A LITERARY FIND
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—.AS a Governor of the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath, I am sending you a literary " find." Two hundred years ago the " Mineral Water Hospital " of
Bath was in process of building. An appeal, as national in character as the scope of the Hospital, was to be made. Beau Nash and Ralph Allen, at a loss how to proceed, wrote to Samuel Richardson the novelist (1689-1761) who had returned to his printing place in Salisbury Court off Fleet Street from one of his visits to Bath.
The reply, filed and forgotten, turns up again when, 200
years later, similar conditions have_ arisen. The old Hospital is about to be rebuilt, as Spectator readers may remember, nearer the hot springs, larger and on modern lines. The same assistance is being sought today which Samuel Richardson obligingly and gratuitously furnished through the medium of three London newspapers then in existence—history repeating itself indeed !—Yours faithfully,
Widcombe Manor, Bath. HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL.
The letter in question runs as follows :
SIR,—I presume you have seen the Advertisements and Accts relating to your General Hospital, in the Gazt. of last Saturday. I put it there first, because of the Influence I have there, to induce it to be put in as small a Compass as possible, and at an easy Expense, for Example to others ; and because that Paper is spread every where in the Country, to a very large Number. It will be in the Daily Advertiser tomorrow, for a Town Paper, and I have agreed for 2 Guineas. I would have put it into the London Evening Post, but they would not say when they would do it, and exorbitantly insisted on 5 Guineas ; so that I would not be so bad a Husband for the Charity to give it ; and ordered it into the General Evening Post, a Paper next best received, at a Guinea and half. This Saving will pay for it being repeated, if you chuse it in any of those I have named, or I will cause it to be further inserted as you shall direct in any other.—I am, Sir, your most Humble
as a Morning and ° Daily Gazetteer Sat. Febr. 3 . -1 Evg for 2, Daily Advertiser Wed. Febr. 7
bothenin Towner and
General Evening Post Sat. Febr. Country.
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