I have a gardener that has lived with me above five 

 and twenty years; he is incredibly ignorant and a mule. 

 ... I have offered him fifteen pounds to leave me, and 

 when he pleads that he is old and that nobody else will 

 take him, I plead that I am old too, and that it is rather 

 hard that I am not to have a few flowers, or a little fruit 

 as long as I live. 



— ^HoBACE Walpole to the Eabij of Habcoijbt, Straw- 

 berry Hill, Oct. 18, 1777. 



