THE DUKE OF SOMERSET TO MR. TONSON. Mr. Mainwaring told me you had now received a letter from Mr, Addi son, wherein he seems to embrace the proposal, but desires to know the particulars; so if you please to come to me to-morrow morning, about nine or ten o'clock, we will more fully discourse the whole matter together, that you may be able at your arrival in Holland to settle all things with him. I could wish he would come over by the return of this convoy. But more of this when we meet, in the mean time believe me Your very humble servant For Mr. Jacob Tonson at Gray's inn. SOMERSET. THE DUKE OF SOMERSET TO MR. TONSON. London, June the 4th, 1703. I received yours of the 21st of May, yesterday, and am very glad after so long a time, you are at last safely arrived with the Duke of Grafton at the Hague. As to what you write of Mr. Addison, I shall be very glad to see him here in England, that we may more fully discourse together of that matter, but at the same time I should have been much better satisfied, had he made his own proposals, that he then would have been on more certain terms of what he was to depend on, especially since he did not intend to leave Holland so soon on any other account: therefore I think I ought to enter into that affair more freely and more plainly, and tell you what I propose, and what I hope he will comply with, viz., I desire he may be more on the account of a companion in my son's travels than as a governor, and as such I shall account him; my meaning is that neither lodging, travelling or diet shall cost him sixpence, and over and above that my son shall present him at the year's end with a hundred guineas, as long as he is pleased to continue in that service to my son, by taking great care of him, by his personal attendance and advice, in what he finds necessary during his time of travelling. My intention is at present to send him over before August next to the Hague, there to remain for one year, from thence to go to all the courts of Germany, and to stay some time at the court of Hanover, as we shall then agree. The only reason for his stay at the Hague is, to perform all his exercises, and when he is perfect in that then to go next wherever Mr. Addison shall advise, to whom 1 shall entirely depend on, in all that he thinks may be most for his educa tion. When we are agreed on what terms may be most agreeable to him, I dare say he shall find all things as he can desire. This I thought fit for saving of time to enter into now, for many reasons, that we may the sooner and the better know each others' thoughts, being fully resolved to send him over by the end of next month: so I must desire him to be plain with me, as he will find by this that I am with him, because it will be a very great lett to me not to know his mind sooner than he proposes to come over. I need not tell you the reason, it being so plain for you to guess, and the main of all, which is the conditions, as I have mentioned, may be as well treated on by letter as if he was here. So I do desire his speedy answer, for to tell you plainly, I am solicited every day on this subject, many being offered to me, and I cannot tell them that I am engaged positively, because Mr. Addison is my desire and inclination by the character I have heard of him, &c. XXXII. TO THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE-By a letter that Mr. Tonson has shown me I find that I am very much obliged to your Grace for the kind opinion that you are pleased to entertain of me. I should be extremely glad of an opportunity of deserving it, and am therefore very ready to close with the proposal that is there made me of accompanying my Lord Marquess of Hartford in his travels and doing his Lordship all the services that I am capable of I have lately received one or two advantageous offers of the same nature, but as I should be very ambitious of executing any of your Grace's commands, so I cannot think of taking the like employment from any other hands. As for the recompense that is proposed to me, I must take the liberty to assure your Grace that I should not see my account in it, but in the hopes that I have to recommend myself to your Grace's favor and approbation. I am glad your Grace has intimated that you would oblige me to attend my Lord only from year to year, for in a twelve-month it may be easily seen whether I can be of any advantage to his Lordship. I am sure if my utmost endeavors can do any thing, I shall not fail to answer your Grace's expectations. About a fortnight hence I hope to have the honor of waiting on your Grace unless I receive any commands to the contrary. I am, &c. To his Grace the Duke of Somerset. THE DUKE OF SOMERSET TO MR. TONSON. June 22d, 1807. Your letter of the 16th with one from Mr. Addison came safe to me You say he will give me an account of his readiness of complying with my proposal. I will set down his own words, which are thus. "As for the recompense that is proposed to me, I must confess I can by no means see my account in it," &c. All the other parts of his letter are compliments