Matthew Prior Letter Viewer

Dear Ned, brother, friend, counsell^r and
Success:^r

When m:^r Bourchier ¹ and you meet there
are really together 2 as honest Men
as I ever yet conversed with, it is
for this reason that I begg you to giue
him all the assistance you can in
[r]elation ² to his pretensions which He
will lay before you: his merit will
j[us]tify all the favour you can show
[h]im,³ and I so far am assured that
my interesting my Self in his behalf
will do him no disservice that I will
trouble you no more on that Subject
then to assure you that the good offices
you do to m^r Bourchier shall always
be esteemed as done to Me: News I
will not send you for you haue it fro^~
good M^r Warr,⁴ but as soon as you
come for England which I hear w^th

great Satisfaction will be this Spring
I haue wherewithall to entertain
you at large pour faire epanüer
la ratte, adio mio Charo Lady
Betty only loves you more then I,

yours ever

Mat Prior.

Wes:^tr Jan: 11.^th 1703/4

Addressed:
M^r ⁵ Southwell

Endorsed:
London 11^th Jan:^r 1703/4
From M.^r Prior.
℞ 25^th,

Possibly James Bouchier [Bourchier] (1683–1736), who is mentioned in the ODNB in the entry for his father, Thomas

Tears in the manuscript along the left-hand edge involving five consecutive lines have resulted in the loss of characters from three of those lines.

The ascender of the h is visible and legible.

An Under Secretary of State

The letter M, while legible, was written over or modified in some way by Prior, perhaps from minuscule to maguscule.

PRIOR to EDWARD SOUTHWELL, 11/[22] January 1704, Westminster