320 HENRY KIRKE WHITE S REMAINS, 



-I 



TO MR R. W. A. 



St John's, 18th Aug. 1806. 

 Dear A , 



I am glad to hear of your voyages and travels through 

 various regions, and various seas, both of this island and 

 its little suctling, the Isle of Wight. 



Many hairs-breadth 'scapes and perilous adventures 

 you must needs have had, and many a time, on the ex- 

 treme shores of the south, must you have looked up with 

 the eye of intelligent curiosity, to see whether the same 

 moon shone there as in the pleasant, but now far dis- 

 tant, grovel of Colwick. And now, my very wise and 

 travelled friend, seeing that your head is yet upon your 

 shoulders, and your nect in its right natural position, 

 and seeing that, after all the changes and chances of a 

 long journey, and after being banged from post to pillar, 

 and from pillar to post, — seeing, I say, that, after all 

 this, you are safely housed once more under your pater- 

 nal roof, what think you, if you were to indulge your 

 mind as much as you have done your eyes and gaping 

 muscles ? A few trips to the fountains of light and 

 colour, or to the regions of the good lady who yC'='^'^'-> 

 d^ocT^ois oiSTTsi aS^oooov vrourov, a ramble down the Galaxy, 

 and a few peeps on the unconjimcl confines {j:rjT^hv 

 UTTOTf/^o'j, vTr'jou avTTvo'j, fiiou ov [iiuToycih) of infinite space, 

 would prove, perhaps, as delectable to your immaterial 

 part, as the delicious see-saw of a post-chaise was to 

 your corporeal ; or, if these etherial, aeronautical, ma- 

 thematical, volutations should displease you, perhaps it 

 would not be amiss to saunter a few weeks on the site of 

 Troy, or to lay out plans of ancient history on the de- 

 bateable ground of the Peloponnesians and Athenians. 

 There is one Thucydides, who lives near, who will tell 

 you all about the places you visit, and the great events 

 connected with them : he is a sententious old fellow, 

 very shrewd in his remarks, and speaks, moreover, very 

 excellent Greek at your service. I know not whether 



