People of experience
and infirmity, my dear Letty, see with very different eyes from
those that such as you and I make use of -- Our evening's
entertainment was interrupted by an unlucky accident. In one of
the remotest walks we were surprised with a sudden shower, that
set the whole company a-running, and drove us in heaps, one upon
another, into the rotunda; where my uncle, finding himself wet,
began to be very peevish and urgent to be gone. My brother went
to look for the coach, and found it with much difficulty; but as
it could not hold us all, Mr Barton stayed behind. It was some
time before the carriage could be brought up to the gate, in the
confusion, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours of our new
footman, Humphry Clinker, who lost his scratch periwig, and got a
broken head in the scuffle. The moment we were seated, my aunt
pulled off my uncle's shoes, and carefully wrapped his poor feet
in her capuchin; then she gave him a mouth-ful of cordial, which
she always keeps in her pocket, and his clothes were shifted as
soon as we arrived at lodgings; so that, blessed be God, he
escaped a severe cold, of which he was in great terror.
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