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his house in Chancery-lane to meet us; and at Kingston, where we dined the second day, I found my old and much valued friend General Cowper, whom I had not seen in thirty years, and but for this journey should never have seen again. Mrs. Unwin, on whose account I had a thousand fears before we set out, suffered as little from fatigue as myself, and begins I hope already to feel some beneficial effects from the air of Eartham, and the exercise that she takes in one of the most delightful pleasure-grounds in the world. They occupy three sides of a hill, lofty enough to command a view of the sea, which skirts the horizon to a length of many miles, with the Isle of Wight at the end of it. The inland scene is equally beautiful, consisting of a large and deep valley well cultivated, and enclosed by magnificent hills, all crowned with wood. I had, for my part, no conception that a poet could be the owner of such a Paradise; and his house is as elegant as his scenes are charming.

But think not, my dear Catharina, that amidst all these beauties I shall lose the remembrance of the peaceful, but less splendid, Weston. Your precincts will be as dear to me as ever, when I return; though when that day will arrive I know not, our host being determined, as I plainly see, to keep us as long as possible. Give my best

love to your husband. Thank him most kindly for his attention to the old bard of Greece, and pardon me that I do not now send you an epitaph for Fop. I am not sufficiently recollected to compose even a bagatelle at present; but in due time you shall receive it.

Hayley, who will some time or other I hope see you at Weston, is already prepared to love you both, and being passionately fond of music, longs much to hear you.

ROMNEY is here; it would

add much to my happiness if you were of the party; I have prepared Hayley to think highly, that is justly of you, and the time, I hope, will come, when you will supersede all need of my recommendation.

Mrs. Unwin gathers strength. I have indeed great hopes from the air and exercise which this fine season affords her opportunity to use, that ere we return she will be herself again.

W. C.

LETTER CCCCIV.

TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ.

Eartham, August 18, 1792.

WISHES in this world are gene

rally vain, and in the next we shall make none. Every day I wish you were of the party, knowing how happy you would be in a place where we have nothing to do but enjoy beautiful scenery, and converse agreeably.

Mrs. Unwin's health continues to improve; and even I, who was well when I came, find myself still better.

Yours,

W. C.

THE kind wishes, that my guest thus addressed to Mr. Rose from Eartham, recalls so forcibly to my heart a sense of Cowper's cordial and merited esteem for this very interesting friend, and of my severe affliction in having recently lost him, that I trust the reader will forgive me, if I here make a pause in the work before me, and terminate the present volume with a tribute of regard to the memory of a highly pro

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mising character, whose early death has proved to all who had the pleasure of knowing him a source of affectionate regret.

The preceding letters of Cowper to this amiable young man must have prepared even such of my readers, as may be strangers to his person, to take an interest in his fate; and the generous zeal, with which he delighted to assist me in illustrating the life of the poet, whom he fervently loved and revered, entitle him to a record of tender distinction in these pages. Our mutual attachment to Cowper led us to become intimate and confidential friends to each other: and the inscrutable decrees of Heaven have now made it my duty to commemorate the endearing qualities of my younger friend, whose amiable and affectionate hand I could have wished employed in rendering such an of fice of kind remembrance to me, instead of his receiving it from mine.

SAMUEL ROSE was born on the 20th of June, 1767, at Chiswick, in Middlesex, where his father, Doctor William Rose, a native of Scotland, conducted an academy during many years, with considerable emolument, and unblemished reputation. This gentleman had married a daughter of Dr. Samuel Clark, a divine of talents and eminence among the dissenters. She bore him many children, but Samuel was his only sur

viving son, educated with fond and successful care by a parent, who had devoted the chief attention of a very active, benevolent, and cheerful mind, to the important duties of education. Rose, being duly prepared by his father for a Scottish university, was sent in 1784 to Glasgow. There he resided in the house of Professor Richardson, a philosopher and a poet; amiable in every character, and so just to the merits of youth, that a friendship and correspondence commenced between the tutor and his pupil, which terminated only with the life of the latter. Rose was very soon distinguished by that turn of mind, which Lord Clarendon has mentioned as a characteristic of his own early life, an eager, yet a modest desire to cultivate the acquaintance of men, who had risen to eminence by their intellectual endowments. He gained the esteem of several, whose writings reflect honor on Scotland; and he maintained, through life, a constant correspondence, not only with his domestic tutor, of Glasgow, but with Professor Young, Professor Millar, and Mr. Mackenzie, the Addison of the North. Of Rose's juvenile studies it may be sufficient to say, that he obtained every prize, except one, for which he contended as a student of the university. After passing three winters at Glasgow, he attended the courts of law in Edinburgh.