JOHN OF THE HILL 



mentaries on the classics, we search his writings eagerly for 

 references to that sport of hunting for which he was too 

 much of a courtier to manifest his contempt, but too sincere 

 a scholar altogether to conceal it. 



I 



" 1728. November i6thy Saturday. 

 "My Lord, 



" I am obliged to your Grace for your entertaining letter, 

 after a silence which always seems to me long, and though 

 I can easily account for it, yet ever suggests to me an ap- 

 prehension of your not being perfectly in health. I am glad 

 your house is so well filled to your mind as to afford your 

 Grace constant diversion, which I wish you may use with a 

 due regard to your health. I don't like your unfortunate 

 companion, the cold, which so often returns, and I am sure 

 your early rising, too early, which your country sports re- 

 quire, conduces very much, especially at this foggy time of 

 the year, to disorder your constitution. It would please me, 

 my Lord, if your Grace had a strength of body adequate to 

 the levellness of your mind. Your neglecting your person 

 and not checking the growth of your beard made me smile, 

 but at the same time brought to my remembrance the 

 character Horace, in the twelfth ode of his first book, verse 

 forty-one, giveth of that great Roman Curius, ' incomptis 

 capillis,' which is much fitter for the field than the drawing- 

 room. Your description how you amuse yourself in the 

 evening with the heroicall actions of the hounds diverts me 

 as much as, and even more than, if I had been present at 

 the game. Indeed the verse of Martial, concerning living 

 twice by remembering the past life, is, in my opinion, very 

 pleasantly similar to a second hunting at night, by recounting 

 what hath passed in the day and what feats have been per- 

 formed between the huntsmen and the hounds. 



" But, my Lord, since your Grace is so passionately fond of 

 that diversion, I'll endeavour to gratify you in it and by next 

 post send you a present of the best pack of dogs you can 

 possibly purchase, and withal acquaint you with their several 



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