DAMON
AND
DELIA:
A TALE.
--NEQUE SEMPER ARCUM
TENDIT APOLLO. HOR.
LONDON:PRINTED FOR T. HOOKHAM, AT HIS CIRCULATING
LIBRARY, NEW BOND-STEET, CORNER
OF BRUTON-STREET.
M,DCC,LXXXIV.
CONTENTS
PART the FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
Containing introductory Matter.
CHAPTER II.
A Ball
CHAPTER III.
A Ghost.
CHAPTER IV.
A love Scene.
CHAPTER V.
A Man of Humour.
CHAPTER VI.
Containing some Specimens of Heroism.
CHAPTER VII.
Containing that with which the Reader will be acquainted when he hasread it.
CHAPTER VIII.
Two Persons of Fashion.
CHAPTER IX.
A tragical Resolution.
CONTENTS.
PART the SECOND.
CHAPTER I.
In which the Story begins over again.
CHAPTER II.
The History of Mr. Godfrey.
CHAPTER III.
A Misanthrope.
CHAPTER IV.
Much ado about nothing.
CHAPTER V.
A Woman of learning.
CHAPTER VI.
A Catastrophe.
CHAPTER VII.
Containing what will terrify the Reader.
CHAPTER VIII.
A Denouement.
CHAPTER IX.
Which dismisses the Reader.
DAMON
AND
DELIA.
PART the FIRST.
CHAP. I.
Containing introductory matter.
The races at Southampton have, for time immemorial, constituted a scene ofrivalship, war, and envy. All the passions incident to the human framehave here assumed as true a scope, as in the more noisy and more tragicalcontentions of statesmen and warriors. Here nature has displayed her mosthidden attractions, and art has furnished out the artillery of beauty.Here the coquet has surprised, and the love-sick nymph has sapped theheart of the unwary swain. The scene has been equally sought by the bolderand more haughty, as by the timid sex. Here the foxhunter has sought a newsubject of his boast in the nonchalance of dishabille; thepeer has played off the dazzling charms of a coronet and a star; and thepetit maître has employed the anxious niceties of dress.
Of all the beauties in this brilliant circle, she, who was incomparablythe most celebrated, was the graceful Delia. Her person, though notabsolutely tall, had an air of dignity. Her form was bewitching, and herneck was alabaster. Her cheeks glowed with the lovely vermilion of nature,her mouth was small and pouting, her lips were coral, and her teeth whiterthan the driven snow. Her forehead was bold, high, and polished, hereyebrows were arched, and from beneath them her fine blue eyes shone withintelligence, and sparkled with heedless gaiety. Her hair was of thebrightest auburn, it was in the greatest abundance, and when, unfetteredby the ligaments of fashion, it flowed about her shoulders and her lovelyneck, it presented the most ravishing object that can possibly beimagined.
With all this beauty, it Cannot be supposed but that Delia was followed bya train of admirers. The celebrated Mr. Prattle, for whom a thousand fair