Yes, thank you, I am quite well again; and if I had not a mind to continue so, I would not remain here a day longer, for I am tired to death of the place.  I sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep, when I think of thee, oh Strawberry!  The elements certainly agree with me, but I shun the gnomes and salamanders, and have not once been at the rooms.  Mr. Chute stays with me till Tuesday; when he is gone, I do not know what I shall do; for I cannot play at cribbage by myself, and the alternative is to see my Lady Vane open the ball, and glimmer at fifty-four.  All my comfort is, that I lodge close to the cross bath, by which means I avoid the pump-room and all its works.  We go to dine and see Bristol to-morrow, which will terminate our sights, for we are afraid of your noble cousins at Badminton; and, as Mrs. Allen is dead and Warburton entered upon the premises, you may swear we shall not go thither.

Lord Chatham, the late and present Chancellors, and sundry more, are here; and their graces of Bedford expected.  I think I shall make your Mrs. Trevor and Lady Lucy a visit; but it is such an age since we met, that I suppose we shall not know one another by sight.  Adieu!  These watering places, that mimic a capital, and add vulgarisms and familiarities of their own, seem to me like abigails in cast gowns, and I am not young enough to take up with either.  Yours ever.

Letter 316 To John Chute, Esq.  Bath, Oct. 10, 1766. (page 489)

I am impatient to hear that your charity to me has not ended in the gout to yourself—­all my comfort is, if you have it, that you have good Lady Brown to nurse you.

My health advances faster than my amusement.  However, I have been at one opera, Mr. Wesley’s.(970) They have boys and girls with charming voices, that sing hymns, in parts, to Scotch ballad tunes but indeed so long, that one would think they were already in eternity, and knew how much time they had before them.  The chapel is very neat, with true Gothic windows (yet I am not converted); but I was glad to see that luxury is creeping in upon them before persecution:  they have very neat mahogany stands for branches, and brackets of the same in taste.  At the upper end is a broad hautpas of four steps, advancing in the middle:  at each end of the broadest part are two of my eagles, with red cushions for the parson and clerk.  Behind them rise three more steps, in the midst of which is a third eagle for pulpit.  Scarlet armed chairs to all three.  On either hand, a balcony for elect ladies.  The rest of the congregation sit on forms.  Behind the pit, in a dark niche, is a plain table within rails; so you see the throne is for the apostle.  Wesley is a lean elderly man, fresh-coloured, his hair smoothly combed, but with a soup`con of curls at the ends.  Wondrous clean, but as evidently an actor as Garrick.  He spoke his sermon, but so fast, and with so little