take no commoners) and to Mr. Spence *, I am mightly taken with your nephew's verfes, and would tranflate them, if I thought I could do juftice to them. Accept of thefe, though I am fenfible, they do not hit off the true turn of the epigram: The author of "Polymetis," &c. He died in 1768, being then profeffor of modern hiftory at Oxford, and prebendary of Durham. † Viz. “A man of letters, without pedantry, ne bigot, nor violently attached to any party, but of "a catholic fpirit, and not unacquainted with natural philofophy and the mathematics." FROM FROM a fmall acorn, fee the oak arife, Supremely tall, and tow'ring in the skies! Queen of the groves, her flately head fhe rears, Her bulk increafing with increafing years! Now moves in pomp, majestic, o'er the deep, While in her womb Britannia's thunders fleep; With fame and conqueft graces Albion's fhore, And guards the ifland, where the grew before *. I hope, fir, you will accept of this, as it is written extempore; I know the laft couplet has fomething of a turn, but not the fame with the original. Yours, &c. CHRISTOPHER PITT. The original is as follows: DE MINIMIS MAXIMA. Et tandem patulis furgit in aftra comis; Mox fecat aquoreas, bellica navis, aquas. LUDOVICUS DUNCOMBE, Hertfordienfis. Some elegant Latin verfes, by the fame hand, are prefixed to Mr. Hughes's poems." LETTER SIR, LETTER XCI. Dean SWIFT to Mr. WALLIS. Market-hill, Nov. 16, 1728. I AM extremely obliged to you for your kind intention in the purchase you mention; but it will not anfwer my design, because these lands are let in leafes renewable for ever †, and confequently can never have the rent raised, which is mortal to all eftates left for ever to a public ufe, and is contrary to a fundamental maxim of mine; and most corporations feel the fmart of it. The feat of fir Arthur Achefon, where the dean paffed two fummers. He had a farm near it, which was let to him by fir Arthur, called afterwards Drapier's Hill. See fome verfes on that fubject, vol. 'xviii of his works," p. 52. + Accordingly, in his will, by which he devised his fortune to the building and endowing an hospital for lunatics, he restrained his executors from purchafing any lands that were encumbered with leafes "for lives renewable." I have been here feveral months to amufe me in my diforders of giddiness * and deafness, of which I have frequent returns---and I fhall hardly return to Dublin till Christmas. t. I am truly grieved at your great lofs †. Such misfortunes feem to break the whole fcheme of a man's life; and although time may leffen forrow, yet it cannot hinder a man from feeling the want of fo near a companion, nor hardly fupply it with another. I wish you health and happiness, *This disorder, which with intermiffions purfued him till it seemed to complete its conqueft, by rendering him the exact image of one of his own Struldbrugs, lord Orrery often heard him afcribe to a furfeit, occafioned by eating an immoderate quantity of fruit at fir William Temple's in 1691. + The death of Mrs. Wallis. This fentiment, no doubt, came from the writer's heart. Stella, the incomparable Stella, was then no more. and and that the pledge left you may prove a comfort. I am, with great fincerity, Your most obliged and moft humble fervant, JONATH. SWIFT. LETTER XCII. MONTAGU BACON, Efq; † to GEORGE JEFFREYS, Efq; ‡ DEAR GEORGE, Cambridge, C&. 6, 1732. To O make fome amends for my dogged filence in Leicestershire, I here begin a A fon, now a barrifter at law. + Younger fon of Nicholas Bacon, efq; of Shrubland in Suffolk, and fellow-commoner of Trinitycollege, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1704-5. He died in 1740, aged 51. This gentleman, who was educated at.WestminAer-fchool under Dr. Buby, was the fon of Chrifto pher |