret and Saccharyssa." 



