on me, that Mr. Ward declared it was as vain to attempt sweating
me as a deal board. In this situation I was tapped a second
time. I had one quart of water less taken from me now than
before; but I bore all the consequences of the operation much
better. This I attributed greatly to a dose of laudanum
prescribed by my surgeon. It first gave me the most delicious
flow of spirits, and afterwards as comfortable a nap.

The month of May, which was now begun, it seemed reasonable to
expect would introduce the spring, and drive of that winter which
yet maintained its footing on the stage. I resolved therefore to
visit a little house of mine in the country, which stands at
Ealing, in the county of Middlesex, in the best air, I believe,
in the whole kingdom, and far superior to that of Kensington
Gravel-pits; for the gravel is here much wider and deeper, the
place higher and more open towards the south, whilst it is
guarded from the north wind by a ridge of hills, and from the
smells and smoke of London by its distance; which last is not the
fate of Kensington, when the wind blows from any corner of the east.

Obligations to Mr. Ward I shall always confess; for I am
convinced that he omitted no care in endeavoring to serve me,
without any expectation or desire of fee or reward.

The powers of Mr. Ward's remedies want indeed no unfair puffs of
mine to give them credit; and though this distemper of the dropsy
stands, I believe, first in the list of those over which he is
always certain of triumphing, yet, possibly, there might be
something particular in my case capable of eluding that radical
force which had healed so many thousands. The same distemper, in