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Honoured Sir
I am now at last in a situation
to thank you for your letter, dated so long ago
as the 27th of last month. and but written and sent
(I cannot but suppose) several days earlier, for the
day I received it to the best of my recollection was
the 29th, but I am certain not later than the 30th.
On the Sunday after I think it was the first of this
month, I called upon Mrs Far, to communicate to
her such of the contents as were communicable, and
to pick up the freshest of such intelligence as I thought
would be interesting to you or to to my mother, before I wrote,
that you might not be troubled with repetitions. I intended
in the same view to have called upon Mr
Browne, and Mr Barret your other correspondents. I
was then a good deal indisposed, I had some slight
symptoms of a fever: and by that, and some troublesome
but neither very painful not at all alarming eruptions
the consequence of it, I have ever since been confined
to the house till within these 4 or 5 days. I was
at that time attending a course of Dr Fordyce's lectures
on the practice of Physic, to which I had a
right by a former subscription. I reconciled that well enough
to my other studies, as it diversified them, and took me up
but an hour before breakfast, which scarce ever is my time
for writing. I had already picked up a little instruction
relative to the management of fevers, of which I availed myself
very happily: the remedy I took having precisely
the effect I was taught from theory to expect from it. It consisted in
nothing but a vomit. Still there remained the eruptions:
these I was found myself unable to master without medical advice.
I preferred a Physician to a Surgeon. A Surgeon must
have dressed me every time: and I remember'd
Mr Grindal.
One visit from Dr Fordyce enabled me to compleat
the cure. Appearing very trifling at first I had disregarded
them; and from the exercise I had occasion to take about that
time they turned to sores. They were seated in the inside
of my right thigh, and on the scrotum on both sides. As they
were so critically seated, though I was very soon freed from
pain, I durst not stir out of doors till they were completely
healed. Though I could very soon have written,
I could not therefore go my rounds till 3 or 4 days ago.
and you had told me that at that distance you did not desire
a frequent correspondence.
All this while, Sir, where do you think I have been?
alone at Mr Lind's. Mr Lind's health began to
require a little fresh air and exercise: Miss Mrs
Lind was wild to get into the country. The house
wanted some repairs. At this juncture cousin
Gilliess made them an offer of a little Box of his
near Stanmore for two or three months, being the
time he proposed to be absent on a trip to Flanders.
The temptation was not to be resisted. They would have taken
me with them; but the my medical lectures, and
the difficulty of getting my books and papers about
me, kept me fixed to London.
In spite of chagrin, my "Comment on the Commentaries"
hastens to a conclusion. My "plan for a Digest" is considerably
advanced. One or other of them not if not both, I hope
to have to present to you at your arrival, if your stay
is as long as you proposed. I live here in perfect ease
and tranquillity, as far as exterior circumstances can give
it. A reputable old gentlewoman who has seen better days left in charge with of
the house by Mr Lind, gives me her services and her
company. While my indisposition continued, I was necessitated,
in the seconomical sense of the phrase, to keep
house: and I have lived in luxury at a less expence than
at the eating-houses I live in nastiness. My luxuries
indeed are soon provided. A spatious and airy bed-chamber.
a hairy mattress over the feather-bed, and the
use of the bath (which I take now in substance) have
remedied to a considerable degree that relaxation, by
which my health of late years has been so much affected.
My horse I parted with to Mr Clark a very few days after
you left England, for the price he offer'd me, which
was 4 guineas. Whenever I receive it, I my intention
f is, to give it to Mr Lind towards the purchase
of another, if he should be about buying one
if not to keep it. Mr Clark by letting the breeding
time slip away, has made it a bad bargain to him
But Mr Martin (the Painter)whom I had told as
well as Mr Clark that she was good for nothing else
when I mentioned it to him told me if I could get
her again, he would be glad to give me more for
her. You need not have doubted, Sir, but that
when your pleasure once signified to me, I would not
keep her an instant longer than I could help.
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Identifier: | JB/537/351/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 537.
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1775-09-05 |
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537 |
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351 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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