home on his return from Bath, before William Brandon received the following letter from his brother's grey-headed butler.
"Honnured Sur,
"I send this with all speede, thof with a hevy hart, to axquainte you with the sudden (and as it is feered by his loving friends and well wishers, which latter, to be sur, is all as knows him) dangeros ilness of the Squire.[1] He was seezed, poor deer gentleman, (for God never made a better, no offence to your Honnur,) the moment he set footing in his Own hall, and what has hung rond me like a mill-ston ever sin, is that instead of his saying—'How do you do, Sampson?' as was his wont, whenever he returned from forren parts, sich as Bath, Lunnun, and the like; he said, 'God bless you, Sampson!' which makes me think sumhow that it will be his last wurds;
- ↑ The reader, who has doubtless noticed how invariably servants of long standing acquire a certain tone from that of their master, may observe, that honest John Sampson had caught from the Squire the habit of parenthetical composition.
