232 Unpublished Letter of Thomson. [Oct. 1, 
Fam’d as Miss Lesbia’s bird in verse so oft 
Recorded, or the rabbits ofMellToft ! 
Hail pig! at Tunbridge born and bred, 
Who singlest out his L-p there, 
Event that round the region spread, 
And made the gaping millions stare : 
And strange it was to see upon my word, 
A pig for ever trotting with my lord. 
Thrice happy hog ! with Mrs. Joan,* 
Who, in a chariot, cheek byjole. 
Did’st Jehu-like, from Tunbridge Town 
To Mount’s enchanting mansions roll ; 
Where to thy levee thousands did repair, 
With nine fat aldermen and Mr. Mayor. 
The mayor and aldermen polite, 
Swore that without fee or purchase, 
If so his lordship thoft it right. 
They’d choose thee, gentle swine, for 
burgess, 
Thank ye, replied bis lordship j but ods- 
snigs! 
Tho’ asses sit, ’tis never granted pigs. 
ORIGINAL LETTER of JAMES THOM¬ 
SON, the Poet , to Mr. paterson, 
found a?nong his papers in the cabinet 
of Sir Andrew mitchel, and 
transmitted by Sir william forbes 
of Craigie Par and Finhay , hart, to 
the Earl of buchan, October 8, 
1791, and by him presented to Mr. 
STEPHENS.f 
DEAR PATERSON, 
In tlie first place, and previous to 
my letter, I must recommend to 
your favour and protection, Mr. James 
Smith, searcher in St. Christopher’s; 
and I beg of you, as occasion shall 
serve, and you find he merits it, to 
advance him in the business of the 
customs. He is warmly recommended 
to me by Sargent, who in verity turns 
out one of the best men of our youthful 
acquaintance, honest, honourable, 
friendly, and generous. If we are not 
to oblige one another, life becomes a 
paltry, selfish affair, a pitiful morsel in 
a corner. Sargent is so happily mar¬ 
ried, that I could almost say,—the 
same case happen to us all. 
That I have not answered several 
letters of yours, is not owing to the 
want of friendship, and the sincerest 
regard for you ; but you know me well 
enough to account for my silence, with¬ 
out my saying any more upon that 
head; besides, I have very little to 
say, that is worthy to be transmitted 
over the great ocean. The world either 
* My lady’s waiting woman, 
f This letter appears, from the news it 
contains relating to the siege of Mastricht, 
&c. to have been written in the beginning 
of April, 1748 . 
futilizes so much, or we grow so dead 
to it, that its transactions make but 
feeble impressions on us. Retirement 
and nature are more and more my 
passion every day. And now, even 
now, the charming time comes on: 
Heaven is just upon the point, or ra¬ 
ther in the very act, of giving earth a 
green gown. The voice of the night¬ 
ingale is heard in our lane. You must 
know, that I have enlarged my rural 
domain, much to the same dimensions 
you have done yours. The tw o fields 
next to me, from the first of which I 
have walled—no, no,—paled in, about 
as much as my garden consisted of be¬ 
fore ; so that the w r alk runs around the 
hedge, where you may figure me walk¬ 
ing any time of the day, and sometimes 
under night. For you, 1 imagine you 
reclining under cedars, andpalmettoes; 
and there enjoying more magnificent 
slumbers than are knowni to the pale 
climates of the north; slumbers ren¬ 
dered awful and divine by the solemn 
stillness and deep fervours of the torrid 
moon! At other limes I image you 
drinking punch in groves of lime or 
orange trees, gathering pine-apples 
from hedges as commonly as we may 
blackberries, poetizing under lofty 
laurels, or making love under full- 
spread myrtles. 
But to lower my style a little—As I 
am such a genuine lover of gardening, 
why don’t you remember me in that 
instance, and send me some seeds of 
things that might succeed here during 
the summer, though they cannot per¬ 
fect their seeds sufficiently, in this, to 
them, ungenial climate, to propagate. 
In the which case is calliloo; that, 
produced from the seed it bore here, 
came up puny, ricketly, and good for 
nothing. There are other things cer¬ 
tainly w r ith you not yet brought over 
hither, that might flourish here in the 
summer-time, and live tolerably well, 
provided they be sheltered in an hos¬ 
pitable stove or green-house during the 
winter. You will give me no small 
pleasure by sending me from time to 
time some of these seeds, if it w r ere no 
more but to amuse me in making the 
trial. With regard to the brother gar¬ 
deners, you ought to know, that, as 
they are half vegetable, the animal 
part of them will never have spirit 
enough to consent to the transplanting 
of the vegetable into distant dangerous 
climates. They, happily for themselves, 
have no other idea, but to dig on here, 
eat, drink, and sleep. 
As 
