[Footnote A:  Sterne was buried in the ground belonging to the parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square, situated in the Bayswater Road.  His funeral was “attended only by two gentlemen in a mourning coach, no bell tolling;” and his grave has been described as “distinguished by a plain headstone, set up with an unsuitable inscription, by a tippling fraternity of Freemasons.”  In 1761, long before his death, was published a satire on the tendencies of his writings, mixed with a good deal of personal censure, in a pamphlet entitled “A Funeral Discourse, occasioned by the much lamented death of Mr. Yorick, preached before a very mixed society of Jemmies, Jessamies, Methodists, and Christians, at a nocturnal meeting in Petticoat Lane; by Christopher Flagellan, A.M.”  As one of the minor “Curiosities of Literature” this tract is worth noting; its author, in a preface, says that “it has been maliciously, or rather stupidly, reported that the late Mr. Sterne, alias Yorick, is not dead; but that, on the contrary, he is writing a fifth and sixth, and has carried his plan as far as a fiftieth and sixtieth volume of the book called ’The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy;’ but they are rather to be attributed to his ghastly ghost, which is said to walk the purlieus of Covent Garden and Drury Lane.”—­ED.]

The billets-doux are unquestionably authentic, but the statement is inaccurate.  I doubt whether the narrative be correct in stating that Sterne married after an acquaintance of one month; for he tells us in his Memoirs that he courted his wife for two years; he, however, married in 1741.  The “Sermon of Elijah,” which he presents to Miss de Fourmantel in one of these letters, was not published till 1747.  Her disordered mind could not therefore have been occasioned by the sudden marriage of Sterne.  A sentimental intercourse evidently existed between them.  He perhaps sought in her sympathy, consolation for his domestic infelicity; he communicates to her the minutest events of his early fame; and these letters, which certainly seem very like love-letters, present a picture of his life in town in the full flower of his fame eager with hope and flushed with success.

LETTER I.

“My dear Kitty,—­I beg you will accept of the inclosed sermon, which I do not make you a present of merely because it was wrote by myself, but because there is a beautiful character in it of a tender and compassionate mind in the picture given of Elijah.  Read it, my dear Kitty, and believe me when I assure you that I see something of the same kind and gentle disposition in your heart which I have painted in the prophet’s, which has attached me so much to you and your interests, that I shall live and die

“Your affectionate and faithful servant,

“Laurence Sterne.

“P.S.—­If possible, I will see you this afternoon before I go to Mr. Fothergil’s.  Adieu, dear friend,—­I had the pleasure to drink your health last night.”