ページの画像
PDF
ePub

sion would restore our ancient military cha

racter.

*

I am always, my dear friend,
Yours most affectionately,

JAMES CURRIE.

No. 8.

Liverpool, November 22. 1795.

MY DEAR DOCTOR,

It gave me great concern to learn that Mrs. Currie's health continues so poorly. I really hope you will take a resolution to try the effects of English air; and I almost indulge the expectation that we may see you next summer.

You are now almost a stranger in your native land. Twenty-three years form a large portion of life; and so long you have been absent from Britain, and suffering the scorching beams and the numbing colds of the atmosphere of Virginia. Do not you think you should relish a sight of your old friends, and of the scenes of your infancy? About eighteen months ago, I visited your father and mother; both, as our phrase is, rather frail, but preserving nearly the

same appearance, and displaying the same kind hospitality, as formerly. I was entertained in the far room where we used to sleep, and sat on the very same bed that held us together six and twenty years ago. The ideas were recalled to my mind as fresh as if they had happened yesterday; and I could not but suppose I saw you lying under the clothes with your head bare, and a Jew's harp in your mouth, playing your favourite air. I joked with your mother about your old tricks, and drank drams with your father till we fell a kissing each other, and we could have both cried heartily.

I looked into Mean Water to see if there were any minnows, and there they lay under the banks just as when we left them. I longed to hang a few of them; but I had not a rod fitted up, and the time was too short to get one fitted for me.

I am myself in tolerable health, nearly 200 lbs. weight, and in my thirty-ninth year, without a touch of the gout; which, considering the history of my poor father, and of all the Cleughheads family, I think extraordinary. I am in general several hours in the day on horseback; and to this I attribute my exemption from the fatal malady I have mentioned.

In regard to public affairs, the subject is endless, and the prospects before England not of the brightest hues. Scarcity comes on us from the universality and destruction of the war. The people complain - they are inclined to be mutinous; and yet our weak and deluded ministry go on accumulating debt and disgrace. The truth is, they have waded so deep they know not how to retreat.

My dear friend,

Yours most affectionately,
JAMES CURRIE.

LETTERS TO DR. PERCIVAL,

MANCHESTER,

FROM 1788 TO 1797.

Nos. 9. To 23.

[ocr errors]

Analytical Review.—Slave Trade.—Discovery in Bleaching. Corporation and Test Acts. Royal Society. - Sir Joseph Banks, Correspondence with. Birmingham Riots. - Literary Notices. On medical Consultations. Earl of Wycombe Account of his Travels through the United States of America, and Observations. - General Washington. French Revolution. Manchester Academy, and

[ocr errors]

Dr. Barnes. — Injurious Habits of Dissent.-Dugald Stewart's Moral Philosophy, Outlines of. Chemical Notices.Dr. Garnett. Dr. Kippis. Mr. Roscoe's Lorenzo de' Medici.- Manchester House of Recovery.-Public Affairs. Literary Communications.

« 前へ次へ »