Part 5 (1/2)
”I alad you have found so much hidden treasure; and Mrs Unwin desires me to tell you that you did her nothat she would rejoice in it It is not easy to surmise the reason why the reverend doctor, your predecessor, concealed it Being a subject of a free government, and I suppose fall of the divinity most in fashi+on, he could not fear lest his riches should expose hirace for a dignitary of the church to be wealthy, at a tieneral spare no pains to become so But the wisdom of some men has a droll sort of knavishness in it, pie, who hides what he finds with a deal of contrivance,it
”Mrs Unwin is tolerably well She wishes ed to Mrs Newton, if, when an opportunity offers, she will give the worsted-roorse, which I know you expected would be the case in the course of the winter Present our love to her Remember us to Sally Johnson, and assure yourself that we remain as warmly as ever,
”Yours, W C
M U”
In the next speci interest to theit The incident in this case is one which also forms the subject of the little poem called _The Colubriad_
To THE REV WILLIAM UNWIN
”_Aug 3rd_, 1782
”MY DEAR FRIEND,--Entertaining some hope that Mr Newton's next letter would furnishyour inquiry on the subject of Dr Johnson's opinion, I have till now delayed my answer to your last; but the infor inter When I receive it, favourable or not, it shall be couine in my expectations from that quarter Very learned and very critical heads are hard to please He may perhaps treat n, but the coh all doctors may not be of the same mind, there is one doctor at least, whom I have lately discovered, my professed admirer He too, like Johnson, ith difficulty persuaded to read, having an aversion to all poetry, except the _Night Thoughts_; which, on a certain occasion, when being confined on board a shi+p he had no other eot by heart He was, however, prevailed upon, and read me several times over; so that if ht perhaps have occupied that shelf in his memory which he then allotted to the Doctor; his nanel
”It is a sort of paradox, but it is true: we are never er than e think ourselves most secure, nor in reality er Both sides of this apparent contradiction were lately verified in reenhouse to the barn, I saw three kittens (for we have so , which lay on the threshold of a door, coiled up I took but little notice of theed est I reue, and ejaculating the afore-mentioned hiss at the nose of a kitten, almost in contact with his lips I ran into the hall for a hoe with a long handle, hich I intended to assail hione, and I feared had escapedimmovably upon the sa between the door and the threshold, he had found his way out of the garden into the yard I went round immediately, and there found him in close conversation with the old cat, whose curiosity being excited by so novel an appearance, inclined her to pat his head repeatedly with her fore foot; with her claws, however, sheathed, and not in anger, but in the way of philosophical inquiry and exa a victim to so laudable an exercise of her talents, I interposed in a moment with the hoe, and perforh not immediately mortal proved so in the end
Had he slid into the passages, where it is dark, or had he, when in the yard, met with no interruption from the cat, and secreted himself in any of the outhouses, it is hardly possible but that soht have been trodden upon without being perceived, and have slipped away before the sufferer could have well distinguished what foe had wounded hio we discovered one in the same place, which the barber sleith a trowel
”Our proposed removal to Mr Small's was, as you suppose, a jest, or rather a joco-serious matter We never looked upon it as entirely feasible, yetin it so so like practicability, that we did not esteeether unworthy of our attention It was one of those projects which people of lively iinations play with, and admire for a few days, and then break in pieces Lady Austen returned on Thursday froht, and whither she was called by an unexpected opportunity to dispose of the reer any connexion with the great city, she has none on earth whom she calls friends but us, and no house but at Olney Her abode is to be at the vicarage, where she has hired as much room as she wants, which she will embellish with her own furniture, and which she will occupy, as soon as the minister's wife has produced another child, which is expected toood-natured, pious friend of ours, who sometimes visits us, and e visited last week, has put into my hands three volumes of French poetry, composed by Madame Guyon;--a quietist, say you, and a fanatic, I will have nothing to do with her It is very well, you are welco to do with her, but in the meantime her verse is the only French verse I ever read that I found agreeable; there is a neatness in it equal to that which we applaud with so much reason in the compositions of Prior I have translated several of them, and shall proceed in my translations, till I have filled a Lilliputian paper-book I happen to have by me, which, when filled, I shall present to Mr Bull He is her passionate admirer, rode twenty er, which stranger politely insisted on his acceptance of it, and it now hangs over his parlour chi portrait, too characteristic not to be a strong reselory, instead of being dressed, in a nun's hood, el
