“Dealt with life, as children with their play,
Who first misuse, then cast their toys away,”
that we do not derive the same pleasure from what passes before us in maturer age; or whether, in boyhood, the impressions of such trifles as I have related are deeper rooted in the memory; yet, certain it is, whatever be our situation in life, we all come to the conclusion, that our early days were our happiest.
I am, &c.
J—n J—k—n.
Bath Anecdotes.
A Member for the City, 1645.
In December 1645, the following letter was sent by the mayor and first alderman of Bath, to sir John Harrington, announcing their design of electing him one of their representatives, entreating him to accept the trouble thereof. The bold eagerness with which a seat in parliament is solicited now, and the modest coyness that marked the conduct of those who were called to that honour in the early part of the seventeenth century, strikingly contrast. The person chosen at that period to represent a county or city, was generally allowed a gratuity by his constituents in consideration of his trouble.
Copy.
To our muche honoured and worthie Friend, John Harrington, Esq. at his house at Kelstone, near Bathe.
Worthie Sir,