JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.
"In five or six days I set out upon an excursion to Herefordshire, to Lady Scudamore's, but shall return here the beginning of August.... The weather is extremely hot, the place is very empty; I have an inclination to study, but the heat makes it impossible."[[2]]
"I suppose Mr. Gay will return from the Bath with twenty pounds more flesh and two hundred pounds less in money," Swift wrote to Pope on July 16th. "Providence never designed him to be above two-and-twenty, by this thoughtlessness and cullibility. He has as little foresight of age, sickness, poverty, or loss of admirers, as a girl of fifteen."[[3]] From this it may be deduced that Gay, whenever he was free from an attack of colic, persevered in the pleasures of the table and of his favourite quadrille.
JOHN GAY TO ALEXANDER POPE.
"I have heard more than once from our friend at Court, who seemed, in the letter she writ, to be in high health and spirits. Considering the multiplicity of pleasures and delights that one is overrun with in those places, I wonder how anyone has health and spirits enough to support them. I am heartily glad she has, and whenever I hear so, I find it contributes to mine. You see, I am not free from [pg 94]dependence, though I have less attendance than I had formerly; for a great deal of my own welfare still depends upon hers. Is the widow's house to be disposed of yet? I have not given up my pretensions to the Dean. If it was to be parted with, I wish one of us had it. I hope you wish so too, and that Mrs. Blount and Mrs. Howard wish the same, and for the very same reason that I wish it."[[4]]
THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY.
"I am glad you have passed your time so agreeable. I need not tell you how mine has been employed; but as I know you wish me well, I am sure you will be glad to hear that I am much better; whether I owe it to the operation I underwent, or to my medicines, I cannot tell; but I begin to think I shall entirely get the better of my illness. I have written to Dr. Arbuthnot, both to give him a particular account, and to ask his opinion about the Bath. I know him so well that, though in this last illness he was not my physician, he is so much my friend, that he is glad I am better. Put him in mind to tell me what he would have me do in relation to Lady F.; and to send me a direction to write to her.
"I have made Mr. Nash governor to Lord Peterborough, and Lord Peterborough governor to Mr. Pope. If I should come to the Bath, I propose being governess to the Doctor [Arbuthnot] and you. I know you both to be so unruly, that nothing less than Lady P.'s spirit or mine could keep any authority over you. When you write to Lady Scudamore, make my compliments to her. I have had two letters from Chesterfield, which I wanted you to answer for me; and I have had a thousand other things that I have wanted you to do for me; but, upon my word, I have not had one place to dispose of, or you should not be without one.... My humble service to the Duchess of Marlborough and Mr. Congreve."
[pg 95]JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.