God bless you; and, particularly, may He send you health, for that is the greatest blessing!

LETTER CCXCI

Blackheath, September 30, 1766.

My dear friend:  I received, yesterday, with great pleasure, your letter of the 18th, by which I consider this last ugly bout as over; and, to prevent its return, I greatly approve of your plan for the south of France, where I recommend for your principal residence, Pezenas Toulouse, or Bordeaux; but do not be persuaded to go to Aix en Provence, which, by experience, I know to be at once the hottest and the coldest place in the world, from the ardor of the Provencal sun, and the sharpness of the Alpine winds.  I also earnestly recommend to you, for your complaint upon your breast, to take, twice a-day, asses’ or (what is better mares’ milk), and that for these six months at least.  Mingle turnips, as much as you can, with your diet.

I have written, as you desired, to Mr. Secretary Conway; but I will answer for it that there will be no difficulty to obtain the leave you ask.

There is no new event in the political world since my last; so God bless you!

LETTER CCXCII

London, October 29, 7766.

My dear friend:  The last mail brought me your letter of the 17th.  I am glad to hear that your breast is so much better.  You will find both asses’ and mares’ milk enough in the south of France, where it was much drank when I was there.  Guy Patin recommends to a patient to have no doctor but a horse, and no apothecary but an ass.  As for your pains and weakness in your limbs, ‘je vous en offre autant’; I have never been free from them since my last rheumatism.  I use my legs as much as I can, and you should do so too, for disuse makes them worse.  I cannot now use them long at a time, because of the weakness of old age; but I contrive to get, by different snatches, at least two hours’ walking every day, either in my garden or within doors, as the weather permits.  I set out to-morrow for Bath, in hopes of half repairs, for Medea’s kettle could not give me whole ones; the timbers of my wretched vessel are too much decayed to be fitted out again for use.  I shall see poor Harte there, who, I am told, is in a miserable way, between some real and some imaginary distempers.

I send you no political news, for one reason, among others, which is that I know none.  Great expectations are raised of this session, which meets the 11th of next month; but of what kind nobody knows, and consequently everybody conjectures variously.  Lord Chatham comes to town to-morrow from Bath, where he has been to refit himself for the winter campaign; he has hitherto but an indifferent set of aides-decamp; and where he will find better, I do not know.  Charles Townshend and he are already upon ill terms.  ‘Enfin je n’y vois goutte’; and so God bless you!