think it will not be overset this bout. My love to G-. We shall all meet from the east, and from the last) be happy together I am,

south, and (as at the kind respects to a few, Truly yours,

XCVIII.

dear H.

L. STERNE.

- My

DEAR L.;

TO A. LE, ESQ.

-

Coxwould, June 7, 1767.

I HAD not been many days at this peaceful cottage before your letter greeted me with the seal of friendship, and most cordially do I thank you for so kind a proof of your good will I was truly anxious to hear of the recovery of my sentimental friend but I would not write to enquire after her, unless I could have sent her the testimony without the tax, for even how-d'yes to invalids, or those that have lately been so, either call to mind what is past or what may return at least I find it so. I am as happy as a prince, at Coxwould and I wish you could see in how princely a manner I live 'tis a land of plenty. I sit down alone to venison, fish, and wild-fowl, or a couple of fowls or ducks, with curds and strawberries, and cream, and all the simple plenty which a rich valley (under Hamilton Hills) can produce with a clean cloth on my table and a bottle of wine on my right hand to drink your health. I have a hundred hens and chickens about my yard and not a parishioner catches a hare, or a rabbit, or a trout, but he brings it as an offering to me. If solitude would cure a love-sick heart, I would give you an invitation but absence and time lessen no attachment which virtue inspires. I am in high spirits care never enters

this cottage I take the air every day in my postchaise, with two long-tailed horses - they turn out good ones; and as to myself, I think I am better upon the whole for the medicines and regimen I submitted to in town May you, dear L-, want neither the one nor the other!

Yours truly,

L. STERNE.

XCIX. TO THE SAME.

Coxwould, June 30, 1767.

I AM in still better health, my dear L-e, than when I wrote last to you, owing I believe to my riding out every day with my friend H-, whose castle lies near the sea, and there is a beach as even as a mirror, of five miles in length before it where we daily run races in our chaises, with one wheel in the sea, and the other on land. D has obtained his fair Indian, and has this post sent a letter of enquiries after Yorick, and his Bramin. He is a good soul, and interests himself much in our fate. I cannot forgive you, L-e, for your folly in saying you intend to get introduced to the-. I despise them, and I shall hold your understanding much cheaper than I now do, if you persist in a resolution so unworthy of you. I suppose Mrs. J— telling you they were sensible is the ground-work you go upon-by-they are not clever; though what is commonly called wit may pass for literature on the other side of Temple-Bar. You say Mrs. J.-thinks them amiable she judges too favourably; but I have put a stop to her intentions of visiting them. They are bitter enemies of mine, and I am even with them. La Bramine assured me they used their endeav

ours with her to break off her friendship with me, for reasons I will not write, but tell you. I said enough of them before she left England, and though she yielded to me in every other point, yet in this she obstinately persisted. Strange infatuation! but I think I have effected my purpose by a falsity, which Yorick's friendship to the Bramine can only justify. I wrote her word that the most amiable of women reiterated my request, that she would not write to them. I said too, she had concealed many things for the sake of her peace of mind when in fact, L-e, this was merely a child of my own brain, made Mrs. J—'s by adoption, to enforce the argument I had before urged so strongly. Do not mention this circumstance to Mrs. J-, 'twould displease her and I had no design in it but for the Bramine to be a friend to herself. I ought now to be busy from sun-rise to sunset, for I have a book to write a wife to receive an estate to sell parish to superintend, and, what is worst of all, a disquieted heart to reason with these are continual calls upon me. I have received half a dozen letters to press me to join my friends at Scarborough, but I am at present deaf to them all. I perhaps may pass a few days there something later in the season, not at present and so, dear L- -e, adieu.

I am most cordially yours,

a

L. STERNE.

C.

TO IGNATIUS SANCHO.

Coxwould, June 30 [1767.]

I MUST acknowledge the courtesy of my good friend Sancho's letter were I ten times busier than I am, and must thank him too for the many expressions of his

we

good will, and good opinion "Tis all affectation to say a man is not gratified with being praised only want it to be sincere and then it will be taken, Sancho, as kindly as yours. I left town very poorly

and with an idea I was taking leave of it for ever

but good air, a quiet retreat, and quiet reflections along with it, with an ass to milk, and another to ride upon (if I chuse it), all together do wonders. I shall live this year at least, I hope, be it but to give the world, before I quit it, as good impressions of me as you have, Sancho. I would only covenant for just so much health and spirits as are sufficient to carry my pen through the task I have set it this summer. But I am a resigned being, Sancho, and take health and sickness, as I do light and darkness, or the vicissitudes of seasons that is, just as it pleases GOD to send them and accommodate myself to their periodical returns as well as I can

only taking care, whatever not to lose my temper

befals me in this silly world at it. This I believe, friend Sancho, to be the truest philosophy for this we must be indebted to our selves, but not to our fortunes. Farewell — I hope you will not forget your custom of giving me a call at my lodgings next winter — in the mean time, I am very cordially,

My honest friend Sancho,

Ir is with as much true gratitude as ever heart felt, that I sit down to thank my dear friends Mr. and Mrs J- for the continuation of their attention to me;

street

w

I

but for this last instance of their humanity and politeness to me, I must ever be their debtor I never can thank you enough, my dear friends, and yet I thank you from my soul and for the single day's happiness your goodness would have sent me, I wish I could send you back thousands I cannot, but they will come of themselves and so GOD bless you. have had twenty times my pen in my hand since I came down, to write a letter to you both in Gerrardbut I am a shy kind of a soul at the bottom, and have a jealousy about troubling my friends, especially about myself I am now got perfectly well, but was, a month after my arrival in the country, in but a poor state my body has got the start, and is at present more at ease than my mind but this world is a school of trials, and so Heaven's will be done! I hope you have both enjoyed all that I have wanted and, to complete your joy, that your little lady flourishes like a vine at your table, to which I hope to see her preferred by next winter. I am now beginning to be truly busy at my Sentimental Journey

the pains and sorrows of this life having retarded its progress but I shall make up my lee-way, and overtake every body in a very short time.

What can I send you that Yorkshire produces? tell me I want to be of use to you, for I am, my dear friends, with the truest value and esteem,

CII.

Your ever obliged

L. STERNE.

TO MR. PANCHAUD, AT PARIS.

MY DEAR PANCHAUD,

York, July 20, 1767.

BE so kind as to forward what letters are arrived

from Mrs. Sterne at your office by to-day's post, or the

Sentimental Journey, etc.

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