The letter from the intermediate friend to Nash, is as follows.

Dear Nash,

London, October 8, 1760.

TW

WO pofts ago I received a letter from Quin, the old player, covering one to my Lord, which he left open for my perufal, which after reading he defired I might feal up and deliver. The requeft he makes is fo extraordinary, that it has induced me to fend you the of his letter to my Lord, which is as follows.

My dear Lord,

OLI

copy

Bath, October 3, 1760.

LD beaux Knafh has mead himselfe fo diffagreeable to all the companey that comes here to Bath that the corperatian of this city have it now under thier confideration to remove him from beeing master of the cereymoines, fhould he be continuead the inhabitants of thiss city will be rueind, as the best companey declines to come to Bath on his acc".

Give me leave to fhow to your Lords'hip how he beheaved at the firs't ball he had here thifs' feafon which was Tus'day las't. A younge Lady was as'ked to dance a minueat she begg the gent" would be pleased to exquife here, as' fhe did not chuse to dance; upon thifs' old Nash called out fo as to be head by all the companey in the room G- dam yo Madam what buisness have here if yo yo do not dance, upon which the Lady was fo afrighted, fhe rose and danced, the refs'et of the companey was fo much offended at the rudnefs of Nash that not one Lady more, would dance a minueat that night. In the country dances' no perfon of note danced except two boys' Lords S- and T

the rest of the companey that danced waire only the families of all the habberdas'hers' machinukes and inkeepers in the three kingdoms' brushed up and colexted togither.

I have known upon fuch an occaifon as' thifs' feventeen Dutchefs' and Contifs' to

be

be at the opening of the ball at Bath now not one. This man by his' pride and extravigancis has out lived his' reafein it would be happy for thiss' city that he was ded; and is, now only fitt to reed Shirlock upon death by which he may feave his foul and gaine more than all the proffits he can make, by his white hatt, suppose it was to be died red;

The fav' I have now to reques't by what I now have wrote yo; is' that your Lordfhip will be fo kind as to fpeke to Mr. Pitt, for to recommend me to the corperatian of this city to fuccede this old finner as mafter of the cerremonies and yo will much oblige,

My Lord your

Lord' and Hu

Obt Sert.

N. B. There were fome other private matters and offers in Quin's letter to my Lord, which do not relate to you.

Here Nash, if I may be permitted the ufe of a polite and fashionable phrase, was humm'd; but he experienced fuch rubs as these, and a thousand other mortifications every day. He found poverty now denied him the indulgence not only of his favourite follies, but of his favourite virtues. The poor now folicited him in vain; he was himfelf a more pitiable object than they. The child of the public seldom has a friend, and he who once exercised his wit at the expence of others, muft naturally have enemies. Exafperated at last to the highest degree, an unaccountable whim ftruck him; poor Nash was refolved to become an author; he, who in the vigour of manhood, was incapable of the task, now at the impotent age of eighty-fix, was determined to write his own hiftory! from the many fpecimens already given of his ftyle, the reader will not much regret that the hiftorian was interrupted in his defign. Yet as Montaigne obferves, as the adventures

of

of an infant, if an infant could inform us of them, would be pleasing; fo the life of a Beau, if a beau could write, would certainly serve to regale curiofity.

Whether he really intended to put this design in execution, or did it only to alarm the nobility, I will not take upon me to determine; but certain it is, that his friends went about collecting subscriptions for the work, and he received several encouragements from fuch as were willing to be politely charitable. It was thought by many, that this history would reveal the intrigues of a whole age; that he had numberless secrets to disclose; but they never confidered, that perfons of public character, like him, were the most unlikely in the world to be made partakers of those fecrets which people defired the public should not know. In fact, he had few fecrets to discover, and thofe he had, are now buried with him in the

grave.