Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/88

76

SIR,

OU have put me under the necessity of writing you a very scurvy letter, and in a very scurvy manner. It is the want of horses, and not of inclination, that hinders me from attending on you at the chapter. But I would do it on foot to see you visit in your own right; but if I must be visited by proxy, by proxy I will appear. The ladies of St. Mary's delivered me your commands; but Mrs. Johnson had dropped half of them by the shaking of her horse. I have made a shift, by the assistance of two civilians, and a book of precedents, to send you the jargon annexed, with a blank for the name and title of any prebendary, who will have the charity to answer for me. Those words, gravi incommodo, are to be translated, the want of a horse. In a few days I expect to hear the two ladies lamenting the fleshpots of Cavan street. I advise them, since they have given up their title and lodgings of St. Mary's, to buy each of them a palfry, and take a squire, and seek adventures, I am here quarrelling with the frosty weather, for spoiling my poor half dozen of blossoms. Spes anni colapfa ruit: Whether these words be