LONDON,October 30,1767.
MY DEAR FRIEND:I have now left Blackheath,till the next summer,if Ilive till then;and am just able to write,which is all I can say,for Iam extremely weak,and have in a great measure lost the use of my legs;I hope they will recover both flesh and strength,for at present they have neither.I go to the Bath next week,in hopes of half repairs at most;for those waters,I am sure,will not prove Medea's kettle,nor 'les eaux de Jouvence'to me;however,I shall do as good courtiers do,and get what I can,if I cannot get what I will.I send you no politics,for here are neither politics nor ministers;Lord Chatham is quiet at Pynsent,in Somersetshire,and his former subalterns do nothing,so that nothing is done.Whatever places or preferments are disposed of,come evidently from Lord -------,who affects to be invisible;and who,like a woodcock,thinks that if his head is but hid,he is not seen at all.
General Pulteney is at last dead,last week,worth above thirteen hundred thousand pounds.He has left all his landed estate,which is eight and twenty thousand pounds a-year,including the Bradford estate,which his brother had from that ancient family,to a cousin-german.He has left two hundred thousand pounds,in the funds,to Lord Darlington,who was his next nearest relation;and at least twenty thousand pounds in various legacies.If riches alone could make people happy,the last two proprietors of this immense wealth ought to have been so,but they never were.
God bless you,and send you good health,which is better than all the riches of the world!
