"We go to town next week. Try your interest and bring the duchess up by the birthday. I did not think to have named her any more in this letter. I find I am a little foolish about her; don't you be a great deal so, for if she will not come, do you come without her."
Gay was not the man to keep his feelings of disappointment to himself, and his feelings were so widely known that at the time the following copy of verses was handed about in manuscript [[22]]:—
A mother who vast pleasure finds,
In forming of the children's minds;
In midst of whom with vast delight,
She passes many a winter's night;
Mingles in every play to find,
What bias nature gives her mind;
Resolving there to take her aim.