them know she pardons for this time, but will make use of other nethods with them in case they do the like for the future. This morning the town was surprised with the news of a marriage solemnized last night at the Duke of Montagu's house between Lord Hinchinbrook and the only daughter of Lady Anne Popham. By our last letters from Valencia we find the King of Spain's friends are all, except the Count de Noyelles, very much out of humor at his intended journey to Catalonia. I hear that Earl Rivers and Lord Essex talk of returning home, the command being in the hands of Lord Gallway. They design to march towards Madrid by the way of Arragon, and by that means leave the Tajo on the left, the passing of which would be difficult and dangerous. Prince Lichtenstein, Count Oropeza, and Count de Cardona are the Cabinet Councillors. The great and only misfortune they have in the present favorable conjuncture is the division among the general officers. You will doubtless hear of our talked-of changes from other hands. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, Whitehall, April 11th, 1707. Mr. Stepney. J. ADDISON. LII. [Stepney Papers. Vol. 1, Folio 89.] SIR-I send you enclosed a letter from my Lord Halifax, and thank you for all the kind ones received from your side. This day Lord Sunderland had a son christened, the Queen godmother, and the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Realton god. fathers. They say Jack How, Mr. Blathwait, and Prior, shake. The Dutchess of Marlborough has invited Lady Peterborough to dine with her and name her company, who are Dr. Garth, Lord Wharton, Lord Halifax, and Lord Sunderland. The Earl of Manchester will, I believe, have directions to call at Vienna in his way to Venice. It was to-day proposed in the House of Commons to let in French wine among us, but the proposal was received so warmly by one of the members that it immediately fell to our great mortification. I am your most obedient servant, December 17th. Mr. Stepney. J. ADDISON. LIII. TO THE EARL OF WARWICK. [This young nobleman was the son of the Countess of Warwick, whom Addison afterwards married. Addison was supposed to have been tutor to the Earl, but there is no evidence but contemporary hearsay to support this conjecture. These letters were originally published by Curll.—G.] MY DEAR LORD-I have employed the whole neighborhood in looking after birds' nests, and not altogether without success. My man found one last night, but it proved a hen's with fifteen eggs in it, covered with an old broody duck, which may satisfy your Lordship's curiosity a little, though I am afraid the eggs will be of little use to us. This morning I have news brought me of a nest which has abundance of little eggs streaked with red and blue veins, that, by the description they gave me, must. make a very beautiful figure on a string. My neighbors are very much divided in their opinions upon them: some say they are a sky-lark's, others will have them to be a canary bird's, but I am much mistaken in the turn and color of the eggs if they are not full of tom-tits. If your Lordship does not make haste, I am afraid they will be birds before you see them, for if the account they gave me of them be true, they can't have above two days more to reckon. ! Since I am so near your Lordship methinks after having passed the day among more severe studies, you may often take a trip hither, and relax yourself with the little curiosities of nature. I assure you no less a man than Cicero commends the two great friends of his age, Scipio and Lælius, for entertaining themselves at their country-houses, which stood on the seashore, with picking up cockle-shells and looking after birds' nests. For which reason I shall conclude this learned letter with a saying of the same author, in his treatise on Friendship. "Absint autem tristitia, et in omni re severitas: habent illa quidem gravitatem; sed amicitia debet esse lenior et remissior, et ad omnem suavitatem facilitatemque morum proclivior." If your Lordship understands the elegance and sweetness of these words, you may assure yourself you are no ordinary Latinist; but if they have force enough to bring you to Sandy End, I shall be very well pleased. I am, my dear Lord, your Lordship's most affectionate and most humble servant, J. ADDISON. Sandy End, May 20th, 1708. LIV. TO THE SAME. MY DEAREST LORD-I cannot forbear being troublesome to your Lordship whilst I am in your neighborhood. The business of this is to invite you to a concert of music, which I have found out in a neighboring wood. It begins precisely at six in the evening and consists of a black-bird, a thrush, a robin-redbreast. and a bull-finch. There is a lark that by way of overture sings and mounts till she is almost out of hearing; and afterwards, falling down leisurely, drops to the ground as soon as she has ended her song, The whole is concluded by a nightingale that has a much, better voice than Mrs. Tofts, and something of the Italian manner in her divisions. If your Lordship will honor me with your VOL. II. -22* company, I will promise to entertain you with much better music and more agreeable scenes than you ever met with at the opera; and will conclude with a charming description of a nightingale, out of our friend Virgil— Qualis populeâ morens Philomela sub umbra "So, close in poplar shades, her children gone, Your Lordship's most obedient May 27th, 1708. LV. J. ADDISON. [No address or date of place, but probably from Sandy End, and in 1708.-G.] DEAR SIR-If you are at leisure I will desire you to inquire in any bookseller's shop for a Statius, and to look in the beginning of the Achillead for a bird's-nest, which, if I am not mistaken, is very finely described. It comes in, I think, by way of simile towards the beginning of the book, where the poet compares Achiles's mother looking after a proper seat to conceal her son in, to a bird searching after a fit place for a nest. If you find it send it to me, or bring it yourself, and as you acquit yourself of this you may perhaps be troubled with more poetical commissions from, sir, your most faithful humble servant, J ADDISON. My hearty service to Dr. Swift. The next time you come bring a coach early that we may take the air in it.a May 30. LVI. TO MR. COLE AT VENICE. Whitehall, Oct. 31st, 1707. SIR-Yesterday we had news that the body of Sir Cloudesley Shovel was found on the coast of Cornwall. The fishermen who were searching among the wrecks, took a tin box out of one of the carcases that were floating, and found in it the commission of an admiral, upon which, examining the body more narrowly, they found it was poor Sir Cloudesley. You may guess the condition of his unhappy wife, who lost in the same ship with her husband, her two sons by Sir John Narborough. We begin to despair of the two other men of war and the fire ship that engaged among the same rocks. I am, sir, &c. LVII. то MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU. DEAR SIR-I am very much obliged to you for the honor of your letter and am glad to hear that there is no occasion for a [From C. J. Smith's "Historical and Literary Curiosities." 4to. Lite ratim.] The lines of Statius referred to are certainly the following, although. they do not, as Addison imagined, describe a bird's-nest. If they had, he would probably have communicated them to the young lord. "Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu, Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem, Achillead, i. 212. b Sir Cloudesley Shovel was returning with his fleet from the Mediterranean when his own ship and several others were wrecked on the Scilly islands. On board the admiral's ship every sul perished. Smollett relates in his history, that "the admiral's body being cast ashore was stripped and buried in the sand; but afterwards discovered and brought into Plymouth, from whence it was conveyed to London and buried in Westminster Abbey." |