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fhall have Six-pence, nay Eight-pence, if I can contrive to live upon a Groat.

I am faithfully, Your's, &c.

And now Mr. Gay's Life was spent chiefly in the Country with the Duke and Dutchefs of Queensberry. His Melancholy and Diftemper continuing to get the better of him, (though he had been always a Man of but few Words) he began to grow ftill more reserved, and feem'd to lofe fomething of his Invention and Strength of Genius. Whether it were fo in Reality, or whether he began to think it vain and of no Effect, his Stomach grew weak, and his Head began to be troubled with Dizziness; he with cold damp Sweats all over him, and fuch a Dejection of Spirits, that the very Entrance into the Room of any Stranger would give him Disorder. Of this he wrote, as well as of his Intention of coming to London, to Mr. Pope; who in his Reply strives to keep him in Heart a little by Mirth, and laughs at Stephen Duck and the Laureat, (who was Mr. Eufden) whom he calls a drunken Sot of a Parfon: It is dated Oɛ, 23, 1730,

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YOUR Letter is a very kind one, but I can't fay fo pleafing to me as many of your's have been, thro' the Account you give of the Dejection of your Spirits: I wifh the too conftant Ufe of Water does not contribute to it; I find Dr. Arbuthnot and another very knowing Physician of that Opinion. I alfo with you were not fo totally immers'd in the Country: I hope your Return to Town will be a prevalent Remedy againft the Evil of too much Rccollection: I wifh it partly for my own Sake. We have lived little together of late, and we want to be Phyficians for one another. It is a Remedy that a

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greed very well with us both for many Years, and I fancy our Conftitutions would mend upon the old Medicine of Studiorum fimilitudo, &c, I believe we both of us want whetting; there are several here who will do you that good Office, merely for the Love of Wit, which feems to be bidding the Town a long and laft Adieu. I can tell you of no one Thing worth reading, or feeing; the whole Age feems refolv'd to justify the Dunciad, and it may stand for a publick Epitaph or monumental Inscription like that at Thermopyla, on a whole People perish'd! There may indeed be a wooden Image or two of Poetry, fet up, to preferve the Memory that there once were Bards in Britain; and (like the Giants at Guildhall) fhow the Bulk and bad Taste of our Ancestors: At prefent the poor Laureat and Stephen Duck serve for this Purpose; a drunken Sot of a Parfon holds forth the Emblem of Infpiration, and an honeft induftrious Thresher not unaptly reprefents Pains and Labour. I hope this Phænomenon of Wiltshire has appear'd at Amesbury, or the Dutchefs will be thought infenfible of all bright Qualities and exalted Genius's, in Court and Country alike. But he is a harmless Man, and therefore I am glad.

This is all the News talk'd of at Court, but it will please you better to hear that Mrs. Howard talks of you, tho' not in the fame Breath with the Thresher, as they do of me. By the Way, have you seen or convers'd with Mr. Chubb, who is a wonderful Phanomenon of Wiltshire? I have read thro' his whole Volume with Admiration of the Writer; tho' not always with Approbation of the Doctrine. I have paft just three Days in London in four Months, two at Windfor, half an one at Richmond, and have not taken cne Excurfion into any other Country. Judge now whether I can live in my Library? Adieu. Live

mindful

mindful of one of your first Friends, who will be fo to the laft. Mrs. Blount deferves your Remembrance, for fhe never forgets you, and wants nothing of being a Friend.

I beg the Duke's and her Grace's Acceptance of my Services: The Contentment you express in their Company pleases me, tho' it be the Bar to my own, in dividing you from us. I am ever very truly Dear Sir, Your, &c.

1

A. POPE.

Mr. Gay came fhortly to Town, but his Fever growing inflammatory, he died the 4th of December, 1732, at his Grace the Duke of Queensberry's House in Burlington Gardens, near Piccadilly.

He, as he had five Years before hinted to Mr. Pope, died inteftate, and out of Place:

Gay dies unpenfion'd, with a thousand Friends.

POPE.

His Fortune was but fmall, and fell to his two Sifters; it was wholly owing to his own Labour and Prudence, during his Stewardship under the late Dutchefs of Monmouth.

His Body was brought, by the Company of Upholders, from the Duke of Queensberry's to Exeter Exchange in the Strand, and on the 23d of December, after lying in folemn State, was at eight o'Clock in the Evening, drawn in a Hearfe adorn'd with black and white Feathers, attended by three Mourn ing Coaches and fix Horfes, to Westminster Abbey.

His Pall was fupported by the Right Hon. the Earl of Chesterfield, the Lord Viscount Cornbury, the Hon. Mr. Berkeley, General Dormer, Mr. Gore, and Mr. Pope.

The

JOHN GAY ESQ.

Parr Jup

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