285.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq.
Saturday Night, Bentinck Street, 13th July, 1776.
Mrs. G. at last arrived. I enclose her letter. Our plan seems to be to visit Sheffield Place towards the end of next week. À vue de pays, Friday appears the most likely day. I have no news public or private, and loose conversation may be deferred till our meeting. I was deeply engaged in the decline, but this visit and journey put a heavy spoke in the wheel. Adieu.
286.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq.
Saturday evening, August, 1776.
*We expect you at five o'Clock Tuesday without a sore throat. You have ere this heard of the shocking accident which takes up the attention of the town.* Our old acquaintance poor John Damer[334] shot himself, last Wednesday night, at the Bedford arms, his usual place of resort, where he had passed several hours with four Ladies and a blind fidler. By his own indolence rather than extravagance, his circumstances were embarrassed, and he had frequently declared himself tired of life. *No public news, nor any material expected till the end of this or beginning of the next month when Howe will probably have collected his whole force.[335] A tough business indeed; you see by their declaration that they have now passed the Rubicon and rendered the work of a treaty infinitely more difficult: You will perhaps say, so much the better; but I do assure you that the thinking friends of government are by no means sanguine.* Mrs. G. seems likely to expect your arrival. She has had no answer out of you. I am pretty much a prisoner except about one hour in the evening: but as she dines to-morrow with Mrs. Ashby, *I take the opportunity of eating turtle with Garrick at Hampton.* Adieu.