I was a good deal alarmed with your letter of yesterday, and as much
pleased with that of to-day, which dispelled my uneasiness: before
you receive this I flatter myself that my father will be quite
recovered. I have seen Wentzel,[123] who very obligingly took my
guinea to tell me that he could tell me nothing about my father's
case without seeing him. On that head he was very cool and very fair;
a decay of the optic nerve, he said, was sometimes tho' seldom to
be removed; as to the opinions of our surgeons he treated them with
infinite contempt.
I am glad that our Meeting was attended, that things may end with a
good grace. Sir Simeon has been so dangerously ill with the gout,
that I have not yet settled my resignation. Henry will attend next
Tuesday.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly yours,
E. G.
[123] The Baron de Wentzel was the most famous oculist of the
day, and the discoverer of operations for cataract. He died in
London in 1790.
67.
_To his Father._
London, June the 1st, 1769.