He
made his first appearance in a hired chariot-and-six, accompanied
by a big fat fellow, whom (as I afterwards learned) he had engaged
to sound his praises, with a promise of a thousand pounds, in lieu
of which he paid him forty. Whether it was with a view of screening
himself from the cold, or of making a comfortable medium in case of
being overturned, and falling under his weighty companion, I know
not; but, certain it is, the carriage was stuffed with hay, in such
a manner, that, when he arrived, the servants were at some pains in
rummaging and removing it, before they could come at their master,
or help him to alight. When he was lifted out of the chariot,
he exhibited a very ludicrous figure to the view. He was a thin,
meagre, shivering creature, of a low stature, with little black
eyes, a long nose, sallow complexion, and pitted with the smallpox;
dressed in a coat of light brown frieze, lined with pink-coloured
shag, a monstrous solitaire and bag, and, if I remember right,
a pair of huge jack-boots. In a word, his whole appearance was so
little calculated for inspiring love, that I had, on the strength
of seeing him once before at Oxford, set him down as the last man
on earth whom I would choose to wed; and I will venture to affirm,
that he was in every particular the reverse of my late husband.
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