* * * *

Nor less among you was the medley, ye fair!
I believe there were some besides quality there:
Miss _Spiggot_, Miss _Brussels_, Miss _Tape_, and Miss
_Socket_,
Miss _Trinket_, and aunt, with her leathern pocket,
With good Mrs. _Soaker_, who made her old chin go,
For hours, hobnobbing with Mrs. _Syringo_:
Had Tib staid at home, I b'lieve none would have miss'd her,
Or pretty _Peg Runt_, with her tight little sister," &c. &c.




CHAPTER II.

DUELS WITH MR. MATHEWS.--MARRIAGE WITH MISS LINLEY.


Towards the close of the year 1771, the elder Mr. Sheridan went to
Dublin, to perform at the theatre of that city,--leaving his young and
lively family at Bath, with nothing but their hearts and imaginations to
direct them.

The following letters, which passed between him and his son Richard
during his absence, though possessing little other interest than that of
having been written at such a period, will not, perhaps, be unwelcome to
the reader:--