Wesley Corpus

You will easily judge whether the remembrance of Aspasia: made that entertainment in particular less agreeable which I enjoyed last week [From the Diary we see that he walked from Oxford by Shipton and Stowe, reaching Stanton at eight on Saturday evening, May 22, where he stayed with Mr. Kirkham and met Varanese and Mrs. Granville. He had tea with the two ladies on Sunday. On Monday he is in V.'s arbor. He is at Buckland on Wednesday, where' he met Varanese. ' Danced ' occurs twice in the entries. On May 31 he returns by Stowe and Shipton to Oxford.] in the almost uninterrupted conversation of dear Varanese. 'On this spot she sat,' 'Along this path she walked,' 'Here she showed that lovely instance of condescension,' were reflections which, though extremely obvious, yet could not but be equally pleasing, but give a new degree of beauty to the charming arbor, the fields, the meadows, and Horrel [See letter of Aug. 14.] itself. The happy disappointment we met with here in having everything succeed beyond our expectations almost reconciled Araspes and me to our other disappointment of a less pleasing nature. And, indeed, I for my part cannot without the utmost immodesty repine at any dispensation of Providence while I am so unaccountably indulged both in the friendship of our Varanese and in calling myself dear Aspasia's Most obliged, faithful CYRUS. Araspes, too, begs leave to say that he is entirely at Aspasia's service. Adieu. To his Father June 11, 1731. Our walk was not so pleasant to Oxford as from it, though in one respect it was more useful; for it let us see that four- or five-and-twenty miles is an easy and safe day's journey in hot weather as well as cold. We have made another discovery too, which may be of some service: that it is easy to read as we walk ten or twelve miles; and that it neither makes us faint, nor gives us any other symptom of weariness, more than the mere walking without reading at all.