To share his father's inmost heart and counsels, On thee, and thee alone, our weeping country "O, there is nothing, which for thee, my country, I, in my proper person, could not suffer!" Many other political allusions occur, which it was impossible not to understand, and when understood not to apply; hence the suppression of the piece was neither surprising nor unreasonable. The remark of Johnson that it was difficult to discover why the play was not allowed to be acted, proves that he never read Thomson's works with the attention which was incumbent upon his biog rapher. It was, however, printed with a dedication to the Princess of Wales, the moderation of which is its chief merit. He says, "In the character of Eleanora I have endea"I can not help telling you of a very pleasing voured to represent, however faintly, a princess scene I lately saw.-In the middle of a green field distinguished for all the virtues that render great-there stands a peaceful lowly habitation; into ness amiable. I have afmed, particularly, to do Murdoch says, "This refusal drew after it another; and in a way which, as it is related, was rather ludicrous. Mr. Paterson, a companion of Mr. Thomson, afterwards his deputy and then his successor in the general-surveyorship, used to write out fair copies for his friend, when such were wanted for the press or for the stage. This gentleman likewise courted the tragic muse; and had taken for his subject the story of Arminius the German hero. But his play, guiltless as it was, being presented for a license, no sooner had the censor cast his Marlborough, he should, by an ingenious device, find a niche eyes on the hand-writing in which he had seen Edward and Eleanora, than he cried out, 'Away with it!' and the author's profits were reduced to what his bookseller could afford for a tragedy in distress." which having entered, I beheld innocence, sweet | British note is better music. If a timely stop is innocence, asleep. Your heart would have yearn- not put to this, the genuine breed of our ancient ed, your eyes perhaps have overflowed with tears sturdy dogs will by degrees dwindle and degeneof joy, to see how charming he looked; like a young cherub dropped from heaven, if they be so happy as to have young cherubs there.," rate into dull Dutch mastiffs, effeminate Italian lapdogs, or tawdry impertinent French harlequins. All our once noble throated guardians of the house "When awaked, it is not to be imagined with and fold will be succeeded by a mean courtly race, what complacency and ease, what soft serenity that snarl at honest men, flatter rogues, proudly altogether unmixed with the least cloud, he open-wear badges of slavery, ribands, collars, &c. and ed his eyes. Dancing with joy in his nurse's fetch and carry sticks at the lion's court. By the arms, his eyes not only smiled, but laughed, which by, my dear Marquis, this fetching and carrying put me in mind of a certain near relation of his, of sticks is a diversion you are too much addicted whom I need not name. What delights thee so, to, and, though a diversion, unbecoming a true thou lovely babe? art thou thinking of thy mo- independent country dog There is another dog ther's recovery? does some kind power impress vice that greatly prevails among the hungry whelps upon thee a presage of thy future happiness under at court, but you are too well stuffed to fall into that. her tender care? I took the liberty to touch him What I mean is patting, pawing, soliciting, teasing, with unhallowed lips, which restored me to the snapping the morsel out of one another's mouths, good opinion of the nurse, who had neither forgot being bitterly envious, and insatiably ravenous, nay, nor forgiven my having lighted that favour sometimes filching when they safely may. Of this vice, I have an instance continually before my eyes, This letter contained a song, which will be in that wretched animal Scrub, whose genius is found in the second volume, Another letter is quite misplaced here in the country. He has, behere given at length, from its being the only at- sides, such an admirable talent at scratching at a tempt of a humorous nature in prose which door, as might well recommend him to the office of Thomson is known to have made, and the man- a court waiter. A word in your ear-1 wish a cerner in which he satirizes travellers and courtiers tain two-legged friend of mine had a little of this is amusing. once. To a Friend, on his Travels. Trusty and well beloved Dog, Dec. 7, 1742. "HEARING you are gone abroad to see the world, as they call it, I can not forbear, upon this occasion, transmitting you a few thoughts. assiduity. These canine courtiers are also ex- To honour humble worth, and, scorning state, It may seem presumption in me to pretend to give you any instruction; but you must know, that I am a dog of considerable experience. Indeed I have not improved so much as I might For which reason I go scattering my water every have done by my justly deserved misfortunes: where about Richmond. And now that I am upon the case very often of my betters. However, a this topic, I must cite you two lines of a letter from little I have learned; and sometimes, while I Bounce, of celebrated memory, to Fop, a dog in seemed to lie asleep before the fire, I have over- the country to a dog at court. She is giving an heard the conversation of your travellers. In the account of her generous offspring, among which first place, I will not suppose that you are gone she mentions two, far above the vice I now cenabroad an illiterate cub, just escaped from the lash sure: of your keeper, and running wild about the world like a dog who has lost