head as their ragouts had done his stomach’ (cf. Horace Walpole, Letters, iii. 298). He spent wastefully the money that his books brought him, and resented his wife's biting rebukes of his extravagance. But he found some compensations at Coxwold for Mrs. Sterne's increased and well-justified mistrust—in the society of his daughter, in the hospitable attentions of Lord Fauconberg, and in the delights of literary work. By August he had finished a third book of ‘Tristram,’ which he believed to contain ‘more laughable humour’ than its forerunners, with ‘an equal degree of Cervantic satire’ (Letter xii.) By October a fourth book was ready for the press, and before Christmas he hurried to London to superintend the issue of the two new volumes. They appeared at the beginning of the new year with a second plate by Hogarth, and met with mingled cries of abuse and applause. Fashionable society heartily welcomed him back, and for another three months he was immersed in social gaieties. The wits, Foote and Delavall, courted him; Wilkes found him a companion after his own heart. He associated on even terms with politicians like Lord Rockingham, Shelburne, Charles Spencer, and Charles Townshend, and retailed political gossip, with an increasing sense of his own importance, in letters to Yorkshire acquaintances. John, first viscount and afterwards first earl Spencer, sent him a silver ink standish, and offered him repeated hospitalities. On 3 May he preached at the Foundling Hospital, when the collection amounted to 55l. 9s.
Next month he cursed anew the churlish fate which rendered resumption of residence at Coxwold needful. His wife, ‘in pure, sober good sense, built on sound experience,’ declared herself happier in his absence, and suggested that he should cure his discontent by leading ‘a bear round Europe.’ But he resolved to make the best of his situation, bought seven hundred books, ‘dog cheap and many good,’ and found all his old satisfaction in working at a fifth volume of ‘Tristram.’ An unusually amiable impulse led him to read the chapters to his wife as they were finished, while, despite their improprieties, his daughter helped him to copy them (Letter xix.) On 6 Sept. 1761 he wrote a paper (still in York Minster Library) promising the dean and chapter to pay the Rev. Marmaduke Collier 16l. a year for taking entire charge of his parish of Sutton, and subsequently engaged a curate for Stillington, it is said, at 40l. a year. On the day that George III was crowned (22 Sept.) there were extended festivities at Coxwold. Sterne preached extemporarily in the morning ‘an excellent sermon,’ which ‘gave great content’ to a crowded congregation; he published the text in the London and York newspapers (Letter to Lord Fauconberg from his Coxwold agent, Richard Chapman, 25 Sept. 1761; cf. Sermons, No. 21). By December he completed the fifth and sixth volumes of ‘Tristram,’ including the beautiful story of ‘Le Fever,’ and, while dedicating them to Lord Spencer, inscribed ‘the story of Le Fever to’ the name of Lady Spencer. A manuscript draft of that story, partly in his autograph, which he sent to his patrons before its publication, is still preserved among Earl Spencer's archives (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 20). Becket took Dodsley's place as the publisher, and to Becket Sterne remained faithful to the end.
While supervising the publication of these books in London Sterne fell violently ill, and a journey to the south of France was judged imperative by the physicians. Obtaining a year's absence of leave from the archbishop of York, and hastily borrowing from Garrick 20l., which he never repaid, he left for Paris in January 1762. His fame had preceded him in the French capital, and his health improved sufficiently to enable him to plunge with enthusiasm into the whirl of social dissipation that was offered him. Politicians and men of letters alike welcomed him. The Duc d'Orléans added his portrait to his collection of ‘odd men;’ Diderot gave him a commission to buy English books. He was a familiar figure in the salons of Choiseul, Crébillon fils, Holbach, Suard, and the Comte de Bissy. He visited the theatres, and was introduced as Garrick's friend to the leading actresses. Charles James Fox, who was also visiting Paris, carried him off to spend a week with him at St. Germain in February (Wombwell MS.). In March he wrote to his wife of his rapid progress in the French tongue (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. v. 254); but, although he spoke and wrote it fluently, he never did either well. In May he sent for Mrs. Sterne and Lydia, who was suffering from asthma; and he forwarded detailed instructions for the journey which would have done credit to the most pragmatic paterfamilias. On 4 June 1762—George III's birthday—he dined with a distinguished company at the English ambassador's (Lord Tavistock's), and allowed himself to be tricked by some fellow-guests into giving an imaginary sketch of the Abbé Dutens, the French envoy at Turin, in ignorance of the fact that the abbé, who was personally unknown to him, was his neighbour at the table (Dutens, Memoires d'un Voyageur, i. 165–7). Later in the month another attack of hæmorrhage of the lungs proved the
