1775 UPLAND PONDS 293 



general here. I believe most people that have it felt ill 

 some time ago; but I am not conversant enough amongst 

 sick people to say positively there is no fear of your taking 

 it now. Molly and the whole family have had colds, coughs, 

 &c., but are now nearly well ; as to myself, I have escaped, 

 like John Wood's old horses, by old age and other infirmities. 

 Thank you for the elegant quotation from Middle ton.* Is 

 not the ridicule some of our wise governors would have 

 thrown on America applicable to Cicero's on Britain ? and 

 may not America be to England ere long what England is 

 now to Kome ? I cannot allow that the Romans acquired 

 their riches by virtuous industry; the infamous oppression 

 these people exercised over mankind has been handled too 

 tenderly. 



Hliiic is pure Saxon, a bank cast up for boundary ; hence 

 our " linch " and " linchot " between fields. As you seem to 

 allow me to frolick in conjecture (as Johnson says), I will 

 examine the fields. 



Molly goes to-morrow with Dr. Thomas to Cambridge; 

 she has had no return of her complaint, and is to use the 

 cold bath there. I want you to read Plot's treatise 'De 

 origine Fontium,' in which he states what has been advanced 

 on all hands by former writers and favorers, the assertion of 

 subterranean connections with the sea, against Eay and 

 others. I cannot help looking on these communications as 

 imaginary, and am inclined to join with Ray, who asserts 

 that rain and dew are sufficient to supply all springs. When 

 you describe the perennity of the Selburn spring, it does not 

 seem foreign to the purpose for you to sum up the evidence 

 on both sides, remarking the peculiarity of upland ponds 

 being supplied when those in the vallies fail, which I believe 

 will prove a new observation. Certainly hills and mountains 



* The Rev. Conyers Middleton, d.d. (1683-1750), author of a 'Life of 

 Cicero.' 



