am to your writings, I am partial to the autumn season :-perhaps you will become so when grown fomewhat older; and not exclaim against that pensive season (as you call it) which, if it does not afford all the gaieties of fpring and fummer, is however attended with fewer difappointments. Would you in spring enjoy the beauty of your parterre, a fudden shower drives you home; in fummer you are obliged to shut out the delicious prospect of the ripened grain and the various labours of the peasant, left, like him, you should be fcorched by the funbeams, which your fpreading waters reflect the more strongly, or be catched, though under the shelter of an oak, by the mercilefs lightning: whereas in autumn, though more languid, the fun has ftill power to chear, and its gentle heat causes no pain; it ftill ferves to ripen fruits, which are to be your confolation in winter; and though the days are short, every hour of them may be enjoyed in meads and groves, where indeed the trees lofe their verdure; but it is no more than changing their dress (as fome lowly nymphs have done of late) from a plain green gown to a rich brocade mixed with ten thousand shades and as it is wove by the hand of Nature, fhould ftill please in its variety, though not equally as in its bloom; nor fhould

its more folemn and decent appearance anticipate by reflection the rigours of winter. Too foon she will make her fhivering naked appearance, and make us with ourselves buried with the ant, till fpring returns, unless fome focial friends affemble (as at Barrells in 1747) to fupply with their converfation the abfence of the fun. I cannot perfuade Mr. Outing to allow of my indulgence to autumn; though, to favour my argument, Nature has been fo remarkably kind this last October to adorn my Shrubbery with the flowers that ufually blow at Whitfuntide, and deck my apple-trees with bloffoms, which we faw upon two of the trees three days ago, and have now primroses and polyanthufes growing. Perhaps it is not fo at the Leafowes; for though the fame fun lights us, it may be clouded over there, and your flowers withered all when Thomson died.-Nature indeed should mourn for one who fung fo well her praifes; but that debt paid, and his urn placed in your grove, (fo worthy of its reception) fhe will no longer weep her Poet, but adopt you her favourite to fucceed him.-His Castle of Indolence I have read at last, and admire feveral parts of it, He makes the Wizard's Song moft engaging: but, as Lady Hertford obferves, it is no wonder; for

"He needs no Mufe who dictates from the Heart;"

and

and Thomson's heart was ever devoted to that Archimage. Do not copy him too nearly in that; it would be cruel to your friends, if, like him,

your ditty fweet

"You loathed much to write, nor cared to repeat."

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I fhall be glad to fee the model of your urn; but more glad to see the urn itself in your grove, and its fhadow trembling in your transparent stream. I hope it will be well executed, as it will give you a pensive pleasure, and to all who fee and read how you have celebrated the memory of one who fo well deferved it. Future urns no doubt will be raised to you, but long may they remain unneceffary! though, according to your propofing to end your labours (which is ending your pleasures) as foon as two more things are erected, I fhould look upon. your death as very near, and that you imagine he is to fnatch you to his arms juft as you are laying the last white brick of the fecond gardenfeat for no lefs a monarch than he could stop the course of your elegant improvements. If I guess right, the most rapid current, or (what is yet ftronger) the most afpiring ambition might as well be stopped as your inclination cease which forces you to adorn your villa, or ever

your

your tafte defcend to the vulgar rule of leaving things as you found them. I often wish I had had that fame ufeful vulgar prudence; and yet how afhamed fhould I have been of it, when friends of tafte had feen me enjoy the thiftles and nettles that adorned this favage place, as contentedly as the afs that feeds on them!

If your expoftulations with Mr. Lyttelton were brufques, his vifit was as much fo; and upon fuch occafions I never love to be behind-hand with great people.

The eldest fon of Archimage, and the little round fat oily Man of God, talk of making you a vifit the week that is now coming in; and for that I waited to write: but unlefs weather, roads, and all conveniences confpire, I tell the former, I am fure he will not fet out. But he fays I do not form a right notion of him; fo I leave it to him to prove. In the mean time, they defire their compliments to you; I fuppofe I need not say I mean Mr. Outing and Mr. Hall. I will fend Dodfley's three volumes by them. As to your thought about improving the Show-box, I do not defpife it for believing you took it from the thing called London Cries, which children play with; for the great Handel has told me that the hints of his very best fongs have feveral of them been owing to

་.

the

the founds in his ears of cries in the street: and why may your eyes not take a hint from the manner in which they are exhibited in the forementioned little machine? but I question if it can be fo well performed in fo large a thing as these machines we have. The paper would rumple if not fastened to pasteboard, and if faftened, would be too ftiff to roll round the rollers; yet I do not know whether, as you obferve, fome fort of canvas might not do. It would be a good amufement in the Wizard's Caftle; for by this means it would give no trouble to bring all the beautiful gardens and palaces of the world to your view, as his chryftal globe by turning fhewed him the various turns of man. For my part, I propose to have at my Castle of Barrells Æolus's Harp; a mufic which will never cease here as long as the winds maintain their power.

I do not complain of your punctuality as to paying intereft for the Green Book; but I am ftill as impatient for the principal, as if you had allowed me nothing to live on. I am also jealous of the Red Book, who robs me I fear of your time. Mr. Outing's anxiety is for the Red one; fo I expect no compaffion from him: all I defire is, that, whether green or red, you will let me have fome of your Works to fubfift

upon