worse served by the post, than we are in this country. By the return, there is no giving an answer to Gloucester, or London, or anywhere else. Indeed, I believe, it goes but three times a-week to Gloucester, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The natives are come down upon me: but I must say a word to Miss Selwyn. THE REV. DR. WARNER TO GEORGE SELWYN. Oct. 31st [1779]. DEAR SIR, THIS is in answer to the letter you wrote me last night, which I have not yet opened, because I have not yet received it; nor can I these six hours, when it will be too late to write. It is all very well, sir; I know what you will say; -that you shall not fail to keep to your time, and that you will give me a line to the Angel by Monday night's post, informing me what route you have fixed upon, that I may not have to wait at Oxford, half hour after half hour, for your coming. I shall not fail, on my part, but will take care that you have a very good dinner (the perch boiled) ready at three; and the best room, the best beds, &c., according to your never-sufficiently-to-be-admired general direction, tout ce qu'il y a de mieux. I have observed with pleasure that you have been led insensibly into a better practice; that of writing, as one always should, your participles and preterites, as the word I have just used, "observed." Surely it is handsomer in itself, and civiller than "observ'd," and it is really less trouble to the writer. I should like to know what words in the English language can be abbreviated without impropriety but Mr. and Esq.? One may, perhaps, write don't, can't, I'll, you'll, &c., in certain very colloquial phrases, where there would be a stiffness in writing them at full length. No! do, dear sir, give it up. Were any but you to send me a letter with Revd., instead of Reverend, I would send it back. The Chancellor never abbreviated that word, and what signifies talking of the old Hubblebubble Duke of Newcastle, the old applewoman! * * Thomas, first Duke of Newcastle, the celebrated Minister, of whose ridiculous character and official incompetency so many amusing anecdotes have been related. "For sixteen years," says Coxe, "during which he was placed at the head of affairs, England did not recover from the weakness of counsels, fluctuation of opinion, and deficiency of spirit, which marked his Administration; until the mediocrity of his talents, and the indecision of his character were controlled by the ascendancy of Pitt." Lord Wilmington said of him, "He loses half an hour every morning, and runs after it during the rest of the day without being able to overtake it." George the Second also observed of the Duke, "I am compelled to take the Duke of Newcastle to be my Minister, though he is not fit to be chamberlain in the smallest court of Germany." The Duke died on the 17th of November, 1768, at the age of seventy-five. I was hunting yesterday on Bay Spavin, whom I could not leave in Lincolnshire, as I was obliged to ride up with Cropley, and he astonished me with the discovery of qualities I never knew he possessed; agile as a spaniel, and resolute as a lion. He wants thrashing along the road, but in the field, where I took him yesterday for the first time, he is all animation; and as his black mane from his arched neck floated in the wind, whilst he champed the bit and pawed the ground, he attracted the admiration of all beholders. What a pity that he is not young and sound! He would be worth a mint of money, and make one of the best hunters in the kingdom. I have been preaching this morning, and am going to dine,-where ?—in the afternoon. We shall bolt the door and (but hush! softly! let me whisper it, for it is a violent secret, and I shall be blown to the devil if I blab, as in this house we are "Noah and his precise family ")— and play at cards. I beseech you not to let Mrs. Webb know it, or I should suffer in her opinion, which would make me very unhappy. Oh ! how I long to see you all. My sweet little Queen and the dear lady whom you used so ill and aspersed! My little Queen, rejoice to see your Snail (as he will to see his little Queen), and let your eye be herald to your heart. THE REV. DR. WARNER TO GEORGE SELWYN. Friday night, November [1779]. O, SIR!—as our little Queen says,—O, sir! you are so good, and do so heap favours upon me, that, delighted as I am with them, I cannot help at the same time being frightened. When I recollect that I have nothing more to lose, my fright subsides, cantabit vacuus, &c.;* and you, though you have much to lose, may sing too; at least, if you can be content with the secure possession of your jewel, and the full assurance that you never will, shall, or can be robbed of her; and with such numerous and powerful resources in your hand, it is to be wanting to yourself to doubt of it. I wish you had transcribed me the unwelcome parts of Minifie's letter. I am inclined to hope that your anxiety has aggravated the features of them. But I do not know why I say "hope;" as, upon reflection, I think that it would be better; so perfectly convinced am I that they would be foiled in everything they could attempt, that it were better they should come to extremities at once (unpleasant as *Nocte iter ingressus gladium contumque timebis, Juvenal, Sat. 10. The needy traveller, serene and gay, Walks the wild heath, and sings his toil away. Dr. Johnson, Imitation of 10th Sat. of Juv. it would be for a time), that you might be easy and happy for the rest of your life. A fico for Madame Mellario, and all her cagoterie! Have you not got possession? what can she do? what can any of them do, to a man resolved, in a good cause, and all upon the defensive, with powerful friends, and non deficiente crumenâ,* in such a country as this? Let them all come hither after her, and they may as well set a herd of cows to catch a hare, as hope to touch the hem of the garment of my little lapwing, and little white thing. But more of this when we meet; which, as you say that you shall depart à tous evénemens, on Tuesday, I flatter myself will not be later than Wednesday. I have your letters of yesterday and Wednesday tonight. Woodstock, as you seem to think it will be out of the way, we will leave doubtful. Do not let the ladies come there with an expectation of seeing the chateau in the morning, for there is no doubt but that they will be disappointed, as it can be seen only between the strange hours of three and five in the afternoon, unless you should do, what I hardly * Quid voveat dulci nutricula majus alumno, Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumenâ. Horace, Epist. 4, lib. 1, v. 10. For her darling child, What greater blessings asks the doting nurse, |