and even by the great Mr Law.* Amongst other things, I had the honour to carry an Irish lady† to court, that was admired beyond all the ladies in France for her beauty. She had great honours done her. The hussar himself was ordered to bring her the king's cat to kiss. Her name is Bennet. Among other folks I saw your old friend Lord Bolingbroke, who asked for you. He looks just as he did. Your friends here are in good health; not changed in their sentiments towards you. I left my two girls in France with their uncle, which was my chief business. I do not know that I have any friends on your side, beside Mr Ford, to whom give my service, and to Dr Parnell and Mr Jervis.

If it be possible for you, obey the contents of the enclosed; which, I suppose, is a kind invitation. The dragon is just as he was, only all his old habits ten times stronger upon him than ever. Let me beg of you not to forget me, for I can never cease to love and esteem you; being ever,

Your most affectionate and obliged
humble servant,

Jo. ARBUTHNOT.

The projector of the Mississippi scheme in France. + The celebrated beauty Miss Nelly Bennet, on whom the lines were written, which begin,

For when as Nelly cane to France,

(Invited by her cousins,) &c.--See Vol. XIII. p. 347.

In these verses, which were written probably by Arbuthnot himself, the incident respecting the king's tabby cat is faithfully commemorated.'

FROM THE DUKE OF WHARTON.

DEAR DEAN,

Monday Morning.

It

I SHALL embark for England to-morrow. would be necessary for me to take leave of Lord Molesworth on many accounts; and as Young* is engaged in town, I must infallibly go alone, unless your charity extends itself to favour me with your company there this morning.

I beg you would send me your answer, and believe me sincerely your faithful friend and servant, WHARTON. P. S. If you condescend so far, come to me about eleven of the clock.

Sir Herbert Croft thus records the patronage extended by this libertine nobleman to the author of the Night Thoughts :

"Wharton, after he became ennobled, did not drop the son of his old friend. In him, during the short time he lived, Young found a patron; and, in his dissolute descendant, a friend and a companion. The marquis died in April 1715. In the beginning of the next year the young marquis set out upon his travels, from which he returned in about a twelvemonth. The beginning of 1717, carried him to Ireland; where, says the Biographia, on the score of his extraordinary qualities, he had the honour done him of being admitted, though under age, to take his seat in the house of lords."---Johnson's Works, by Murphy, Lond. 1806, 8. Vol. XI. p. 297. Young accompanied this extraordinary personage to Ireland. It does not appear how Swift, who "hated Wharton like a toad," came to extend his favour and intimacy to his son.

FROM DR ARBUTHNOT.

DEAR BROTHER,

London, Dec. 11, 1718.

FOR So I had called you before, were it not for a certain reverence I pay to deans. I find you wish both me and yourself to live to be old and rich. The second goes in course along with the first: but you cannot give seven (that is the tithe of seventy) good reasons for either. Glad at my heart should I be, if Dr Helsham* or I could do you any good. My service to Dr Helsham; he does not want my advice in the case. I have done good lately to a patient and a friend in that complaint of a vertigo, by cinnabar of antimony and castor, made up into boluses with confect. of alkermes. I had no great opinion of the cinnabar; but trying it amongst other things, my friend found good of this prescription. I had tried the castor alone before, not with so much success. Small quantities of tinctura sacra, now and then, will do you good. There are twenty lords; I believe, would send you horses, if they knew how. One or two have offered to me, who, I believe, would be as good as their word. Mr Rowe, the poet-laureat, is dead, and has left a damned jade of a Pegasus. I will answer for it, he will not do as your mare did, having more need of Lucan's present, than Sir Richard Blackmore. † I would fain have

A great friend and medical adviser of Dean Swift. Some of his verses are to be found with those of Swift, Sheridan, and Delany.

of

In the Battle of the Books, Lucan gives Blackmore a pair spurs, and the modern presents the ancient with a bridle.

Pope get a patent for life for the place, with a power of putting in Durfey his deputy.

I sent for the two Rosingraves, and examined the matter of fact. The younger had no concern in the note of 201. The elder says that he thought the 201. due to him, for the pains and some expense he had been at about the young fellow; and his master Bethel, who had given Mr Rosingrave, the elder, ten guineas before, thought the same reasonable. He says, he did not take it by way of bribe, but as his due; and did never intend to make use of it but when the young fellow was in circumstances to pay him. The younger Rosingrave was begged and entreated both by Bethel and the young fellow (who would not go without him) to accompany him to Ireland; and did believe that bearing his expenses, which was done by Bethel, was the least he could take. There is one thing in this fellow's paper that I know to be a lie, his being ill used by Rosingrave at Lord Carnarvon's. He sung there, I believe, once or twice for his own instruction or trial; and Lord Carnarvon gave him a guinea. He went sometimes to hear the music for his improvement. This is what they tell me. However, I have reprimanded the elder Rosingrave for taking the note. When this fellow came first to town, I thought his voice might do, but found it did not improve. It is mighty hard to get such a sort of a voice. There is an excellent one in the king's chapel; but he will not go. The top one of the world is in Bristol choir; and I believe might be managed; though your Rosingrave is really much improved; so do not totally exclude the young fellow till you have more maturely considered the matter. The dragon is come to town, and was entering

*

*The Earl of Oxford.

upon the detail of the reasons of state that kept him from appearing at the beginning, &c. when I did believe at the same time, it was only a law of nature, to which the dragon is most subject, Remanere in statu in quo est, nisi deturbetur ab extrinseco. Lord Harley, and Lady Harley give you their service. Lewis is in the country with Lord Bathurst, and has writ me a most dreadful story of a mad dog that bit their huntsman; since which accident, I am told, he has shortened his stirrups three bores; they were not long before. Lord Oxford presented him with two horses. He has sold one, and sent the other to grass, avec beaucoup de sagesse. I do not believe the story of Lord Bolingbroke's marriage, for I have been consulted about the lady; and, by some defects in her constitution, I should not think her appetite lay much toward matrimony. There is some talk about reversing his attainder; but I wish he may not be disappointed. I am for all precedents of that kind. They say the pretender is likely to have his chief minister impeached too. He has his wife prisoner like a **** The footmen of the house of commons chose their speaker, and impeach, &c. I think it were proper, that all monarchs should serve their apprenticeships as pretenders, that we might discover their defects. Did you ever expect to live to see the Duke of Ormond fighting against the protestant succession, and the Duke of Berwick fighting for it? France, in confederacy with England, to reduce the exorbitant power of Spain? I really think there is no such good reason for living till seventy, as curiosity. You say you are ready to resent it as an affront, if I thought a beautiful lady a curiosity in Ireland; but pray is it an affront to say that a lady hardly known or observed for her beauty in Ireland is a curiosity in France? All deans naturally fall into paralogisms.