Letter 429 To The Countess Of Ossory.  January 13, 1797. (page 576)

You distress me infinitely by showing my idle notes, which I cannot conceive can amuse any body.  My old-fashioned breeding impels me every now and then to reply to the letters you honour me with writing; but in truth very unwillingly, for I seldom can have any thing particular to say.  I scarce go out of my own house, and then only to two or three very private places, where I see nobody that really know’s any thing; apd. what I learn comes from newspapers, that collect intelligence from coffee-houses—­consequently, what I neither believe nor report.  At home I see only a few charitable elders, except about fourscore nephews and nieces of various ages, who are each brought to me once a year, to stare at me as the Methusalem of the family; and they can only speak of their own contemporaries, which interest no more than if they talked of their dolls, or bats and balls.  Must not the result of all this, Madam, make me a very entertaining correspondent? and can such letters be worth showing? or can I have any spirit when so old, and reduced to dictate?  Oh! my good Madam, dispense with me from such a task, and think how it must add to it to apprehend such letters being shown.  Pray send Me no more Such laurels, which I desire no more than their leaves when decked with a scrap of tinsel, and stuck on twelfth-cakes that lie on the shop boards of pastrycooks at Christmas.  I shall be quite content with a sprig of rosemary thrown after me, when the parson of the parish commits my dust to dust.  Till then, pray, Madam, accept the resignation of your ancient servant, Orford.

Theend.

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