
though I am afraid it will poorly compensate the trouble of reading these
tedious insipid letters of,
Dear Phillips,
yours always,
                                                                      J. MELFORD
 

                                  To Dr. Lewis

                                                                  Bath, April 23
Dear Doctor,
    If I did not know that the exercise of your profession has habituated you to
the hearing of complaints, I should make a conscience of troubling you with my
correspondence, which may be truly called the lamentations of Matthew Bramble.
Yet I cannot help thinking, I have some right to discharge the overflowings of
my spleen upon you, whose province it is to remove those disorders that
occasioned it; and let me tell you, it is no small alleviation of my grievances,
that I have a sensible friend, to whom I can communicate my crusty humours,
which, by retention, would grow intolerably acrimonious.
    You must know, I find nothing but disappointment at Bath; which is so
altered, that I can scarce believe it is the same place that I frequented about
thirty years ago. Methinks I hear you say, »Altered it is, without all doubt;
but then it is altered for the better; a truth which, perhaps, you would own
without hesitation, if you yourself was not altered for the worse.« The
reflection may, for aught I know, be just. The inconveniences which I overlooked
in the high-day of health, will naturally strike with exaggerated impression on
the irritable nerves of an invalid, surprised by premature old age, and
shattered with long-suffering - But, I believe, you will not deny, that this
place, which Nature and Providence seem to have intended as a resource from
distemper and disquiet, is become the very center of racket and dissipation.
Instead of that peace, tranquility and ease, so necessary to those who labour
under bad health, weak nerves, and irregular spirits; here we have nothing but
noise, tumult, and hurry; with the fatigue and slavery of maintaining a
ceremonial, more stiff, formal, and oppressive, than the etiquette of a German
elector. A national hospital it may be; but one would imagine, that none but
lunatics are admitted; and, truly, I will give you leave to call me so, if I
stay much longer at Bath. - But I shall take another opportunity to explain my
sentiments at greater length on this subject - I was impatient to see the
boasted improvements in architecture, for which the upper parts of the town have
been so much celebrated, and t'other day I made a circuit of all the new
buildings. The Square, though irregular, is, on
