' The town waits are also
mentioned. The season was not far from its close when Boswell arrived.
Melford, in _Humphry Clinker_, wrote from Bath on May 17:--'The music
and entertainments of Bath are over for this season; and all our gay
birds of passage have taken their flight to Bristol-well [Clifton],
Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Scarborough, Harrowgate, &c. Not a soul is
seen in this place, but a few broken-winded parsons, waddling like so
many crows along the North Parade.' Boswell had soon to return to London
'to eat commons in the Inner Temple.' Delighted with Bath, and
apparently pleasing himself with the thought of a brilliant career at
the Bar, he wrote to Temple, 'Quin said, "Bath was the cradle of age,
and a fine slope to the grave." Were I a Baron of the Exchequer and you
a Dean, how well could we pass some time there!' _Letters of Boswell_,
pp. 231, 234.
[140] To the rooms! and their only son dead three days over one month!
'That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.'
_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.
[141] No doubt Mr. Burke. See _ante_, April 15, 1773, and under Oct. 1,
1774, note, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug.
Pages:
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669