“I have made my will--but I leave all I have to you and my Lydia--you will not Quarrel about it--but I advise you to sell my estate, which will bring 1800 pds. (or more after the year), and what you can raise from my Works--and the sale of the last copyright of the 5th and 6th Vols. of Tristram--and the produce of this last work, all of which I have left (except 50 pds. in my bookseller Becket’s hands, and which Mr. Garrick will receive and lay out in stocks for me)--all these I would advise you to collect--together with the sale of my library, &c., &c.--and lay it out in Government Securities--If my Lydia should marry--I charge you,--I charge you over again (that you may remember it the more)--That upon no Delusive prospect, or promise from any one, you leave yourself DEPENDENT; reserve enough for your comfort--or let her wait your Death. I leave this in the hands of our Cosin Mrs. Montagu--not because she is our cosin--but because I am sure she has a good heart. “We shall meet again. “--Memᵈᵘᵐ. Whenever I die--’tis most probable, I shall have about £200 due to me from my living--If Lydia should dye before you; Leave my Sister something worthy of your self--in case you do not think it meet to purchase an annuity for your greater comfort; if you chuse that--do it in God’s name-- “--The pictures of the Mountebank and his Macaroni--is in a Lady’s hands, who upon seeing ’em most cavaliery declared she would never part with them--and from an excess of civility--or rather weakness I could not summon up severity to demand them. “--If I dye, her Name, &c., is inclosed in a billet seal’d up and given with this--and then you must demand them--If refused--you have nothing to do but send a 2d. message importing--’tis not for her Interest to keep them. “LAURENCE STERNE. “Memorandums left by Mr. Sterne in Mrs. Montagu’s hands before he left England.” [Page heading: TWO TEARDROPS] Two teardrops are on this paper, which indicate Sterne’s emotional temperament. [Illustration: _Sir J. Reynolds, pinx._ _E. Fisher. sc._ _Laurence Sterne._ Walker & Cockerell, ph. sc.] [Page heading: FINIS] And now, patient reader, I, the Editress of this literary mosaic of my great-great-aunt’s letters and those of her friends, take leave of you. If life and eyesight are vouchsafed to me, I hope to write the remainder of her life some day, for she lived till 1800. Each year added to her enormous circle of clever acquaintance, British and foreign. The letters of Garrick and his wife, later ones of Sterne and Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Vesey, Edmund Burke, Hannah More, and a host of other notabilities, belong to a different period. As it is, the compilation of this work has occupied me five years. One whole winter was devoted to arranging the correspondence in chronological order, as very few of the letters are dated. APPENDICES. “LONG” SIR THOMAS ROBINSON.