To MRS. RUXTON.
EDGEWORTHSTOWN, Sept. 1807.
My beloved aunt and friend—friend to my least fancies as well as to my
largest interests,—thank you for the six fine rose-trees, and thank you
for the little darling double-flowering almond tree. Sneyd asked if
there was nothing for him? so I very generously gave him the
polyanthuses and planted them with my own hands at the corners of his
garden pincushions.
Mr. Hammond may satisfy himself as to the union of commerce and
literature by simply reading the history of the Medici, where commerce, literature, and the arts made one of the most splendid, useful, and powerful coalitions that ever were seen in modern times. Here is a fine sentence! Mr. Hammond once, when piqued by my raillery, declared that he never in his life saw, or could have conceived, till he saw me, that a philosopher could laugh so much and so heartily.
Enclosed I send a copy of an epitaph written by Louis XVIII., on the
Abbé Edgeworth; I am sure the intention does honour to H.M. heart, and
the critics here say the Latin does honour to H.M. head. William
Beaufort, who sent it to my father, says the epitaph was communicated to
him by a physician at Cork, who being a Roman Catholic of learning and
foreign education, maintains a considerable correspondence in foreign
countries.