his master, atterly unacquainted with the proper knowledge, manners, and conversation of dogs. One ushers friends to Bathurst's door, One fawns at Oxford's on the poor. Charming dogs! I have little more to say; but "These are the public jests of every country only, considering the great mart of scandal you through which they run 'post, and frequently they are at, to warn you against flattering those you are avoided as if they were mad dogs. None will converse with, and the moment they turn to go converse with them but those who shear, some away, backbiting them-a vice with which the old times even skin them, and often they return home dogs of old ladies are much infected; and you must like a dog who has lost his tail. In short, these have been most furiously affected with it here at travelling puppies do nothing else but run after Richmond, had you not happened into a good faforeign bitches, learn to dance, cut capers, play mily: therefore I might have spared this caution. tricks, and admire your fine outlandish howling; One thing I had almost forgot. You have a base though, in my opinion, our vigorous deep mouthed custom, when you chance upon a certain fragrant Lyttelton, whose influence obtained it for him, But enough of this melancholy though not unhaving incurred the Prince's displeasure. West pleasing strain. and Mallet, both friends of that noble minded individual, and who were similarly favoured with pensions, were deprived of them on the same day and for the same reason. "I esteem you for your sensible and disinterested advice to Mr. Bell, as you will see by my letter to him; as I approve, entirely, of his marrying again, you may readily ask me why I do not marry at all. My circumstances have hitherto been so variable and uncertain in this fluctuating world, as induce to keep me from engaging in such a state; and now, though they are more Whilst at Hagley, Mr. Lyttelton's seat, in October, 1747, he wrote to his sister, Mrs. Thomson, and, as it is the last to his family which has been preserved, it will be read with interest. Dr. Johnson received it from Boswell to whom that lady settled, and of late, which you will be glad to presented it. MY DEAR SISTER, Hagley, in Worcestershire hear, considerably improved, I begin to think myself too far advanced in life for such youthful undertakings, not to mention some other petty reasons that are apt to startle the delicacy of difficult old bachelors. I am, however, not a little suspiI thought you had known me better than to cious, that was I to pay a visit to Scotland, of interpret my silence into a decay of affection, which I have some thoughts of doing soon, I especially as your behaviour has always been such might possibly be tempted to think of a thing not as rather to increase than diminish it. Do not easily repaired if done amiss. I have always imagine, because I am a bad correspondent, that been of opinion, that none make better wives than I can ever prove an unkind friend and brother, the ladies of Scotland; and yet, who more forsaI must do myself the justice to tell you, that my ken than they, while the gentlemen are continualaffections are naturally very fixed and constant; ly running abroad all the world over? Some of and if I had ever reason of complaint against them, it is true, are wise enough to return for a you, of which, by the by, I have not the least sha-wife. You see I am beginning to make interest dow I am conscious of so many defects in my- already with the Scotch ladies. But, no more of self, as dispose me to be not a little charitable and this infectious subject Pray let me hear from forgiving. you now and then; and though I am not a regu "It gives me the truest heartfelt satisfaction to lar correspondent, yet, perhaps, I may mend in hear you have a good, kind husband, and are in that respect. Remember me kindly to your huseasy, contented circumstances, but were they band, and believe me to be otherwise, that would only awaken and heighten my tenderness towards you. As our good and Your most affectionate brother, JAMES THOMSON. tender-hearted parents did not live to receive any To Mrs. Thomson, in Lanark. material testimonies of that highest human grati tude I owed them, than which nothing could have It was during this visit to Hagley that he was given me equal pleasure, the only return I can met by Shenstone, who says, in a letter dated make them now is, by kindness to those they 20th S September, 1747: behind them. Would to God poor Lizy had lived As I was returning from church, on Sunday longer, to have been a farther witness of the fast,, whom should I meet in a chaise, with two truth of what I say; and that I might have had horses lengthways, but that right friendly bard, the pleasure of seeing once more a sister, who so Mr. Thomson? I complimented him upon his truly deserved my esteem and love. But she is arrival in this country, and asked him to accomhappy, while we must toil a little longer here be pany Mr. Lyttelton to the Leasowes, which he low: let us, however, do it cheerfully and grate- said he would with abundance of pleasure, and so fully, supported by the pleasing hope of meeting we parted." yet again on a safer shore, where to recollect the The Castle of Indolence and Coriolanus next storms and difficulties of life will not, perhaps, be occupied his attention, and the former, which inconsistent with that blissful state. "You did had been in progress for nearly fifteen years, and right to call your daughter by her name; for you was originally intended to consist of a few stanzas must needs have had a particular tender friend-ridiculing the want of energy in himself and some ship