Dedham, October 9, 1799.
MY DEAR FRIEND, --I have your favor, of the 4th August. In a former letter you invite me to London to recover my health. I should like the trip very much, especially if I had no other object than amusement to command a six or eight months' expatriation. Business, the res angustœ domi, and the ties that hold me fast with my family, forbid the idea. My health might profit by it, but does not exact such a step. The proposition deserves two reflections: that I have a friend with the heart to make it; and a heart of my own to estimate its value rightly.
Thank God, I am better. Clients came in at the Dedham August Supreme Court, and overpowered me with application to stakes and stones, and plots of land in ejectment. My mind was not excited with zeal, but my spirits were exhausted by continued attention. The second day of the Court, after a night of disturbed sleep, I fainted at 5, A. M., and was kept from fainting, for three hours, only by water dashed into my face, and volatiles; during all which time I was swimming off into insensibility. That day clients came into my chamber per force; and the next, I went into Court to enjoy the soothing civilities of Judge Ursa Major R. T. Paine.1 I did not die from weariness nor vexation. The next week I went to Boston, and Paine's caresses were continued per curiam. The robbery of the Nantucket Bank, charged on the prime men of the Island, employed me five days, and kept me afterwards very low for six more with a cold procured in a court-house, crowded with unusual numbers. I was also hoarse, by four hours' bawling to a jury.
At Dedham Common Pleas, last Tuesday of September, the work was small, and the law laborers many. A writ of right for a pigsty, in which I am for the defendant, continued to April. Old Doctor S. is dead intestate; the heirs
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