Letter from Anthony Henley, Grange, to Charles Ford, undated : autograph manuscript signed.

Complaining that it has been too long since he has seen him; saying that his "...present wretched Condition...assures me I resemble Nothing in the world so much as a Widow'd Turtle my Case in Verse stands thus;" including a poem of twenty-two lines beginning "To every Joy Dear Friend, I bid adieu / When last my Tongue a Farewell gave to you / Wine, Women, Books I seek to ease my Pain / Alas, Wine, Women Books, are sought in vain" and concluding "But oh, that Tongue that very Tongue whose Power / May watchfull Demon's In to Sleep allure / May Argus' Hundred Eyes in Slumber Lay / and make Hell's dog it's Drowzy Law's obey;" continuing "These Lines few as they are may Convince you of my Desponding Condition tho I can't indeed help thinking that for me to attempt versifying in my Present melancholy Circumstances is altogether as extraordinary as the Emperor Adrian's Breathing out Rhimes in His Last Agonies, if you think I have not been Dull and tedious enough on this Head, I fancy I could with great Success compare myself to Ovid at Pontus; Dido deserted at Carthage &c; and say numerable other things of the Like nature which may be equally shinning and pertinent, How would I Dear Ford conclude my Letter, but to say truth I can't help Imagining it must seem very Absurd after having been so unmercifully tedious to subscribe myself your Freind & Servant at the Bottom, I'm sure were any one in the World to treat me thus inhumanly as much a Christian as I am my faith would scarce be extensive enough to believe him my Freind however he might assure me of it certainly I should rather consider Him as an Enemy to my Health & repose, how to Convince you in the Like Case of the same Important truth I really am at a Loss unless to make Use of Peter's Plain Argument in the Tale of a Tub and swearing by God that I am (or - as Sam Allyen(?) more emphatically and elegantly expresses it) the Dwell in Hell Fry my Soul and Body if I am not, me dear Ford's sincere Freind / Ant. Henley."