Theft of £2,000
After so much Inconstancy—as Boswell said (in his letter to Hester Thrale on 5 September 1769) when he was going to be married; we are at last settled in a ready furnished House Grosvenor Square for the three following Months—and mean like Seged in the Rambler (Rambler no 204 & 205) to be happy; the first Felicity however that I was saluted with on my Arrival, was an Account of Lancaster our favourite Abroad-Clerk (at H. Thrale & Co Brewery) running away with two Thousand Pounds: so I have been running after him I think into all the hiding Places of this filthy Town, & lost him at last. I am so afraid the Wretch will cut his own Throat, or do some desperate Act of Remorse—for he really was an honest Man once, & I feel Concern for him in the midst of the plagues he has been pleased to accumulate upon me. if he would have negotiated with me I would have protected the Creature from Thrale’s & Perkins’s Vengeance, but he would run away; so farewell Lancaster & 2000£—
Mr Thrale does not mind it of a Pin, but then he is not in the humour to mind Expence of any sort; his Spirits are preternaturally high, and portend no Good I am sure; but Sir Richard (Sir Richard Jebb the family doctor) will watch him & prevent a fit, the Apoplexy is now I verily think connected with Dropsy, & the mode of Danger is changed.—
Thraliana entry dated 1 February 1781.
