The Letters from Jerry Melford to Sir Phillips   

  When writing back to his alma mater of Oxford, Jerry Melford is constantly concerned with the people he has left behind.  "Commend me to all our friends round Carfax," he asks, and "remember me to our Jesuitical friends" (Smollett 267, 117).  He cannot keep himself from being concerned with the undergraduate world he has left behind, and recognizes that "a college-life is too circumscribed to afford materials for such quick returns of communication" (Smollett 102).  Eager to please his friend and present himself in a positive manner, Jerry Melford constantly uses the term of hoping for "amusement" of Sir Watkin Phillips, also known as Wat, Phillips, and Knight.  He clearly sees this camaraderie having the potential to decline, and from the first letter, seeks to "cultivate" it (Smollett 36).  His writing is for the entertainment of his "dear Phillips," and certainly, uses the quirks of his family to produce admiration on the part of his addressee.