Bath is
become a mere sink of profligacy and extortion. Every article of
house-keeping is raised to an enormous price; a circumstance no
longer to be wondered at, when we know that every petty retainer
of fortune piques himself upon keeping a table, and thinks it is
for the honour of his character to wink at the knavery of his
servants, who are in a confederacy with the market-people; and,
of consequence, pay whatever they demand. Here is now a mushroom
of opulence, who pays a cook seventy guineas a week for
furnishing him with one meal a day. This portentous frenzy is
become so contagious, that the very rabble and refuse of mankind
are infected. I have known a negro-driver, from Jamaica, pay
over-night, to the master of one of the rooms, sixty-five guineas
for tea and coffee to the company, and leave Bath next morning,
in such obscurity, that not one of his guests had the slightest
idea of his person, or even made the least inquiry about his
name. Incidents of this kind are frequent; and every day teems
with fresh absurdities, which are too gross to make a thinking
man merry.
-- But I feel the spleen creeping on me apace; and therefore will
indulge you with a cessation, that you may have no unnecessary
cause to curse your correspondence with,
Dear Dick,
Yours ever,
MAT.
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