to me, which he thought he was bound in good breeding to write, and as such I have taken them, and no otherwise; and now I leave you to judge how ready he is to comply with my proposal. Therefore I have wrote by this first post to prevent his coming to England on my account. and have told him plainly that I must look for another, which I cannot be long a-finding. I am very sorry that I have given you so much trouble in it, but I know that you are good, and will forgive it in one that is so much your humble servant. Our club is dissolved till you revive it again, which we are impatient of. SOMERSET XXXIII. TO THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE-Since my return from a journey that I was obliged to make into North Holland I have received the honor of your Grace's letter, which has hindered my immediate going to England. I am sorry to find that I have not made use of such expressions as were proper to represent the sense I have of the honor your Grace designed me, and should be extremely glad of any occasion that may happen in which I might show how proud I should be of obeying your commands, and most particularly if during my stay here I could be any-ways serviceable to my Lord Hartford. I am, &c. To the Duke of Somerset, July, 1703.1 1 Addison's part of this correspondence is from the Tickell papers; that of the Duke of Somerset, with all former extracts of letters to Mr. Tonson, from Tonson papers.-G. XXXIV. TO BISHOP HOUGH. Amsterdam, 24 Aug. N. S. MY LORD-I have a long time denied myself the honor of writing to your Lordship, because I would not trouble you with any of my private disappointments, and at the same time did not think it proper to give you a detail of a voyage that I hope to present your Lordship with a general relation of, at my return to England. To finish the misfortunes I have met with during my Travels, I have, since my coming into Holland, received the news of my father's death, which is indeed the most melancholy news that I ever yet received. What makes it the more so is, that I am informed he was so unhappy as to do some things, a little before he died, which were not agreeable to your Lordship. I have seen too many instances of your Lordship's great humanity to doubt that you will forgive any thing which might seem disobliging in one that had his spirits very much broken by age, sickness and affliction. But, at the same time, I hope that the information I have received on this subject is not well grounded, because in a letter, not long before his death, he commanded me always to preserve a just sense of duty and gratitude for the Bishop of Lichfield, who had been so great a benefactor to his family in general and myself in particular. This advice, though it was not necessary, may show, however, the due respect he had for your Lordship; as it was given at a time when men seldom disguise their sentiments. I must desire your Lordship to pardon the trouble of this letter, which I should never have taken the liberty to have written, had it not been to vindicate one of the best of fathers, and that to your Lordship, whom, of all the world, I would not have possessed with an ill opinion of one I am so nearly related to. If I can serve your Lordship in this country I should be proud to receive any of your commands at Mr. Moor's in Amsterdam. I am, my Lord, your Lordship's most dutiful and most obedient servant, J. ADDISON. XXXV. TO MR. WOOD. [See Letter xx.] DEAR SIR-I have lately had the honor to meet my Lord Effingham at Amsterdam, where we have drank Mr. Wood's health a hundred times in excellent champagne. His Lordship showed me a very pleasant letter of yours that would discourage me from sending so bad a one as this is like to be, but that I hope you will consider it only as a case to my Lord's, and so pardon it for what it encloses. I am sorry to hear you have entertained a thought of taking a journey into Italy, though I question not but the Alps will be as effectual a stop to you as it has been to the Elector of Bavaria. Think but on Mount Cenis, and, as you have not the brains of a kite, I am sure it will deter you from so rash an undertaking. I protest to you I am almost giddy at the very apprehension of the many rocks and precipices that we met with in that part of the world, and in this single particular I must boast to have as good a head as yourself. Should you once cross the Alps (which by the way would be a march as much to be admired as that of Hannibal), the natural antipathy you have to seas and mountains would make me despair of ever seeing you in England: besides the danger there may be of your turning virtuoso. So that you see in the advice I give you, like all other counsellors, I am not without an eye to my own private interest. I have not yet seen your nephew in this country, but I hear he has signalized himself in the double capacity of a man of arms and of letters. As for the first you have heard doubtless that he is a Captain, and as an instance of the second, take the following story. There happened about a twelve-month |