I know you would both be pleased to hear fome certain news of a friend departed; to have the adventures of his paffage, and the new regions through which he travelled, defcribed; and, upon the whole, to know that he is as happy where he now is, as while he lived among you. But indeed I (like many a poor unprepared foul) have feen nothing I like fo well as what I left: no fcenes of Paradife, no happy bowers, equal to those on the banks of the Thames. Where-ever I wander, one reflection strikes me: I wish you were as free as 1; or at least had a tie as tender, and as reasonable as mine, to a relation that as well deserved your conftant thought, and to whom you would be always pulled back (in such a manner as I am) by the heart-string. I have never been well fince I fet out but don't tell my mother fo; it will trouble her too much: and as probably the fame reafon may prevent her fending a true account of her health to me, I muft defire you to acquaint me. I would gladly hear the country air improves your own; but don't flatter me when you are ill, that I may be the better satisfied when you fay you are well: for thefe are things in which one may be fincerer to a reasonable friend, than to a fond and partial parent. Adieu.

LETTER XIV.

You cannot be surprised to find him a dull correfpondent whom you have known fo long for a dull companion. And though I am pretty sensible, that if I have any wit, I may as well write to fhow it, as not; yet I will content myself with giving you as plain a history of my pilgrimage, as Purchas himself, or as John Bunyan could do of his walking through the wilderness of this world, etc.

First then I went by water to Hampton-Court, unattended by all but my own virtues; which were not of fo modeft a nature as to keep themselves, or me, concealed: for I met the Prince with all his ladies on horseback, coming from hunting. Mrs. B and Mrs. L* took me into protection, (contrary to the laws against harbouring Papifts,) and gave me a dinner, with something I liked better, an opportunity of converfation with Mrs. H*. We all agreed that the life of a Maid of Honour was of all things the most miferable and wished that every woman who envied it, had a specimen of it. To eat Weftphalia ham in a morning, ride over hedges † and ditches on borrowed

* Mary Bellenden, Mary Lepell, Maids of Honour to the Princefs; Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countefs of Suffolk. It is well known that at the time this was written, unmarried ladies were called generally Mrs's. Mifs Bellenden and Lepell have been before spoken of.

+ At this time it was the fashion for ladies of distinction to ride hunting in Windfor foreft.

rowed hacks, come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark in the forehead from an uneasy hat; all this may qualify them to make excellent wives for foxhunters, and bear abundance of ruddy complexioned children. As foon as they can wipe off the fweat of the day, they must fimper an hour, and catch cold, in the Princess's apartment: from thence (as Shakespear has it) to dinner, with what appetite they may-and after that, till midnight, walk, work, or think, which they please. I can eafily believe, no lone-houfe in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery, is more contemplative than this Court; and as a proof of it, I need only tell you, Mrs. L* † walked with me three or four hours by moonlight, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, who gave audience to the vice-chamberlain, all alone, under the garden-wall.

In short, I heard of no ball, affembly, baffet-table, or any place where two or three were gathered together, except Madam Kilmanfegg's, to which I had the honour to be invited, and the grace to stay away.

* I was heartily tired, and pofted to- park: there we had an excellent difcourfe of quackery; Dr. S. was mentioned with honour. Lady walked a whole hour abroad without dying after it, at least in the time I stayed, though fhe feemed to be fainting, and had convulfive motions feveral times in her head. I arrived

+ Lepell.

* Some paffages of a very grofs kind are here omitted. The wonder is that they could have ever been addressed to a Lady. The Dr. S- was Dr. Shadwell? and the Lady, Lady Arran. C.

I arrived in the foreft by Tuesday noon, having fled from the face (I wish I could fay the horned face) of Mofes, who dined in the midway thither. I paffed the rest of the day in those woods where I have fo often enjoyed a book and a friend; I made a Hymn as I paffed through, which ended with a figh, that I will not tell you the meaning of *.

Your Doctor is gone the way of all his patients, and was hard put to it how to dispose of an estate miferably unwieldy, and fplendidly unuseful to him. Sir Samuel Garth fays, that for Ratcliffe to leave † a

library,

"All hail! once pleafing, once inspiring fhade,'
Scene of my youthful loves, and happier hours!
Where the kind Mufes met me, a I ftray'd,

And gently prefs'd my hand, and said, Be ours.
Take all thou ere shall have, a conftant Muse :

At court thou may'ft be lik'd, but nothing gain :
Stocks thou may'ft buy and fell, but always lofe;

And love the brightest eyes, but love in vain. "On Thursday I went to Stonor, which I have long had a mind to fee fince the romantic defcription you gave me of it. The me lancholy which my wood and this place have spread over me, will go near to caft a cloud upon the reft of my letter, if I don't make hafte to conclude it here. I know you wish my happiness fo much, that I would not have you think I have any other reason to be melancholy: And after all, he must be a beaft that is fo, with two such fine women for his friends. 'Tis enough to make any creature easy, even fuch an one as Your humble Servant." What follows in the printed Letter, appears to have been added by Pope for publication.

C.

+ Because it was notorious that he had little learning; but he poffeffed what was better, wonderful fagacity and penetration in judging of diseases. Dr. Young has the fame fimile in his fecond fatire:

Unlearned men of Books affume the care,

As Eunuchs are the guardians of the Fair. WARTON.

library, was as if a Eunuch should found a Seraglio. Dr. S lately told a Lady, he wondered fhe could be alive after him: fhe made anfwer, fhe wondered

at it for two reasons, because Dr. Ratcliffe was dead,

and because Dr. S

was living. I am

Your, etc.

LETTER XV. *

NOTHING could have more of that melancholy which once used to please me, than my laft day's journey; for after having paffed through my favourite woods in the forest, with a thousand reveries of past pleasures, I rid over hanging hills, whofe tops were edged with groves, and whose feet watered with winding rivers, liftening to the falls of cataracts below, and the murmuring of the winds above: the gloomy verdure of Stonor fucceeded to these; and then the shades of the evening overtook me. The moon rose in the clearest sky I ever faw, by whofe folemn light I paced on flowly, without company, or any interruption to the range of my thoughts. About a mile before I reached Oxford, all the bells tolled in different notes; the clocks of every college answered one another, and founded forth (fome in a deeper, some a softer tone)

that

*To Martha Blount. This is a pleafing and very interefting description.