Your kind inquiries in relation to myself, only justify taking up your time with so insignificant a subject, which I shall be particular upon merely in obedience to your commands. I have no obligations to the court, nor am likely to have any; I have to my lord Shelburne, whose house in London is my settled habitation; though I am afraid two years will put an end to my good fortune, the lease of the house, which is an old one, being then expired; and so perhaps may be that of my life, which I have been long tired of. Added to my lord Shelburne's favours, I have great and many, more than I can express here, to the duchess of Buckingham, whose table is my constant one, and her coach oftener mine than I ask for it; beside fetching me every day, and bringing me home, makes me share in publick amusements without expense; and in summer the variety of change of air, which her station empowers her to take, and more her inclination, to impart to her friends the benefit of, who cannot fail of being so to her, if they have merit enough to be capable of being obliged by the most agreeable sincere manner to engage approbation and gratitude: then I hope you think I have enough to do justice, both in my thoughts and actions, to one so worthy of it. I am, sir, your sincerely obliged and affectionate humble servant, H. PRATT. FROM FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN. APRIL 5, 1735. PART the first, you order me to give up my se . cretaryship; and part the second, called postscript, you employ me about Dr. Sheridan's exchange, when the letters for it must have been at Dublin long before yours came away. I was just thinking, that you was a little upon the dear joy *; but to be sure, you were in the right, for what signified my secretaryship when I had no business? The countess of Suffolk did not give up the first employment at court, for she had no other than mistress of the robes, being 4001. a year, which the duchess of Dorset had quitted to her, there being no lady of the bedchamber's place vacant, and it not being quite proper for a countess to continue bedchamber woman. As to her part about Gay, that I cleared to you long ago: for, to my certain knowledge, no woman was ever a better friend than she by many ways proved herself to him. As to what you hint about yourself, as I am wholly ignorant what it is you mean, I can say nothing upon it. And as to the question, Whether you should congratulate or condole? I believe, you may do either, or both, and not be in the wrong: for I truly think she was heartily sorry, to be obliged, by ill usage, to quit a master and mistress that she had served so justly, and loved so well. However, she has now VOL. XIII. * An Irish expression. much much more ease and liberty, and accordingly her health better. Mrs. Floyd has a cough every winter, and generally so bad, that she often frightens me for the consequences. My saucy niece* presents her service to parson Swift. The duchess of Dorset is gone to Bath with lady Lambert, for her health; she has not been long enough there yet to find the good effects of the waters: but as they always did agree with her, I have great hopes they will now quite cure her colick. In all likelihood, you are weary by this time of reading, and I am of writing such a long letter; so adieu, my dear dean. FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CASHELL†. DEAR SIR, CASHELL, APRIL 7, 1735. I SUPPOSE by this time you have been informed, that Mr. Dunkin was ordained here last Thursday, and that your recommendations got the better of my prejudices to his unhappy genius; which, I hope will in some degree convince you, that your power over me is not yet quite worn out. *Mary, eldest daughter, and one of the coheirs of Thomas Chambers of Hanworth, in Middlesex, esq., by lady Mary Berkeley, sister to earl Berkeley and to lady Betty Germain. She married, April 1736, lord Vere Beauclerc, afterward lord Vere. + Dr. Theophilus Bolton. The reverend Mr. Dunkin, the author of several poetical pieces that have been well received. It is one of the greatest evils that attends those whom fortune has forsaken, that their friends forsake them too: and let me tell you, that your not seeing me the whole winter I was last in Dublin, was not a less mortification to me, than all the hard sayings of the great parliament orators. However, I must own your taking any occasion to write to me at all, has made some amends; for though you seem designedly to cover it, I think I perceive some little marks of that former kindness, which I once pleased myself to have had a share in with your lawyer friends. When I conversed with politicians, I learned, that it was not prudent to seem fond of what one most desires: for which reason, I would not tell you, that if this accident of your poetical friend should open a way to our frequent meeting together again, and being put upon the old foot, as when I was your subject at St. Patrick's*, I should think myself the happiest man in the world; but this I will say, that if it falls out so, this last heavy period of my life will be much more tolerable than it is at present. I am now wholly employed in digging up rocks, and making the way easier to my church; which if I can succeed in, I design to repair a very venerable old fabrick, that was built here in the time of our ignorant (as we are pleased to call them) ancestors. wish this age had a little of their piety, though we gave up, instead of it, some of our immense erudition. What if you spent a fortnight here this sum I * Dr. Bolton was rector of St. Werburgh's, and chancellor of the cathedral of St. Patrick's. He was made bishop of Clonfert, Sept. 12, 1722; translated to Elphin, April 16, 1724; and to Cashell, Jan. 6, 1729. He died in 1744. mer? I have laid aside all my country politicks, sheriffs elections, feasts, &c. And I fancy, it would not be disagreeable to you, to see king Cormack's chapel, his bedchamber, &c. all built, beyond controversy, above eight hundred years ago, when he was king, as well as archbishop. I really intend to lay out a thousand pounds to preserve this old church; and I am sure, you would be of service to posterity, if you assisted me in the doing of it; at least, if you approved the design, you would give the greatest pleasure, I assure you, to your most affectionate and faithful humble servant, THEO. CASHELL TO MR. THOMAS BEACH *, Merchant in Wrexham, Denbighshire; to be left at the Customhouse Warehouse in Chester, and given to Stephen Lovel, esq., collector of the customs in Chester. SIR, DUBLIN, APRIL 12, 1735. AFTER the fate of all Poets, you are no favourite of Fortune; for your letter of March 31 did not come * Mr. Thomas Beach, the person to whom his letter is addressed, was a wine merchant at Wrexham, in Denbighshire. He was a man of learning, of great humanity, of an easy fortune, and was much respected. He published in the year 1737, in 4to, " Eugenio, or "Virtuous and happy Life," a poem inscribed to Mr. Pope; a work by no means destitute of poetical merit. He is said by some to have entertained very blamable notions in religion; but this ар pears |