of a court, which was regularly attended by statesmen, wits, and
leaders of fashion, and with whom even bishops condescended to open
gracious diplomatic communication. "Even all the bishops," he writes,
"have sent their compliments;" and though this can hardly have been
true of the whole Episcopal Bench, it is certain that Sterne received
something more than a compliment from one bishop, who was a host in
himself. He was introduced by Garrick to Warburton, and received high
encouragement from that formidable prelate.[1]

[Footnote 1: It is admitted, moreover, in the correspondence with Miss
Fourmantelle that Sterne received something more substantial from the
Bishop, in the shape of a purse of gold; and this strange present gave
rise to a scandal on which something will be said hereafter.]

The year 1760, however, was to bring to Sterne more solid gains than
that of mere celebrity, or even than the somewhat precarious money
profits which depend on literary vogue. Only a few weeks after his
arrival in town he was presented by Lord Falconberg with the curacy of
Coxwold, "a sweet retirement," as he describes it, "in comparison of
Sutton," at which he was in future to pass most of the time spent
by him in Yorkshire. What obtained him this piece of preferment is
unknown. It may be that _Tristram Shandy_ drew the Yorkshire peer's
attention to the fact that there was a Yorkshireman of genius living
within a few miles of a then vacant benefice in his lordship's gift,
and that this was enough for him. But Sterne himself says--in writing
a year or so afterwards to a lady of his acquaintance--"I hope I have
been of some service to his lordship, and he has sufficiently requited
me;" and in the face of this plain assertion, confirmed as it is by
the fact that Lord Falconberg was on terms of friendly intimacy with
the Vicar of Coxwold at a much later date than this, we may dismiss