Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/259

Rh gaiety, and female society. But there was nothing to win “a prepossessed mind.” The letter is to his favourite sister Catherine, October, 1797:—

“My excursion to Brighton was quite an impromptu. I stayed there three weeks, and had seventeen dips in a good sea bath, which is a hundred times better than the open sea on that coast. The mornings went off quick enough—the evenings rather tedious, as for want of my (illegible) candles I could not venture to read. Metcalfe generally went to Lady Jersey’s to whist—Mrs. Stratford and Lady Heron her only companions—and sometimes to the play, whither I accompanied him two or three times for want of something to do.

“We dined one day at Sir Godfrey Webster’s, who is not a bit depressed by the loss of his wife. We had some fine folks there—the Duke of Beaufort and his son, the Marquis of Worcester, who is married to a very pleasing woman, daughter of Lord Gower, and sister to her you met at Cheltenham. There were also Lord Lucan and his daughter, Lady Anne. Her sister, Lady Spencer, is an agreeable woman; very different in manners.

“I dined one day with the Prince of Wales (not at his own house) and had a great deal of talk with him. But this is an old story, as you have probably