cheerful companion and counsellor was again sought in their reverend friend (Jephson) from Westmeath, whose spirits were as cheerful as his personal attachments were sincere. He was therefore again summoned to London, and gives his wife as before, some lively notices of the incidents of his stay:—
I sit down (November 4th, 1805) to write my dearest girl an account of myself in Mr. M.’s study, after having sent off Miss Spencer[1] without much difficulty to Hockston (sic), where she is to be received in an excellent establishment for persons in her situation. I think I am of use to Mr. M., and if so, my whole object has been attained. I have hitherto never stirred from him, and to-morrow night am to be in the house. . . . . London looks, for that is all I shall see of it, as cheerful, gay, and riant as possible.
Whether Luttrell be yet in town or not, I know not. I dine to-day with Mr. M., Mr. Plumptree, a Cantab, and I believe young Boswell. Now for my journey. It was ridiculous enough during my Italian mania that I found myself placed in the coach at Holyhead, next to a native of Tuscany, of most agreeable manners, so that in walking up and down the Welsh hills, I had plenty of pronunciation, idiom, and the analogy and philosophy of languages, which you know is so much to my taste. . . . .
November 9th.—I had this morning packed up the greater part of my things, and with an impatient heart was getting ready for the Shrewsbury coach, which sets off at three o’clock this day, when I received a letter from Miss C. Malone, so earnestly recommending my further stay, that I was staggered in my resolution, and upon showing my letter to Mr. M., and pressing him to know how he felt upon the subject, the result is that I must submit to a little further absence from my dearest of dear girls.
Though Miss Malone, naturally enough, is more appre-- ↑ Daughter, it is supposed, of a former acquaintance, alluded to by Mr. Metcalfe in a letter from Brighton, and now believed to have been thrown on the humanity of Malone.
