"Sr.
"Your most Obedt. Servant,
"Thos. Hancock."
But neither Esquire Hancock nor Mr. Glin at Stepney could control the force of Nature, or persuade the delicate fruit-trees of Old England to blossom and flourish here, even on the south side of Beacon Hill. The maxim, "L'homme propose, et le bon Dieu dispose," was found to be as inevitable in 1736 as it is in our later day and generation. It is true that no ancestral Downing was then at hand, with wise counsels of arboriculture, nor had any accidental progenitor of Sir Henry Stuart of Allanton as yet taught the Edinboro' public of the Pretender's time the grand secrets of transplanting and induration. Esquire Hancock, therefore, was left to work out by himself his own woful, but natural disappointment. On the 24th of June, 1737, he writes to the unfortunate nurseryman in a strain of severe, and, as he doubtless thought, of most righteous indignation.
"Sir,—I Recd. your Letter & your Baskett of flowers per. Capt. Morris, & have Desired Francis Wilks Esqr to pay you £26 for them Though they are Every one Dead. The Trees I Recd Last Year are above half Dead too,—the Hollys all Dead but one, & worse than all is, the Garden Seeds and Flower Seeds which you Sold Mr. Wilks for me Charged at £6. 8s. 2d. Sterling were not worth one farthing. Not one of all the Seeds Came up Except the Asparrow Grass, So that my Garden is Lost to me for this Year. I Tryed the Seeds both in Town and Country & all proved alike bad. I Spared Mr. Hubbard part of them and they All Serv'd him the Same." (Rather an unlucky blow this for poor Glin, as Mr. Hubbard had been his first sponsor and perhaps his only friend in New England.) "I think Sir, you have not done well by me in this thing, for me to send a 1000 Leagues and Lay out my money & be so used & Disapointed is very hard to Bare, & so I doubt not but you will Consider the matter & Send me over Some more of the Same Sort of Seeds that are Good & Charge me nothing for them,—if you don't I shall think you have imposed upon me very much, & 't will Discourage me from ever Sending again for Trees or Seeds from you. I Conclude,
"Your Humble Servt.
"T. H.
"P. S. The Tulip Roots you were pleased to make a present off to me are all Dead as well."
The last paragraph is truly delicious,—a real Parthian arrow, of the keenest, most penetrating kind. The ill-used gentleman is determined that poor Glin shall find no crumb of credit left,—not in the matter of the purchased wares alone, but even for the very presents that he had had the effrontery to send him.
After learning the opinion entertained by Mr. Hancock of his estate, its situation, prospect, and capacities, and understanding his intentions in regard to its improvement, as expressed in his first letter to Glin,—it may naturally be expected that we shall come upon some further allusions to the works he had thus taken in hand, in the antiquated volume before us. In this respect, as we turn over its remaining pages, we shall find that we are not to be disappointed. His letters on the subject, addressed to persons on the other side of the water, and particularly to the trusty Wilks, are, in fact, for the space of the next three or four years, most refreshingly abundant. Some of these are so minute, characteristic, and interesting, that we shall need no apology for transcribing them, most literally, here. On June 24th, 1737, he had written to Wilks,—
"This waites on you per Mr Francis Pelthro who has Taken this Voyage to Londo. in order to be Cutt for ye Stone by Dr. Cheselden;[8] he Is my Friend & a Very honest Gentleman. In case he needs your advise in any of his affairs & Calls on you for it, I beg ye favr of you to do him what Service falls in your way, which Shall Take as done to my Self, and as he's a Stranger, Should he have occasion for Ten Guineas please to Let him have it & Charge to my Accot. I suppose he's sofficeint with him—Except Some Extrordinary accidant happen.
"I beg your particular Care about my Glass, that it be the best, and Every Square Cutt Exactly to the Size, & not to worp or wind in the Least, & Pack't up So that it may take no Damage on the passage,—it's for my Own Use & would have it Extrordinary. I am Sr
"Your most oblid'gd obed. Sevt.
"T. H."