_To Mrs. D――――._
_London, Sept. 2, 1743._
_Dear Madam_,
A Thousand thanks for your kind solicitude concerning me and mine. My
wife has been in trying circumstances, partly through the unskilfulness
of a chaise-driver, I mean myself. Being advised to take her out into
the air, I drove her as well as myself, through in advertence, into a
ditch. Finding that we were falling, she put her hand cross the chaise,
and thereby preserved us both from being thrown out. The ditch might be
about 14 feet deep, but blessed be GOD, though all that saw us falling,
cried out, they are killed, yet, through infinite mercy, we received
no great hurt. The place was very narrow near the bottom, and yet the
horse went down, as tho’ let down by a pulley. A stander-by ran down
and catched hold of its head, to prevent its going forwards. I got
upon its back and was drawn out by a long whip; whilst my wife hanging
between the chaise and the bank, was pulled up on the other side by two
or three kind assistants. Being both in a comfortable frame, I must own,
to my shame, that I felt rather regret than thankfulness in escaping
what I thought would be a kind of a translation, to our wished-for
haven. But O amazing love! we were so strengthened, that the chaise
and horse being taken up, and our bruises being washed with vinegar
in a neighbouring house, we went on our intended way, and came home
rejoicing in GOD our Saviour. Not expecting my wife’s delivery for
some time, I intend making a short excursion, and then you may expect
further news from
Yours, &c.
_G. W._