THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.
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from that post to be a pillar of state again; which he desired I would put in by way of postscript. I am, my lord, &c.
A Letter to the Earl of Pembroke[1];
Pretended to be the Dying Speech of Tom Ashe, whose brother the Reverend Dillon Ashe, was nicknamed Dilly[2].
[Given to Dr. Monsey by Sir Andrew Fountaine; and communicated to the Editor of these Volumes by that ingenious, learned, and very obliging gentleman.]
TOM ASHE died last night. It is conceived he was so puffed up by my lord lieutenant's favour, that it struck him into a fever. I here send you his dying speech, as it was exactly taken by a friend in shorthand. It is something long, and a little incoherent; but he was several hours delivering it,
and
- ↑ See Journal to Stella, June 30, 1711.
- ↑ Thomas Ashe, Esq. descended from an ancient family of that name in Wiltshire, was a gentleman of fortune in Ireland. He was a facetious pleasant companion, but the most eternal unwearied punster that ever lived. He was thick and short in his person, being not above five feet high at the most, and had something very droll in his appearance. He died about the year 1719, and left his whole estate, of about a thousand pounds a year, to his intimate friend and kinsman Richard Ashe, of Ashefield, Esq. There is a whimsical story, and a very true one, of Tom Ashe, which is well remembered to this day. It happened, that, while he was travelling on horseback, and at a considerable distance from any town,
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there
