I gave James Doyl two crowns, and a strict order to take care of [my
our] gray colt, which I desire you will second.
I had a perfect summer journey, and if I had staid much longer, I should have certainly had a winter one, which, with weak horses and bad roads, would have been a very unpleasant thing.
DR. SWIFT’S CHARACTER OF DR. SHERIDAN.
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1738.
DOCTOR Thomas Sheridan died at Rathfarnam, the tenth of October 1738, at three of the clock in the afternoon: his diseases were a dropsy and asthma. He was doubtless the best instructor of youth in these kingdoms, or perhaps in Europe; and as great a master of the Greek and Roman languages. He had a very fruitful invention, and a talent for poetry. His English verses were full of wit and humour, but neither his prose nor verse sufficiently correct: however, he would readily submit to any friend who had a true taste in prose or verse. He has left behind him a very great collection, in several volumes, of stories, humorous, witty, wise, or some way useful, gathered from a vast number of Greek, Roman, Italian, Spanish, French, and English writers. I believe I may have seen about thirty, large enough to make as many moderate books in octavo. But among these extracts, there were many not worth regard; for five in six, at least, were of little use or entertainment. He was (as it is frequently the case
in