”Our ust; the rushes hich our bottomless chairs were to have been bottoone down the river on a voyage to Ely, and it is even uncertain whether they will ever return Sic transit gloria lad you have found a curate, may he answer! Am happy in Mrs
Bouverie's continued approbation; it is worth while to write for such a reader Yours,
”W C”
The power of ireat that we read with a sort of excitement a minute account of the conversion of an old card-table into a writing and dining-table, with the causes and consequences of that ly aroused by the suggestion that the clerical friend to whoht, if the etting into his pulpit, at which ti questions were apt to come into his mind
A man who lived by himself could have little but himself to write about Yet in these letters there is hardly a touch of offensive egotisious despondency From those weaknesses Coas free Of his proneness to self-revelation we have had a specienerations i rare, as coes, because nobody thinks it worth while to preserve theet a personal et a harpsichord, a spinning-wheel, a tinder-box, or a scratch-back An Egyptian wig is attainable, a wig of the Georgian era is hardly so, ency So it is with the scenes of co lost, because they were familiar Here are two of them, however, which have limned thee of a chronicler of trifles
TO THE REV JOHN NEWTON
”_Nov 17th_, 1783
”MY DEAR FRIEND,--The country around is much alarmed with apprehensions of fire Two have happened since that of Olney One at Hitchin, where the dae is said to amount to eleven thousand pounds; and another, at a place not far from Hitchin, of which I have not yet learnt the na to burn the town; and the inhabitants have been so intiuard in ration here, we have sent tomen and a boy to the justice, for depredation, S R
for stealing a piece of beef, which, in her excuse, she said she intended to take care of This lady, whom you well remember, escaped for want of evidence; not that evidence anting, but our ed it unnecessary to send it With her went the woman I mentioned before, who, it seems, has made some sort of profession, but upon this occasion allowed, herself a latitude of conduct rather inconsistent with it, having filled her apron earing-apparel, which she likewise intended to take care of She would have gone to the county gaol, had William Raban, the baker's son, who prosecuted, insisted upon it; but he, good-naturedly, though I think weakly, interposed in her favour, and begged her off The young gentleman who accompanied these fair ones is the junior son of Molly Boswell He had stolen so convicted, he was ordered to be whipped, which operation he underwent at the cart's tail, froain He seereat fortitude, but it was all an imposition upon the public The beadle, who perforh which, after every stroke, he drew the lash of his whip, leaving the appearance of a wound upon the skin, but in reality not hurting hi perceived by Mr
Constable H, who followed the beadle, he applied his cane, without any such ement or precaution, to the shoulders of the too merciful executioner The scene i The beadle could by no means be prevailed upon to strike hard, which provoked the constable to strike harder, and this double flogging continued, till a lass of Silver-End, pitying the pitiful beadle thus suffering under the hands of the pitiless constable, joined the procession, and placing herself immediately behind the latter, seized hi him backwards by the same, slapped his face with a most Amazon fury This concatenation of events has taken up more of my paper than I intended it should, but I could not forbear to inform you how the beadle thrashed the thief, the constable the beadle, and the lady the constable, and how the thief was the only person concerned who suffered nothing Mr Teedon has been here, and is gone again He came to thank me for some left-off clothes In answer to our inquiries after his health, he replied that he had a slow fever, which made him take all possible care not to inflame his blood I admitted his prudence, but in his particular instance, could not very clearly discern the need of it Pump water will not heat him much, and, to speak a little in his own style,fluids are to hiht us news, the truth of which, however, I do not vouch for, that the town of Bedford was actually on fire yesterday, and the flas left it
”Swift observes, when he is giving his reasons why the preacher is elevated always above his hearers, that let the crowd be as great as it will below, there is always rooh overhead If the French philosophers can carry their art of flying to the perfection they desire, the observation may be reversed, the croill be overhead, and they will have most room who stay below I can assure you, however, upon htful I dreah the upper regions in a balloon and pair, with the greatest ease and security Having finished the tour I intended, I made a short turn, and, with one flourish ofwith an infinite share of spirit, but without the least danger, either to me or my vehicle The tinosticated by my dreaes will fly the circuit, and bishops their visitations; and when the tour of Europe will be perfore, by all who travelit to say, that they haveyou will accept for yourself and yours our unfeigned love, and remember me affectionately to Mr Bacon, when you see him
”Yours, my dear friend, WM COWPER”
TO THE REV JOHN NEWTON