Proposal of marriage from Mr Swale

“;Nothing happens that one expects, & every thing happens that one does not expect: here's a proposal of Marriage to me from a Man I scarcely know—a M^r Swale of good Family & Fortune in Suffolk—very odd tho' of the Man to want to marry me of all People—I sent him an immediate & steady Refusal. Seward1 & Selwin being both disposed to offer their Persons and Fortunes is less odd, tho' not less silly.”;

On 21 February 1784, she sent him the following note:2

My Acquaintance with you was always the slightest possible, & it is now two Years since I have seen your Face; yet in these two Years I have received two Letters from you, the first, a very strange one, the second stranger still; I beg I may never have a Third: as I am surely of Age to act without a Monitor, and when I chuse one—it shall not be Mr. Swale.

Written by Hester Lynch Thrale. Thraliana entry dated 19 May 1782.

• 1. William Seward 1747-1799 was an anecdotist and son of a wealthy brewer of the firm Calvert and Seward.
• 2. In 1950, the note belonged to Mrs. Evans, of Brynbella.