is, I believe, more used to matters of fact than metaphor, I gave the letters to Mr. Bromfield, to whom I have referred our modern Tigellius for the explanation of any puzzling passage; indeed this dirty affair flurried me greatly, which, at that critical juncture, might have been readily spared.

You do, my dear sir, but bare justice to my warm and worthy friends in calling them benevolent, one glance of your penetrating eye (why would you pass us by?) would have instructed you, that there are virtues now in the world which have been long supposed to exist only in books but this is not a time, nor am I in a condition (if I ever shall) to treat this subject with the force and dignity it deserves.

I had read and raised an altar to my unknown friend, for the epigrams your pious pen had produced. I use that epithet, as it corresponds with one of your lines, where you have produced one of the first and strongest moral principles, clad in the true spirit of poetry,

Misfortune's sacred bed.

The author of that sentiment was the only one that I wanted or wished to know,-as to all the rest, they neither gave me uneasiness nor excited my curiosity; I supposed some of them to have been my acquaintance from Pope's principle, that each bad poet is as bad a friend. And now, sir, let me say grace to your beverage. May the tepid streams, administered to you by the priestess of the pumproom, restore you to your friends in the capital as vigorous in body as you are in mind;

and then, if we are to judge by your last production, your state of health was never more firmly established. All here join in wishing you and Mrs. Garrick every human happiness. Dear sir, yours most sincerely and affectionately,

SAML. FOOTE.

SAMUEL FOOTE TO MR. GARRICK.
Cannon Park, Wednesday.

I THINK friendship is by somebody emphatically called the balsam of life. I honour the author, be he sacred or profane, since nothing has, I am sure, so much contributed to soothe the solitude, and mitigate the anguish of my bed of sickness and of sorrow, as dear Mr. Garrick's very kind and sympathizing letters.

Perhaps I have sustained this fiery trial with a little more fortitude than was expected from so equivocal a character; but, whether from our original construction we are furnished with a secret resource of animal spirits, that but wait for the occasion to rush to our aid,-or whether 66 present fears are less than horrible imaginings," I can't say that I have experienced either much dejection or impatience; and yet I have gone through operations, that the whole world should not bribe me to see performed on another. Scissors, knives, saws, lancets, and caustics are now grown familiar to me; and as to potions-what bushels of bark have I taken! Poets talk of their Dryades and Faunes, the fabulous tenants

of forests and groves, now I have literally swallowed a wood; and I don't suppose but that my inside is as well tanned as a buckskin pair of breeches but that process is now at an end; my pains are abated, my opiates are withdrawn, and my wound visibly healing every day. The pharmacopals of the neighbouring villages—you know them-I make no doubt but Hampton boasts one at least, a set of ingenious gentlemen, who deck themselves as the heathen mythologists did the goddess of Hunting, with triple titles; she, indeed, was Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate in hell; but they are physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries in the compass of half a score miles : : nay, it is great odds if they are contented with that, you rarely see a row of stumps on a red rag, and a pewter porringer of blood in a country window, but the shop within can furnish you with coffee or calomel, rappee snuff or rhubarb. My Esculapius from Newberry has a tolerable collateral support from vending candles and soap: whilst his Galenical brother at Overton depends chiefly on mops, brushes, and Birmingham ware; but, however, these sons of Apollo (as legitimate, I warrant, as Derrick) flatter me with the hopes of getting to town in a fortnight, but I think they are mistaken :-pray when do you turn your back on the Bath?

As to summer projects, they have never once entered my thoughts; the short intermissions allotted me from pain, have been all employed in acknowledging the goodness of those whose humanity, like Mr. Garrick's, has interested them in the fate of the poor unfortunate Foote-amongst

the foremost and warmest of which is the gentleman to whose virtues you have inscribed an ode. I must see it,-on my discretion you may safely rely. Non sum qualis eram. Calamities of the magnitude that I have sustained are powerful preachers, and I think I have not been deaf to their voice.

Your asking leave to bring Mr. Clutterbuck here is pleasant enough; it is just as if you was to make an apology to an epicure for taking the liberty to send him a turtle, or to beg Lady Vane's pardon for the introduction of a young tall rawboned Milesian.

So long as I love cheerfulness, good humour, and humanity, I shall be glad to meet that gentleman any where; happy if it chances to be where the rights of hospitality call upon me to pay him a particular attention. Sir Francis, who is unalterably yours, though we were a little piqued at your passing us by, begs that upon this occasion I would say "all that you can suppose." Beard's answer to mine was such as you guessed: it came accompanied by a letter from Smith, just to let me know, that as to cutting the Commissary (for that I think is the phrase, and a pretty expressive one too), nothing so remote from his thoughts; his design was only to sink the two best scenes in the piece.

Mr.

The duke of York, lord and lady Mexborough, &c. &c. have been here for three or four days, totally ignorant about my unfortunate artery, and expecting to find me upon crutches,—but they are gone, and I am still on my back. To-morrow I have leave to resume my great chair, and, per