“Dear Patmore,—I am glad
of any occasion that gives me a letter from you, but
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“You may suppose I am glad to give you every information in my power, only cautioning you that it is above twenty years since I left the Ordnance, and as rules and customs may be changed, I can only tell you what prevailed in my time, without knowing whether the routine is still the same. * * *
“Pray let me hear further, as, if you succeed for the establishment, I cannot but think you lucky; as, by good conduct and seniority, the senior clerks rise, some of them to 500l. and even 1000l. a year.
“Pray remember me to Mrs. P. and your sons, and give my respects to the Baroness ——.
“I would say something of myself, but, in truth, have
little satisfactory. I have more frequent, as well as more severe attacks of
painful indigestion, which begin to announce the usual fate of a man who has
lived far beyond his time. But I have the reverse of a right to complain,
having still much to enjoy and be grateful for; amongst other
| 198 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“Then, again, I have actually, spite of pain, been able to resume my pen, and have at least pleased myself by a number of papers on the various sorts of ambition, high and low, as it has appeared in actually existing characters, Swift, Bolingbroke, Temple, Atterbury, Lord Holland, Lords Townshend and Waldegrave, &c. Light summer reading, as you perceive, but also un peu philosophe, especially when we come to such an example of No ambition, as White of Selborne. Whether to publish these ‘Day Dreams’ (for that is their title) is very doubtful; but I have already about enough for a volume, and, at least, ‘I have had my dream.’
“Adieu, dear P., and believe me very much yours,
