and amusements of Bath may rest assured that though Nash and Quin are no more, decency, good manners, and proper regulations will still continue to prevail, while Mr. D— remains in peaceable possession of his throne.

CHAPTER XV.

The good intelligence that latterly subsisted between Mr. Garrick and Mr. Quin. Visits him every summer at Hampton; the peculiar facetiousness of the company in the excursion of 1765; poetry written upon the occasion. His illness; his death.

FROM the time that Quin retired from the stage, a good harmony subsisted, and a regular correspondence was carried on between Mr. Garrick and him, and when he paid a visit to his friends in this metropolis once a year, as he generally did in autumn, he as constantly passed a week or two at Mr. Garrick's villa, at Hampton. His last excursion thither in the summer of 1765, was productive of the most agreeable sallies of wit and merriment: Mr. Garrick's travels furnished such new and entertaining topics of discourse, and Mr. Quin's remarks such unexpected strokes of fancy, as enlivened the conversation to a degree that is almost incredible. Mr.-the poet, had also his share in the entertainment that was afforded, and besides a plenteous discharge of that inexhaustible fund of ready wit which so spontaneously flows from him, his poetical vein was raised to such a pitch that he could not suppress some extempore lines which involuntarily escaped him. This put the whole company into a poetical mood, and gave birth to the following little pieces that have at different times made their way to the public :—

QUIN'S SOLILOQUY ON SEEING DUKE

HUMPHREY AT ST.

ALBANS.

A plague on Egypt's arts I say!
Embalm the dead! on senseless clay
Rich wines and spices waste!
Like sturgeon, or like brawn, shall I
Bound in a precious pickle lie,
Which I can never taste ?

Let me embalm this flesh of mine
With turtle fat, and Bourdeaux wine,
And spoil th' Egyptian trade!
Than Humphrey's duke more happy I—
Embalm'd alive, old Quin shall die,
A mummy ready made.

THE BRITISH EPICURE.

Imitated from Horace.

I hate French cooks, but love their wine,
On fricassee I scorn to dine,

And bad's the best ragout:
Let me of claret have my fill,
Let me have turtle at my will,
In one large mighty stew!

A napkin let my temples bind,
In night gown free and unconfin'd,
And undisturbed by women!

All vows in one I ask of fate,

Behind the 'Change to eat my weight!
And drink enough to swim in !

TO MR. QUIN

Upon his sending for his spectacles which he had left at Mr. Garrick's.

He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,

Let him not know't, and he's not robbed at all.-OTHELLO.

From Shakespeare's law there's no appeal

To shew what is, what not to steal.
To keep the spectacles you left

As you must want them, would be theft;
Your sight, alas, the worse for wear
Your spectacles you cannot spare;
But when, my friend, you leave behind
Strong tokens of a vigorous mind;
That coin, which never false or light,
That sterling wit you pay at sight;

That humour trolling from your tongue,

So bold, emphatical and strong;
That various whim, that social glee,
The quick enlivening repartee,
Jack Falstaff's rich variety!

Such, when you leave, to you unknown
Without a theft I make my own.

You can't be robb'd yourself must grant,
Of what you neither miss nor want.

STANZAS

Occasioned by the report of Mr. Garrick's quitting the stage, and by seeing his epigram on Quin,

Long had the town her Garrick's absence mourned,
And woo'd fair health with many an anxious prayer;
Till to his breast the blooming nymph return'd,
Borne on the bright wings of Hesperian air.
But, ah! severe the cautious law she gave !
What long reluctant Britain must deplore!
When her lov'd actor's favourite life to save,

She bade him tread the wasting stage no more.
Grave look'd the god of laughter whilst she spoke ;
Of Lear's dim grave wild pity sought the gloom;
The mimic glass the muse of humour broke,

And Shakespeare's genius languished o'er his tomb.
Phoebus was mov'd when Shakespeare's genius sigh'd,
And nought he cried, the god of wit can give ;
No grateful meed thy Garrick is denied:

Then spare the actor, and the bard shall live.

But now, reader, you must prepare yourself to take a long farewell of your facetious acquaintance. During the stay he made at Hampton, he had an eruption on his hand, which the faculty were of opinion would turn to a mortification, and this intimation greatly damped his spirits, as the thought of losing a limb appeared to him more terrible than death itself; he therefore resolved, let what might be the consequence, not to suffer amputation. Whether this perspective so violently affected his spirits as to throw him into a hypochondria, or whether the natural bad habit of his body brought on a fever, this much is certain, that one of the malignant kind succeeded, and when he was out of all danger with respect to his hand, he was carried off by this fatal disorder.

During his illness he had taken such large quantities of bark, as to occasion an incessant drought, which nothing could assuage, and being willing to live as long as he could without pain, he discontinued taking any medicines for upwards of a week before his death, and during this period he was in very good spirits. The day before he died he drank a bottle of claret, and being sensible of his approaching end he said, "He could wish that the last tragic scene were over, though he was in hopes he should be able to go through it with becoming dignity." He was not mistaken, and departed this life on Tuesday, the 21st of January, 1766, about four o'clock in the morning, in the seventy-third year of his age.

The following is an authentic copy of his last Will and Testament:

Mr. James Quin's last Will and Testament.

I JAMES QUIN, now residing in Bath, in the county of Somerset, Gent., being in good health and of sound and perfect mind and memory, do make and ordain this my last will and testament, in manner and form following:

That is to say, after my funeral expenses and debts paid, I give and bequeath unto Mr. Thomas Nobbes, Oilman, in the Strand, London, five hundred pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Charles Lowth, at the King's Head, in Paternoster Row, London, five hundred pounds. Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Thomas James Quin, son of Dr. Henry Quin, Physician, in Dublin, one hundred pounds. Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Anthony Pelham, Physician, now living in Southampton Street, Covent Garden, two hundred pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath, as by a very foolish promise, to Daniel Leekie, my gold repeating watch, chain, and seals.

Item. I give and bequeath to Mrs. Penelope Lepage, and to Mrs. Sarah Lepage, single or married, both nieces to the late Mrs. Forrester, fifty pounds each, or the whole hundred to the survivor.

Item. Unto William Grinsill, one of the Arts Masters of Bridewell Hospital, in London, five hundred pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath to Mr. Daniel Rich, of Sunning, near Reading, in the county of Berks., one hundred pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Thomas Gainsborough, Limner, now living at Bath, fifty pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto the wife of Walter Nugent, a first Lieutenant in the Marines, fifty pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Jeremiah Pierce, Surgeon, in Bath, my gold-headed crutch cane.

Item. I give and bequeath unto the Honourable Mr. John Needham, of Ivor, near Uxbridge, one hundred pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Captain Robert Hughes, brother to the Commissioner at Portsmouth, fifty pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Mrs. Mary Simpson, landlady of the Centre House, in Pierpont Street, in Bath, one hundred pounds; to be paid by my executors into her own hands, independent of all her creditors whatsoever.

Item. I give and bequeath unto Mr. Edward Parker, Wine Merchant, in Bath, twenty guineas.