mending yourself to him: and I shall, perhaps, give you the character of a vigilant overseer, if I find you be not altered since you were last in my service.

Now to be serious. I shall send you some venison soon. You shall know next Monday when it sets out; and you are to dispose of it thus:

To Dr. Helsham, four cuts.

Dr. Delany, four.

Mrs. Helsham, one and a half.

Mrs. Whiteway, ditto.

Lady Acheson, because of her good stomach, three scruples.

Mr. Worrall, a pound and a quarter.

Pray let them be all wrapped up in clean paper, and sent to the several above-mentioned persons. Dine the rest with your own company.

upon

I have got you a mare, a very easy trotter: she shall go up with the venison. Whether she will be shy at your city objects, I know not: here she is not in the least. Your best way will be to let your servant ride her. She is one of my own rearing, sprung of a good natured family. If you like, she costs you nothing but a low bow when you come to Cavan. I have a chaise just finished to the lining, in Dublin, made by a man so much in my debt: it will be your best way to come down in it. I tell you a project I have, which I believe will do: my scholars are to club and build me a little library in my garden. The lime and stones (freestone) are in my own fields, and building is dogcheap here.

I beseech you let me know how soon you will be here, that all things may be to your heart's desire: such venison! such mutton! such small beer! such chickens such butter! such trouts! such pouts!

such

such ducks! such beef! such fish such eels! such turkies! such fields! such groves! such lakes! such ladies! such fruit! such potatoes! such raspberries! such bilberries! and such a boat as Mr. Hamilton's, were never yet seen in any one county yet!

God Almighty bless you, and send you safe to our Elysium. My service to Mrs. Whiteway, and to every body in Dublin, man, woman, and child. I am, with all respect,

Your most obedient and very humble servant,
THOMAS SHERIDAN.

FROM THE EARL OF ORRERY*.

LIMERICK, JULY 18, 1735.

OFF break to forced and, interrupted! Alas! alas! Bays quoth i'faith simile* good a. Paris at Victoire de Place the round driving Berlin a of noise the like, brains my round roll that head my in words of jumble of kind a have I so and: sex or person of distinction either without, about promiscuously ears his lent nineteenth the but, noisy very were which of eighteen, table at day to people

nineteen were we.

Strong get cannot I when beer small with myself contenting ever, moon the with satisfied be to learn will I but: again sun the see never shall we believe I; summer than winter like more much and, indeed weather terrible is this O. Physician a other the, divine a one, doctors two the to fashion and

* This letter is to be read backward. N.

VOL XIII.

Q

invention

invention own my communicate will you hope and, English writing of sample new a you offer here I, Latin writing of method new a me teach to kind so been have you as but. Honour and atchievements of search in far thus come am and, Mancha la from out set am I that know you let to is this. You to inconvenient be may writing that imagine I when it curb always will I, Dean Mr. Good,

great so ever be

you from hear to desire
My Let.

FROM MR. MOTTE.

HONOURED SIR,

LONDON, JULY 31, 1735.

I HAVE not had an opportunity of writing to you otherwise than by the post for above a twelvemonth; and though in that time I did trouble you with a letter or two relating to Mr. Lancelot's business, yet I thought proper to mention only what related to that particular, considering I was then under the hands of the law, whence I was not discharged till the last day of the last term. I do not doubt but you have heard before now, that Mrs. Barber was discharged at the same time.

I desired, therefore, Mrs. Hyde* to deliver this to your own hand, and make bold to trouble you with an account of some transactions which have happened within these two years, which I have long wished for the pleasure of doing by word of * Widow to Mr. Hyde, bookseller in Dublin. F.

mouth,

mouth, in hopes my behaviour would be excused at least (if not approved) by you, the assurance whereof I should receive with the utmost satisfaction.

Soon after Mr. Pilkington had received the twenty guineas you ordered me to pay him, the Life and Character was offered me, though not by his own hands, yet by his means, as I was, afterward convinced by many circumstances: one was, that he corrected the proof sheets with his own hand; and as he said he had seen the original of that piece, I could not imagine he would have suffered your name to be put to it, if it had not been genuine. When I found, by your advertisement and the letter you were pleased to write to me, that I had been deceived by him, I acted afterward with more reserve, and refused a pamphlet about Norton's will, which he pretended came from an eminent hand. It was bought afterward by another bookseller, who printed it, and lost money by it.

He could not forbear observing my coldness, and applied to Mr. Gilliver about the copy of verses * for which we were all brought into trouble ; and, by the way, when once an affair was communicated to two persons, it was not in the power of any one, how just and faithful soever, to answer for its being kept a secret. It was published three months before it was taken notice of: and when the printer was taken up, and had named Gilliver

* See Swift's "Poem to a Lady, who desired the Author to write some verses upon her in the heroic style." Mrs. Barber was taken into custody by the king's messenger for this poem, and examined before the privy council. N.

as the bookseller, and it was reported a warrant was out against G. and he was likely to be apprehended next morning, we two had a meeting over night, and I promised to take the advice of a gentleman of sense and honour, whose name I did not mention to him, and to meet G. early the next morning at a certain tavern to consult farther. Accordingly I went to a gentleman in Cork-street, and from thence to the tavern we had appointed to meet at, where, after I had waited above an hour, a message was sent me that I need stay no longer, for Mr. G. was gone to Westminster, and would not come. I went to see him in the messenger's hands; but he was so closely watched by a couple of sharp sluts, the messenger's daughters, that I could say nothing to him, but about indifferent matters. The consequence was, he was examined, and made a confession, like like poor Dr. Yalden's, of all that he knew, and more too: naming Mr. Pilkington first and then myself; which last, as many people have told me, was unnecessary; only, as he before said, he was resolved, if he came into trouble, I should have a share of it, though I offered, in case he would not name me, that I would bear one half of his expences. This confession of his, together with his bearing the character of a wealthy man, exposed him to an information; but as it was not my business to be industrious in recollecting what passed three months before, I could not remember any thing that could affect me or any body else.

I am sorry for the trouble this has caused to poor Mrs. Barber. I saw her the other day: she

was