Blue Bells. _Campanula rotundifolia._
Dedicated to _St. Dominic_.
~August 5.~
_The Dedication of St. Mary ad Nives._ _St. Oswald_, King. _St. Afra_,
and Companions, A. D. 304. _St. Memmius_, or _Menge_, Bp. A. D. 290.
_An Every-Day Complaint._
In the “London Chronicle” of the 5th of August, 1758, there is an
advertisement from a sufferer under a disease of such a nature that,
though the cure is simple, a description of the various afflictions and
modes of relief peculiar to the progress of the disorder would fill many
volumes. To guard the young wholly against it is impossible; for like
the small pox, every one must expect to have it once, and when it is
taken in the natural way, and if the remedy is at hand, and the patient
follows good advice, recovery speedily follows. The advertisement
alluded to runs thus:--
A young lady who was at Vauxhall on Thursday night last, in company
with two gentlemen, could not but observe a young gentleman in blue
and a gold-laced hat, who, being near her by the orchestra during the
performance, especially the last song, gazed upon her with the utmost
attention. He earnestly hopes (if unmarried) she will favour him with
a line directed to A. D. at the bar of the Temple Exchange
Coffee-house, Temple-bar, to inform him whether fortune, family, and
character, may not entitle him upon a further knowledge, to hope an
interest in her heart. He begs she will pardon the method he has taken
to let her know the situation of his mind, as, being a stranger, he
despaired of doing it any other way, or even of seeing her more. As
his views are founded upon the most honourable principles, he presumes
to hope the occasion will justify it, if she generously breaks through
this trifling formality of the sex, rather than, by a cruel silence,
render unhappy one, who must ever expect to continue so, if debarred
from a nearer acquaintance with her, in whose power alone it is to
complete his felicity.
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