of that pamphlet, though he went after dark and with all possible secrecy, he was quietly told in a day or two, 'Well! you have been with Lord North!'

Some such suspicion against even poor Goldsmith, unpensioned as he was, broke out on the appearance of his English History in August. Yet a more innocent production could hardly have been imagined. It was simply a compilation, in his easy flowing style, from four historians he impartially characterised in his preface; and with as little of the feeling of being influenced by any, this book throughout had been written. They have each,' he says, speaking of Rapin, Carte, Smollett, and Hume, 'their pecu'liar admirers, in proportion as the reader is studious of 'political antiquities, fond of minute anecdote, a warm partizan, or a deliberate reasoner.' Nevertheless, passages of very harmless narrative were displayed in the papers as of very questionable tendency; he was asked if he meant to be the tool of a minister, as well as the drudge of a bookseller; he was reminded that the favour of a generous public (so generous at other people's cost), was better than the best of pensions; and he finally was warned against betraying his country for base and scandalous pay.' The poor publisher became alarmed, and a formal defence of the book appeared in the Public Advertiser. Tom was himself a critic, and had taken the field full armed for his friend (and his property). Have you seen,' he says in a letter to Granger, an impartial account of Goldsmith's 'History of England? If you want to know who was

'the writer of it, you will find him in Russell Street: 'but Mum!'

Meanwhile Goldsmith had been steadily working at his new labour, had nearly finished his comedy, and was too quiet and busy in his country lodging to be much disturbed by those noises elsewhere.. The farm-house still stands on a gentle eminence in what is called Hyde Lane, leading to Kenton, about three hundred yards from Hyde village, and looking over a pretty country in the direction of Hendon; and when Mr. Prior went in search of it some years since, he found still living in the neighbourhood the son of the farmer (a Mr. Selby) with whom the poet lodged, and in whose family the property of the house and farm remained. He found traditions of Goldsmith surviving, too: how he used now and then to wander into the kitchen from his own room in fits of study or abstraction, and the parlour used to be given up to him when he had visitors to tea; how Reynolds and Johnson had come out there, and he had once taken the young folks of the farm to see some strolling players at Hendon; how he had come home one night without his shoes, having left them stuck fast in a slough; and how he had an evil habit of reading in bed, and of putting out his candle by flinging his slipper at it. It is certain he was fond of this humble place. He told Johnson and Boswell that he believed the farmer's family thought him an odd character, similar to that in which The Spectator appeared to his landlady and her children. He was The Gentleman. And so content for the

present was he to continue here, that he had given up a summer visit into Lincolnshire, proposed in company with Reynolds, to see their friend Langton in his new character of Benedict. He had married, the previous year, one of those three Countess Dowagers of Rothes who had all of them the fortune to get second husbands at about the same time; and to 'Bennet Langton, Esq., at Langton, near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire,' it seems to have been Goldsmith's first business to write on his return to his chambers in the Temple. The pleasant letter has happily been preserved, and is dated from Brick Court, on the seventh of September.

"MY DEAR SIR, Since I had the pleasure of seeing you last, I have been almost wholly in the country at a farmer's house, quite alone, trying to write a comedy. It is now finished; but when or how it will be acted, or whether it will be acted at all, are questions I cannot resolve. I am therefore so much employed upon that, that I am under the necessity of putting off my intended visit to Lincolnshire for this season. Reynolds is just returned from Paris, and finds himself now in the case of a truant that must make up for his idle time by diligence. We have therefore agreed to postpone our journey till next summer, when we hope to have the honour of waiting upon Lady Rothes, and you, and staying double the time of our late intended visit. We often meet, and never without remembering you. I see Mr. Beauclerc very often both in town and country. He is now going directly forward to become a second Boyle deep in chemistry and physics. Johnson has been down on a visit to a country parson, Doctor Taylor; and is returned to his old haunts at Mrs. Thrale's. Burke is a farmer, en attendant a better place; but visiting about too. Every soul is a visiting about and merry but myself. And that is hard too, as I have been trying

:

these three months to do something to make people laugh. There have I been strolling about the hedges, studying jests with a most tragical countenance. The Natural History is about half finished, and I will shortly finish the rest. God knows I am tired of this kind of finishing, which is but bungling work; and that not so much my fault as the fault of my scurvy circumstances. They begin to talk in town of the Opposition's gaining ground; the cry of liberty is still as loud as ever. I have published, or Davies has published for me, an Abridgement of the History of England, for which I have been a good deal abused in the newspapers, for betraying the liberties of the people. God knows I had no thought for or against liberty in my head; my whole aim being to make up a book of a decent size, that, as 'Squire Richard says, would do no harm to nobody. However, they set me down as an arrant Tory, and consequently an honest man. When you come to look at any part of it, you'll say that I am a sore Whig. God bless you, and with my most respectful compliments to her Ladyship, I remain, dear Sir, your most affectionate humble servant, OLIVER GOLDSMITH."

Though the Langton visit had been thus deferred, however, another new married couple claimed him soon after this letter; and he could not, amidst all his scurvy circumstances, resist the temptation. Little Comedy had become Mrs. Bunbury, and he was asked to visit them at Barton. But his means were insufficient; and for a time to anticipate them, he laid himself under fresh obligations to Newbery. Former money transactions between them, involving unfulfilled engagements for a new story, remained still uncancelled; and Garrick still held an outstanding note of Newbery's, unpaid because of disputed claims on behalf of the elder Newbery's estate: but a better

understanding between the publisher and his creditor, on the faith of certain completed chapters of the long-promised tale, had now arisen; and Garrick was in no humour to disturb it by reviving any claim of his. Recent courtesies and kindness had been heartily interchanged between the poet and the actor, and shewed how little on either side was at any time needed to have made these celebrated men fast friends. In the last three years they had met more frequently than at any previous time, at Mr. Beauclerc's, Lord Clare's, and Sir Joshua's ; and where there is anything to esteem, the more men know of each other the more they will wish to know. Thus, courtesies and good-nature had freely passed between them; and hints of promise and acceptance for a new comedy (Hoadly warning Garrick soon after against 'giving in' to Doctor Goldsmith's ridiculosity) would appear to have been interchanged. What was lately written in the country (little better than a rough draught at present, it is probable) is for Covent Garden; but he thinks he has so far succeeded as to have yet greater confidence for the future, and something of an understanding for a future dramatic effort seems certainly to have been agreed to. A new and strong link between them was supplied by the family Goldsmith is about to visit; for Garrick was Bunbury's most familiar friend, and a leader in all the sports at Barton. What Goldsmith's ways and habits used to be there, a survivor of that happy circle lived to be still talking about not many years ago. Come now let us play the fool a little,' was his ordinary invitation to