“And now, what shall I say of your
| 102 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“As to the subject you propose, I think you once proposed it before; and, in truth, it is a very tempting one, being full of interest. But, after thinking of it often, I always find myself obliged to give the same answer—I know too much and too little (particularly the last), to undertake it. Besides, if it were not so,
“‘Periculosæ plenum opus
alea
Tractas.’ |
“After what I have been writing of Burnet, too! No; my life is too tranquil here to risk its continuance, and so ‘no more of that, if you love me, Hal.’
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 103 |
“Meantime, I am not altogether idle, and make a great many notes, if no regular work.
“Though so much farther from town, I am really better off for neighbours than at Gilston. I had yesterday a party of fourteen, all thorough ladies and gentlemen, which is more than I could always say of the cockney county I have left. As Johnson (who, by the way, is remembered here) used to say, “we had good talk.” In fact, I am fond of real rural thanes, the native noblesse, if well educated, which the Boothbys, Davenports, Bromleys, and Fitzherberts, who roost all about me, are.
“There is a mixture, however: some with no blood, but immensely rich; some with high blood, and immensely poor. Among the first, however, Watts Russell bears his faculties so meekly, that he is deservedly popular. He inhabits and possesses the ‘happy valley,’ which gave Johnson the scene of his ‘Rasselas;’ and, also, a hollow tree, in which, it is said, Congreve wrote ‘The Double Dealer.’
| 104 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“And, now, adieu. I hope you got a basket with certain Christmas commodities, which I ordered to be sent you.
