Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/65

Rh, I a wag; in short, you are Doctor Parnelle (with an e at the end of your name), and I your most obliged and affectionate friend and faithful servant. My hearty service to the Dean, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and the true genuine shepherd, Gay of Devon, I expect him down with you.

Dear Sir,

to you with the same warmth, the same zeal of good will and friendship, with which I used to converse with you two years ago, and cannot think myself absent when I feel you so much at my heart. The picture of you which Jervas brought me over, is infinitely less lively a representation than that I carry about with me, and which rises to my mind whenever I think of you. I have many an agreeable reverie through those woods and downs where we once rambled together. My head is sometimes at the Bath, and sometimes at Litcomb, where the Dean makes a great part of my imaginary entertainment, this being the cheapest way of treating me. I hope he will not be displeased at this manner of paying my respects to him, instead of following my friend Jervas's example, which, to say the truth, I have as much inclination to do, as I want ability. I have been ever since December last in greater variety of business than any such men as you (that is divines and philosophers) can possibly imagine a Rh