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Eighteenth Century Post-Bag
I was irretrievably sunk in a debt of letters, which is now something abated; but I am far from having acquitted myself of the devoirs of a good correspondent. I have been for a fortnight in a most flourishing state of health, which to acquire and maintain has cost me time and pains; drinking waters, riding on horseback, airing in a post-chaise, continual dissipation, and uninterrupted idleness; sacrificing still the end of living to the means. Our company is much diminished; of the many that go there are a few whom one regrets; and first of the rank of these are Mr. and Mrs. Southwell. I promised, or threatened, Mr. Southwell to write his memoirs; in the first place he is Vami du genre humain. so popular, so complaisant, that I (who am jealous of his favours) want to infuse a little of the zest of misanthropy into him; then for the ladies from fourscore, to fourteen, he is their zealous admirer, and faithful humble servant. I found him guilty on the statute of coquetry with the Countess of Abercorn : old Mrs. Ashley has added a yard of whalebone to her plumpers merely on his account; and really she seems now to have put a perfect farthingale over her upper jaw, to the great discomfort of her
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