him not be difturbed, for he could not be injured till the death of Mrs. Rudd, and her life was better than his. So I comforted and advifed him.

I know not how you intend to serve me, but I expect a letter to-morrow, and I do not fee why Queeney fhould forget me.

Manucci muft, I believe, come down without me. I am afhamed of having delayed him fo long, without being able to fix a day; but you know, and muft make him know, that the fault is not mine.

***** goes away on Thursday, very well fatisfied with his journey. Some great men have promised to obtain him a place, and then a fig for my father and his new wife.

I have not yet been at the Borough, nor know when I fhall go, unless you fend me. There is in the exhibition of Exeter Exchange, a picture of the houfe at Streatham, by one Laurence, I think, of the Borough. fomething, or fomething like.

This is

Mr. Welch fets out for France to-morrow, with his younger daughter. He has leave of abfence for a year, and feems very much delighted with the thought of travelling, and the hope of health.

I am, c.

LETTER CL.

To Mrs. THRAL E.

DEAR MADAM,

my third letter.

HIS is

TH

May 16, 1776.

Well, fure I fhall

have fomething to-morrow. Our bufinefs ftands ftill. The Doctor fays I must not go; and yet my stay does him no good. His folicitor fays he is fick, but I fufpect he is fullen. The Doctor, in the mean time, has his head as full as yours at an election. ings and preferments, as if he were in want with twenty children, run in his head. But a man must have his head on fomething, fmall or great.

Liv

For my part, I begin to settle and keep company with grave aldermen. I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Counfellor Lee, his brother. There fat you the while, fo fober, with your Ws and your H and my aunt and her turnfpit; and when they are gone, you think by chance on Johnfon, what is he doing? What should he be doing?

Y 3

— S,

doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes upon the Scots. Such, Madam, are the viciffitudes of things. And there was Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, that works the futile pictures, who is a great admirer of your conversation. She faw you at Mr. Shaw's, at the election time. She is a Staffordshire woman, and I am to go and fee her. Staffordshire is the nursery of art, here they grow up till they are tranfplanted to London.

Yet it is ftrange that I hear nothing from you; I hope you are not angry, or fick. Perhaps you are gone without me for fpite to fee places. That is natural enough, for evil is very natural, but I fhall vex, unless it does you good.

Stevens feems to be connected with Tyrwhitt in publishing Chatterton's poems; he came very anxiously to know the refult of our enquiries, and though he says he always thought them forged, is not well pleased to find us fo fully convinced.

I have written to Manucci to find his own way, for the law's delay makes it difficult for me to guess when I fhall be able to be, otherwise than by my inclination, Madam,

Your, &c.

LETTER CLI.

Mrs. THRALE to Dr. JOHNSON.

I

DEAR SIR,

Bath, May 16, 1776.

HAD no notion of your ftaying away from us fo long, or you should not furely have wanted a letter; you might reafonably expect, and claim indeed my best thanks for the fweet vifit paid five days ago to my babies: a most friendly action in you, and a most polite one in dear Dr. Taylor, and what I had never been hoping for. All unexpected pleasures are doubly precious.

Grata fuperveniet quæ non fperabitur hora.

When one has worn out one's fancy in anti-cipation of any event, the impreffion it makes muft neceffarily be weaker I fuppofe, and those pains, however piercing, for which we have time to prepare ourselves, do not break the conftitution in pieces like a sudden shock that comes upon us unawares. I ought above all people to understand these matters from harsh experience of the fevereft forrow. My

mind, by the death of fuch a mother and of fuch a fon, resembles a nation wafted by famine for three years together, and then shattered to final confufion by an earthquake.

Of paft afflictions, however, we will now talk no longer. Mr. Thrale is recovering from his fhare of the diftrefs, and it is my duty to accelerate, not retard, his return to cheerfulness and good-humour,

Dr. Taylor fhall carry his caufe. I will have him carry it. 'Tis a good caufe probably; and if it is not, women (you tell me) never ftop at integrity;-and as I understand the laws of friendship much better than I do the laws of Great Britain, will decide in a truly female manner, that he fhall carry his caufefor this truly female reafon-it was so very fweet in him to go and fee my little girls.

Count Manucci would wait feven years to come with you; fo do not difappoint the man, but bring him along with you. His delight in your company is like Boniface's exultation, when the 'fquire speaks Latin; for understand you he certainly cannot, No flattery perhaps is more delicate however, or more pleasing than that of exciting admiration where one is not able to gratify curiofity; and all