am more often employed in Patrick's Commentary on the Old.

As for news, Kibworth is the wrong place for it, and I suppose it will be none to tell you that Mr. Joseph Barrow is likely to come into trouble for permitting that heretic Emlyn to preach in his pulpit. He has been here lately, and seems to expect that his brethren will cast him out, that the Lord may be glorified.

And now, to borrow the words of the reverend Dr. Swift and many others, this letter has swelled under my hands to a much greater bulk than I at first intended; and it was very imprudent to suffer it to do so, for I have hardly left myself room to tell you that I am, with due esteem,

Dear Sir,

Your loving brother and humble Servant,

PHILIP DODDridge.

For the Rev. John Nettleton,

near the Windmill, on Hampstead Heath.

DEAR SISTER,

TO MY SISTER.

Kibworth, 1721.

As Mrs. Jennings is dead! you will certainly expect that I should say something very mournful, or rather that I should be so full of trouble as not to be able

to say any thing at all. But what will you say when I tell you that her death has not cost me a tear. I am sure you will be very sorry to hear this sad news, and feel ready to call me a brute for being so little concerned for the death of a lady that I had all the reason in the world to love, or at least to be extremely fond of. However, not to amaze you any longer, Mrs. Jennings is as well as ever she was in her life; in short, she is so far from being dead, that we have just been drinking tea together in the parlour, and have been talking of coming to see you, and mean to wait upon you at Whitsuntide. As for the Mrs. Jennings we have buried, she was our tutor's mother. Her temper was not very agreeable. She had arrived to a considerable age, and laboured under a long course of infirmities; and so we all resigned her without much affliction; and so let her rest in peace.

And now, my dear, I will send you some good news, which may be useful to compose your mind after the hurry it has been put into by this sudden shock.

Presently after Christmas Mr. Cope made me a present of a guinea to buy Scott's Christian Life:

you know I have the first volume already, and Mr. Jennings has promised to complete the set for me when he goes to London; and so I hope to have the pleasure of reading you some more the next time I am at Hampstead.

About a quarter of a year ago Mr. Jennings received fifty shillings from Mr. Brag's fund upon my account, so that Mr. Clark's bill came to but little more than six pounds this last half

year.

Last Wednesday Mr. Jennings and I waited upon my Lady Russell at Maidwell; I expected some dreadful calamities by the way, for I rode with spurs ; but, being mounted upon one of the prettiest horses in the county, I was neither hurt nor tired; I was entertained in the most obliging manner imaginable, but will defer the particulars till the next time I see you; only I must not forget to tell you that my lady inquired very kindly after you, and spoke of you more than once with a great deal of respect. I lay there all night, and when I went away her ladyship gave me a guinea, and told me she hoped that I would be no stranger at Maidwell while she continued on this side of the country.

But, I profess, I forgot my main business, which was to scold you for not writing. Mrs. Nettleton, you know, in your own conscience, that I have received but one letter from you these eight months, and I desire to know what you mean by it? do you think there was ever such a sister in the world? sure

if

you had been dead, as the Irishman said, you would have sent me word. I fancy that little brat of yours takes up all your time; and if it does, I can

tell I had much rather it would have kept away: you I would fain know, whether women cease to be sisters when they become mothers. Pray, does your child never sleep? or could you not let Mary hold it while you write, if it were only, "Dear Brother, these few lines come to let you know that I am alive, hoping you are the same, and so I rest," &c. In short, madam, take it how you please, I solemnly protest that, unless I either hear from you or my brother, I will not write another line this twelvemonth. I will keep my Whitsuntide at Kibworth or St. Albans; nay, I will desire Mrs. Jennings not to come near you, if she comes to London. And so I remain, for I am too angry to rest, your abused friend and humble servant, for I can hardly say loving brother,

PHILIP DODDridge.

P.S. Notwithstanding this great wrath, you have it in your power to make your peace by the next post. I wrote my brother and you two long letters about Christmas; pray let me know whether you received them. My service to Mrs. Nettleton*; for although I am not in charity with you, I have still a great respect for her, and so desire to know if she has got any new pupils.

N.B. I send this by the penny post, which is deserve.

more than

you

* Mr. Nettleton's mother.

TO MRS. HANNAH CLARK.

Kibworth, 1721, Monday night.

DEAR, SEDATE, METHODICAL CLIO,

I AM extremely concerned that I was so unfortunate as to offend you in my last. I profess I took you for one of the gayest creatures in the world, but you tell me I was quite mistaken; and intimate, that if I would hope for the happiness of pleasing you for the future, I must put on a more melancholy air. Well, madam, you must forgive me this one time; and, in order to render you all the satisfaction that lies in my power, I openly recant every thing I said that is in the least injurious to your solemnity, and declare to the whole world, if you choose to show them my letter, that I honour you as a lady of the most exemplary gravity; and, to conform my writing the more entirely to your taste, I will go on in the most sermonical manner imaginable. As for instance,

The discourse that lies before us will naturally divide itself into these two general heads :

I. An answer to the last letter with which you were pleased to favour me.

II. A word of information relating to some particulars of which I would not have you ignorant, and of which, perhaps, you may not hear from another hand. Of these in their order,

I. An answer to your last letter. And this, madam, must be subdivided into three heads; which, as a