day, and not quite
_sober_ yet--however, touch no meat, nothing but fish, soup, and
vegetables, consequently it does me no harm--sad dogs all the
_Cantabs_. Mem.--_we mean_ to reform next January. This place is a
_monotony of endless variety_--like it--hate Southwell. Has Ridge sold
well? or do the ancients demur? What ladies have bought?

"Saw a girl at St. Mary's the image of Anne ----, thought it was
her--all in the wrong--the lady stared, so did I--I _blushed_, so did
_not_ the lady,--sad thing--wish women had _more modesty_. Talking of
women, puts me in mind of my terrier Fanny--how is she? Got a
headache, must go to bed, up early in the morning to travel. My
_protege_ breakfasts with me; parting spoils my appetite--excepting
from Southwell. Mem. _I hate Southwell._

Yours, &c."

LETTER 15.

TO MISS ----.

"Gordon's Hotel, July 13, 1807.

"You write most excellent epistles--a fig for other correspondents,
with their nonsensical apologies for _'knowing nought about
it_,'--you send me a delightful budget. I am here in a perpetual
vortex of dissipation (very pleasant for all that), and, strange to
tell, I get thinner, being now below eleven stone considerably. Stay
in town a _month_, perhaps six weeks, trip into Essex, and then, as a
favour, _irradiate_ Southwell for three days with the light of my
countenance; but nothing shall ever make me _reside_ there again. I
positively return to Cambridge in October; we are to be uncommonly
gay, or in truth I should _cut_ the University. An extraordinary
circumstance occurred to me at Cambridge; a girl so very like ----
made her appearance, that nothing but the most _minute inspection_
could have undeceived me. I wish I had asked if _she_ had ever been at
H----.

"What the devil would Ridge have? is not fifty in a fortnight, before
the advertisements, a sufficient sale? I hear many of the London
booksellers have them, and Crosby has sent copies to the principal
watering places. Are they liked or not in Southwell?... I wish
Boatswain had _swallowed_ Damon! How is Bran? by the immortal gods,
Bran ought to be a _Count_ of the _Holy Roman Empire_.

"The intelligence of London cannot be interesting to you, who have
rusticated all your life--the annals of routs, riots, balls and
boxing-matches, cards and crim. cons., parliamentary discussion,
political details, masquerades, mechanics, Argyle Street Institution
and aquatic races, love and lotteries, Brookes's and Buon