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  _The_ KINGS TREASURIES
  OF LITERATURE

  GENERAL EDITOR

  SIR A. T. QUILLER COUCH

  LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS LTD




[Illustration: J. Addison.]




  _THE_
  DE COVERLEY
  PAPERS
  _FROM_
  _'THE SPECTATOR'_

  EDITED
  _BY_
  JOSEPH MEEK _M.A._




  All rights reserved
  by
  J. M. DENT & SONS LTD
  Aldine House · Bedford Street · London
  Made in Great Britain
  at
  The Aldine Press · Letchworth · Herts
  First published in this edition 1920
  Last reprinted 1955




INTRODUCTION


No character in our literature, not even Mr. Pickwick, has more endeared
himself to successive generations of readers than Addison's Sir Roger de
Coverley: there are many figures in drama and fiction of whom we feel
that they are in a way personal friends of our own, that once introduced
to us they remain a permanent part of our little world. It is the abiding
glory of Dickens, it is one of Shakespeare's abiding glories, to have
created many such: but we look to find these characters in the novel or
the play: the essay by virtue of its limitations of space is unsuited for
character-studies, and even in the subject of our present reading the
difficulty of hunting the various Coverley Essays down in the great
number of _Spectator_ Papers is some small drawback. But here before the
birth of the modern English novel we have a full-length portrait of such
a character as we have described, in addition to a number of other more
sketchy but still convincing delineations of English types. We are
brought into the society of a fine old-fashioned country gentleman,
simple, generous, and upright, with just those touches of whimsicality
and those lovable faults which go straight to our hearts: and all so
charmingly described that these Essays have delighted all who have read
them since they first began to appear on the breakfast-tables of the
polite world in Queen Anne's day.

"Addison's" Sir Roger we have called him, and be sure that honest Dick
Steele, even if he drew the first outlines of the figure, would not bear
us a grudge for so doing. Whoever first thought of Sir Roger, and however
many little touches may have been added by other hands, he remains
Addison's creation: and furthermore it does not matter a snap of the
fingers whether any actual person served as the model from which the
picture was taken. Of all the bootless quests that literary criticism can
undertake, this search for "the original" is the least valuable. The
artist's mind is a crucible which transmutes and re-creates: to vary the
metaphor, the marble springs to life under the workman's hands: we can
almost see it happening in these Essays: and we know how often enough a
writer finds his own creation kicking over the traces, as it were, and
becoming almost independent of his volition. There is no original for Sir
Roger or Falstaff or Mr. Micawber: they may not have sprung Athena-like
fully armed out of the author's head, and they may have been suggested by
some one he had in mind. But once created they came into a full-blooded
life with personalities entirely of their own.

A vastly more useful quest, one in fact of absorbing interest, is the
attempt to follow the artist's method, to trace the devices which he
adopts to bring to our notice all those various traits by which we judge
of character. The prose writer has this much advantage over the
playwright, that he can represent his _dramatis personæ_ in a greater
number of different situations, and furthermore can criticise them and
draw our special attention to what he wishes to have stressed: he can
even say that such and such thoughts and motives are in their minds. Not
so the dramatist: his space is limited and he is cribbed, cabined, and
confined by having to give a convincing imitation of real life, where we
cannot tell what is going on in the minds of even our most intimate
friends. Thus the audience is often left uncertain of the purport of what
it sees and hears: the ugly and inartistic convention of the aside must
be used very sparingly if the play is to ring true; and so it is that we
shall find voluminous discussions on the subject, for instance, of how
Shakespeare meant such and such a character to be interpreted. It stands
to reason that the character in fiction can to this same extent be more
artificial. It is a test of the self-control and artistic restraint of
the novelist if he can refrain from diving too deep into the unknown and
arrogating to himself an impossibly full knowledge of the mental
processes of other people. And now notice how Addison gives us just such
revelations of the old Knight's character as the observant spectator
would gather from friendly intercourse with him. We see Sir Roger at
home, ruling his household and the village with a genial if somewhat
autocratic sway: we see him in London, taking the cicerone who pilots him
round Westminster Abbey for a monument of wit and learning: and so on and
so forth. There is no need to catalogue these occasions: what we have
said should suffice to point out a very fruitful line of study which may
help the reader to a full appreciation of Addison's work. "Good wine
needs no bush," and the Coverley Essays are good wine if ever there was
such.

