I found the truth of the matter.  Gray had kept the money in his hands, and had never paid Stranjan:  he had along with me once for a letter, in order for his character, to give him one, but I told him I could not give him a good one, so I would not write at all.  Gray is a very great drunkard, can’t keep a penny in his pocket:  a sad notorious lyar.  If you send him upon a mile or two from Uphingham, he will get drunk, stay all day, and never come home while the middle of the night, or such time as he knows his master is in bed.  He can nor will not keep any secret; neither has he so much wit as other people, for the fellow is half a fool, for if you would have business done with expedition, if he once gets out of the town, or sight of you, shall see him no more, while the next morning he serves me so and so:  you must expect the same if you hire him.  I use you just as I would be used myself; it I desired a character of you of a servant, that I had design’d to hire of yours, as to let you know the truth of every thing about him.

“I am, sir, your most humble servant to command.

“Great Addington, June 28, 1734.

“P.S.  He takes good care of his horses, with good looking after as to the dressing of them; but if you don’t take care, he will fill the manger full of corn, so that he will clog the horses, and ruin the whole stable of horses.”

* * * * *

EPITAPH

Upon two religious disputants who are interred within a few paces of each other.

  Suspended here, a contest see,
  Of two whose creeds cou’d ne’er agree,
  For whether they would preach or pray,
  They’d do it in a different way;
  And they wou’d fain our fate deny’d,
  In quite a different manner dy’d! 
  Yet think not that their rancour’s o’er,
  No! for ’tis ten to one, and more,
  Tho’ quiet now as either lies,
  But they’ve a wrangle when they rise.

* * * * *

LONGEVITY.

In St. Michael’s churchyard, at Litchfield, an ancient tombstone was lately discovered, which had been buried in the earth a great number of years.  Upon it are deeply cut the following inscriptions:—­

      Here lyes the Body
      of William Clarke,
    who was Clarke of this
  Church 51 years, and buried
   March 25th, 1525, aged 96.

      Here lyes the Body
      of William Clarke,
   Clarke of this Church 71
  years, who died Septem. 26,
      1562, and aged 86.

The father lived in the reigns of six different kings, viz.  Henry the Sixth, Edwards the Fourth and Fifth, Richard the Third, and Henry the Seventh and Eighth.  The son in seven reigns, viz. from Edward the Fourth to Mary the First.

Morning Chronicle, October 8, 1822.