MELFORD
To Dr LEWIS.
DEAR DICK,
Since the last trouble I gave you, I have met with a variety of
incidents, some of them of a singular nature, which I reserve as
a fund for conversation; but there are others so interesting,
that they will not keep in petto till meeting.
Know then, it was a thousand pounds to a sixpence, that you
should now be executing my will, instead of perusing my letter!
Two days ago, our coach was overturned in the midst of a rapid
river, where my life was saved with the utmost difficulty, by the
courage, activity, and presence of mind of my servant Humphry
Clinker -- But this is not the most surprising circumstance of the
adventure -- The said Humphry Clinker proves to be Matthew Loyd,
natural son of one Matthew Loyd of Glamorgan, if you know any
such person -- You see, Doctor, that notwithstanding all your
philosophy, it is not without some reason that the Welchmen
ascribe such energy to the force of blood -- But we shall discuss
this point on some future occasion.
This is not the only discovery which I made in consequence of our
disaster -- We happened to be wrecked upon a friendly shore -- The
lord of the manor is no other than Charles Dennison, our fellow-rake
at Oxford -- We are now happily housed with that gentleman,
who has really attained to that pitch of rural felicity, at which
I have been aspiring these twenty years in vain.
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