fage two porches, one towards the river of fmooth fto nes full of light, and open; the other toward the Garden fhadow'd with trees, rough with shells, flints, and iron ore. The bottom is paved with fimple pebble, as is alfo the adjoining walk up the wilderness to the temple, in the natural taste, agreeing not ill with the little dripping murmur, and the aquatic idea of the whole place. It wants nothing to complete it but a good ftatue with an infcription,, like that beautiful an tique one which you know I am so fond of, Hujus Nympha loci, facri cuftodia fontis, Dormio, dum blande fentio murmur aquæ. Nymph of the grot, thefe facred fprings I keep, You'll think I have been very poetical in this defcription, but it is pretty near the truth 7. I wish you were here to bear teftimony how little it owes to Art, either the place itself, or the image I give of it. 7 He had greatly inlarged and improved this Grotto not long before his death: and, by incrufting it about with a vast number of gres and minerals of the richest and rarest kinds, had made it one of the most elegant and romantic retirements that was any where to be feen. He has made it the fubject of a very pretty poem of a fingular, caft and compofition. LETTER XV. Sept. 13, 1725. Should be afham'd to own the receipt of a very I to months the date of this; if I were not more afhamed to tell a lye, or to make an excufe, which is worfe than a lye (for being built upon fome probable circumftance, it makes use of a degree of truth to falfify with, and is a lye guarded.) Your letter has been in my pocket in conftant wearing, till that, and the pocker, and the fuit, are worn out; by which means I have read it forty times, and I find by fo doing that I have not enough considered and reflected upon many others you have obliged me with; for true friendship, as they fay of good writing, will bear reviewing a thoufand times, and still discover new beauties. I have had a fever, a fhort one, but a violent: I am now well; so it shall take up no more of this paper. I begin now to expect you in town to make the winter to come more tolerable to us both. The fum mer is a kind of heaven, when we wander in a paradifaical scene among groves and gardens; but at this season, we are, like our poor first parents, turn'd out of that agreeable though folitary life, and forced to look about for more people to help to bear our labours, to get into wariner houses, and live together in cities. I hope you are long fince perfectly reftor'd, and rifen from your gout, happy in the delights of a conrented family, smiling at ftorms, laughing at greatness, merry over a christmas- fire, and exercising all the functions of an old Patriarch in charity and hospitality. I will not tell Mrs. B* what I think she is doing; for I conclude it is her opinion, that he only ought to know it for whom it is done; and she will allow herself to be far enough advanced above a fine lady, not to defire to fhine before men. Your daughters perhaps may have fome other thoughts, which even their mother muft excuse them for, because she is a mother. I will not however fuppose thofe thoughts get the better of their devotions, but rather excite them and affift the warinth of them; while their prayer may be, that they may raise up and breed as irreproachable a young family as their parents have done. In a word, I fancy you all well, easy, and happy, just as I wish you; and next to that, I wifh you all with me. Next to God, is a good man next in dignity, and next in value. Minuifti eum paullo minus ab angelis. If therefore I wish well to the good and the deserving, and defire they only fhould be my companions and correfpondents, I muft very foon and very much think of you. I want your company, and your example. Pray make hafte to town, so as not again to leave us: discharge the load of earth that lies on you, like one of the mountains under which, the poets fay, the giants (the men of the earth) are whelmed; leave earth, to the fons of the earth, your conversation is in heaven. Which that it may be accomplish'd in us all, is the prayer of him who maketh this fhort Sermon; value (to you) three-pence. Adieu. Mr. Blount died in London the following Year 1726. › C P. LETTERS TO AND FROM THE Hon. ROBERT DIGBY. I Had pleas'd myself fooner in writing to you, but 8 that I have been your fucceffor in a fit of fickness, and am not yet fo much recovered, but that I have thoughts of ufing your 3 physicians. They are as grave perfons as any of the faculty, and (like the ancients) carry their own medicaments about with them. But indeed the moderns are fuch lovers of raillery, that nothing is grave enough to efcape them. Let them laugh, but people will ftill have their opinions: as they think our Doctors affes to them, we'll think them affes to our Doctors. I am glad you are so much in a better state of health, as to allow ine to jeft about it. My concern, when I heard your danger, was fo very serious, that I almoft take it ill Dr. Evans fhould tell you of it, or you' mention it. I tell you fairly, if you and a few more fuch people were to leave the world, I would nor give fixpence to stay in it. 1 am not fo much concerned as to the point whether you are to live fat or lean: moft men of wit or honesty are ufually decreed to live very lean, fo I am inclined to the opinion that 'tis decreed you fhall; however be comforted, and reflect, that you'll make the better Bufto for it. 'Tis fomething particular in you, not to be satisfied with fending me your own books, but to make your acquaintance continue the frolic. Mr. Wharton forced me to take Gorboduc, which has fince done me great credit with several people, as it has done Dryden and Oldham foine dif-kindnefs, in fhewing there is as much difference between their Gorboduc and this, as between Queen Anne, and King George. It is truly a fcandal, that men fhould write with contempt of a piece which they never once faw, as those two Poets did, who where ignorant even of the fex, as well as fenfe, of Gorboduc 9. Adieu! I am going to forget you: this minute you took up all my mind; the next I fhall think of nothing but the reconciliation with Agamemnon, and the recovery of Brifeis. 1 fhall be Achilles's humble fervant thefe two months (with the good leave of all my friends.) I have no ambition fo ftrong at prefent, as that noble one of Sir Salathiel Lovel, recorder of Lon 9/There is a correct edition of it in that valuable collection of old Plays published by Dodfley.i |