This letter, which contains some of the brightest and easiest of Goldsmith’s familiar verses, was addressed to Mrs. Bunbury (the ‘Little Comedy’ of the _Verses in Reply to an Invitation to Dinner_, pp. 250–2), in answer to a rhymed summons on her part to spend Christmas at Great Barton in Suffolk, the family seat of the Bunburys. It was first printed by Prior in the _Miscellaneous Works_ of 1837, iv. 148–51, and again in 1838 in Sir Henry Bunbury’s _Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart._, pp. 379–83. The text of the latter issue is here followed. When Prior published the verses, they were assigned to the year 1772; in the _Hanmer Correspondence_ it is stated that they were ‘probably written in 1773 or 1774.’ your spring velvet coat. Goldsmith’s pronounced taste in dress, and his good-natured simplicity, made his costume a fertile subject for playful raillery,—sometimes, for rather discreditable practical jokes. (See next note.) a wig, that is modish and gay. ‘He always wore a wig’—said the ‘Jessamy Bride’ in her reminiscences to Prior—‘a peculiarity which those who judge of his appearance only from the fine poetical head of Reynolds, would not suspect; and on one occasion some person contrived to seriously injure this important adjunct to dress. It was the only one he had in the country, and the misfortune seemed irreparable until the services of Mr. Bunbury’s valet were called in, who however performed his functions so indifferently that poor Goldsmith’s appearance became the signal for a general smile’ (Prior’s _Life_, 1837, ii. 378–9). Naso contemnere adunco. Cf. Horace, _Sat_. i. 6. 5:— naso suspendis adunco Ignotos, and Martial, _Ep_. i. 4. 6:— Et pueri nasum Rhinocerotis habent. Loo, i.e. Lanctre- or Lanterloo, a popular eighteenth-century game, in which _Pam_, l. 6, the knave of clubs, is the highest card. Cf. Pope, _Rape of the Lock_, 1714, iii. 61:— Ev’n might _Pam_, that Kings and Queens o’erthrew, And mow’d down armies in the fights of Lu; and Colman’s epilogue to _The School for Scandal_, 1777:— And at backgammon mortify my soul, That pants for _loo_, or flutters at a vole? Miss Horneck. Miss Mary Horneck, the ‘Jessamy Bride’ _vide_ note, p. 251, l. 14). Fielding. Sir John Fielding, d. 1780, Henry Fielding’s blind half-brother, who succeeded him as a Justice of the Peace for the City and Liberties of Westminster. He was knighted in 1761. There are two portraits of him by Nathaniel Hone.