for one another, endeared as you were by of his friends, appeared in about May, 1748, and nature, by having passed the affectionate years was the last production of his pen which he lived of your youth together, and by that great softener to print. The sketch of himself is extremely inand engager of hearts, mutual hardship. That teresting; though he says all, excepting the first it was in my power to ease it a little, I account line, was written by a friend, who is asserted to one of the most exquisite pleasures of my life. have been Lord Lyttelton. "A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard beseems; He loated much to write, ne cared to repeat." fore, so that the walk runs round the hedge, where you may figure me walking any time of the day, and sometimes in the night. I imagine you reclining under cedars, and there enjoying more magnificent slumbers than are known to pale climates of the north; slumbers rendered awful and divine by the solemn stillness and deep fervours of the torrid noon. At other times I image you drinking punch in groves of lime or Of the other portraits a few only have been orange trees, gathering pineapples from hedges, identified. The sixty-sixth stanza alludes to as commonly as we may blackberries, poetising Lord Lyttelton; the sixty-seventh to Mr. Quin; under lofty laurels, or making love under full the sixty-ninth has been supposed to describe spread myrtles. But, to lower my style a little as Dr. Ayscough, his lordship's brother-in-law, but I am such a genuine lover of gardening, why do it was clearly a picture of Dr. Murdoch, as he not you remember me in that instance, and send applies nearly the same words to him, in a letter me some seeds of things that might succeed here printed in this memoir. Another was, he says, during the summer, though they can not perfect intended for his friend, Mr. Paterson, his deputy their seed sufficiently in this, to them, uncongein the office of Surveyor General of the Leeward nial climate to propagate? in which case is the Islands. caliloo, which, from the seed it bore here, came The following letter is without a date, but from up puny, rickety, and good for nothing. There his stating that the Castle of Indolence would be are other things certainly with you, not yet published in a fortnight, it must have been writ-brought over hither, that might flourish here in ten about April, 1748. "DEAR PATERSON, the summer time, and live tolerably well, provided they be sheltered in a hospitable stove, or green-house, during the winter. You will give "In the first place, and previous to my letter, I me no small pleasure by sending me, from time must recommend to your favour and protection to time, some of these seeds, if it were no more Mr. James Smith, searcher in St. Christopher's: but to amuse me in making the trial. With reand I beg of you, as occasion shall serve, and as gard to the brother gardeners, you ought to know you find he merits it, to advance him in the busi- that, as they are half vegetables, the animal part ness of the customs. He is warmly recommend- of them will never have spirit enough to consent ed to me by Sargent, who, in verity, turns out to the transplanting of the vegetables into distant, one of the best men of our youthful acquaintance, dangerous climates. They, happily for them-honest, honourable, friendly, and generous. If we are not to oblige one another, life becomes a paltry, selfish affair,—a pitiful morsel in a corner. Sargent is so happily married, that I could almost say, the same case happen to us all. selves, have no other idea but to dig on here, eat, drink, sleep, and kiss their wives. "As to more important business, I have nothing to write to you. You know best. Be, as you always must be, just and honest; but if you "That I have not answered several letters of are unhappily, romantic, you shall come home -yours, is not owing to the want of friendship and without money, and write a tragedy on yourself. the sincerest regard for you; but you know me Mr. Lyttelton told me that the Grenvilles and he well enough to account for my silence, without had strongly recommended the person the govermy saying any more upon that head; besides, I nor and you proposed for that considerable office, have very little to say that is worthy to be trans- lately fallen vacant in your department, and that mitted over the great ocean. The world either there was good hopes of succeeding. He told me futilises so much, or we grow so dead to it, that also that Mr. Pitt had said that it was not to be its transactions make but feeble impressions on expected that offices such as that is, for which us. Retirement and nature are more and more the greatest interest is made here at home, could my passion every day, and now, even now, the be accorded to your recommendation, but that as charming time comes on: Heaven is just on the to the middling or inferior offices, if there was not point, or rather in the very act, of giving earth a some particular reason to the contrary, regard green gown. The voice of the nightingale is would be had thereto. This is all that can be heard in our lane. reasonably desired; and if you are not infected "You must know that I have enlarged my ru- with a certain Creolian distemper, whereof I am ral domain much to the same dimensions you have persuaded your soul will utterly resist the contadone yours. The two fields next to me, from gion, as I hope your body will that of the natural the first of which I have walled-no, no-paled ones, there are few men so capable of that unpein about as much as my garden consisted of be- rishable happiness, that peace and satisfaction of |