BATH,November 4,1770
MADAM:The post has been more favorable to you than I intended it should,for,upon my word,I answered your former letter the post after Ihad received it.However you have got a loss,as we say sometimes in Ireland.
My friends from time to time require bills of health from me in these suspicious times,when the plague is busy in some parts of Europe.
All I can say,in answer to their kind inquiries,is,that I have not the distemper properly called the plague;but that I have all the plague of old age and of a shattered carcass.These waters have done me what little good I expected from them;though by no means what I could have wished,for I wished them to be 'les eaux de Jouvence'.
I had a letter,the other day,from our two boys;Charles'was very finely written,and Philip's very prettily:they are perfectly well,and say that they want nothing.What grown-up people will or can say as much?I am,with the truest esteem,Madam,your most faithful servant.
CHESTERFIELD.