The study of the style is also of the greatest value. Addison lived at a
time when our modern English prose had recently found itself. We admire
the splendour of the Miltonic style, and lose ourselves in the rich
harmonies of Sir Thomas Browne's work; but after all prose is needed for
ordinary every-day jog-trot purposes and must be clear and
straightforward. It can still remain a very attractive instrument of
speech or writing, and in Addison's hands it fulfilled to perfection the
needs of the essay style. He avoids verbiage and excessive adornment, he
is content to tell what he sees or knows or thinks as simply as possible
(and even with a tendency towards the conversational), and he has an
inimitable feeling for just the right word, just the most elegantly
turned phrase and period. Do not imagine this sort of thing is the result
of a mere gift for style: true, it could not happen without that, but
neither can it happen without a great deal of careful thought, a
scrupulous choice, and balancing of word against word, phrase against
phrase. Because all this is done and because the result is so clear and
runs so smoothly, it requires an effort on our part to realise the great
amount of work involved: _Ars est celare artem_: and in such an essay as
that describing the picture gallery in Sir Roger's house we can see the
pictures in front of our eyes precisely because the description is so
clear-cut, so free from unnecessary decoration, and yet so picturesque
and attractive.

A very short acquaintance will enable the reader to appreciate Addison's
charming humour and sane grasp of character. The high moral tone of his
work, the common-sense and broad culture and literary insight which
caused the _Spectator_ to exert a profound influence over a dissolute
age, these can only be seen by a more extended reading of the Essays, and
those who are interested cannot do better than obtain some general
selection such as that of Arnold.

Biographical and historical details are somewhat outside the scope of the
present Essay. A short Chronological Table is appended, and the reader
cannot be too strongly recommended to study Johnson's Life of Addison,
which is one of the best of the Lives of the Poets, and in which the
literary criticism is in Johnson's best vein. And Thackeray's _Esmond_
contains some delightful passages introducing Richard Steele and his
entourage, with an interesting scene in Addison's lodgings. It is perhaps
as well to mention that the _Spectator_ grew out of Addison's
collaboration with Steele in a similar periodical entitled the _Tatler_.
There were several writers besides these two concerned in the
_Spectator_, notably Budgell. (The letters at the end of most of the
papers are signatures: C., L., I. and O. are the marks of Addison's work,
R. and T. of Steele's, and X. of Budgell's.) We have stories of Addison's
resentment of their tampering with his favourite character; it is even
said that he killed the Knight off in his annoyance at one paper which
represented him in an unfitting situation. We cannot judge of the truth
of such stories. In any case it was Addison who controlled the whole
tenor and policy of the paper, wisely steering as clear as possible of
politics, and thereby broadening his appeal and reaching a wider public,
and it was Addison's kindly and mellow criticism of life that informed
the whole work. His remaining literary productions, popular at the time,
have receded into the background: but the _Spectator_ will keep his name
alive as long as English literature survives.

       *       *       *       *       *

(In this selection only those essays have been chosen which bear directly
on Sir Roger or the _Spectator_ Club: several have been omitted which
refer to him only _en passant_ or as a peg on which to hang some
disquisition, and also one other which is wholly out of keeping with Sir
Roger's character.)


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

  1672.            Birth of Addison and Steele.
  1697.            Addison elected Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
  1701, 3, 5, 22.  Steele's Plays.
  1702.            Accession of Queen Anne.
  1704.            Addison's _Campaign_ (poem celebrating Blenheim).
  1706.            Addison's _Rosamond_ (opera).
  1709-11.         Steele's _Tatler_.
  1711-12-14.      The _Spectator_.
  1713.            Addison's _Cato_ (play).
  1714.            Accession of George I.
  1717.            Addison appointed Secretary of State.
  1719.            Death of Addison.
  1729.            Death of Steele.




THE DE COVERLEY PAPERS




NO. 1. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1710-11

    _Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dart lucem
    Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat._

    HOR. _Ars Poet._ ver. 143.

    One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke;
    The other out of smoke brings glorious light,
    And (without raising expectation high)
    Surprises us with dazzling miracles.

    ROSCOMMON.


I have observed, that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure, until
he knows whether the writer of it be a black[1] or a fair man, of a mild
or choleric[2] disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars
of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of
an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I
design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to my following
writings, and shall give some account in them of the several persons that
are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling,
digesting[3], and correcting will fall to my share, I must do myself the
justice to open the work with my own history.

I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the
tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges
and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and
has been delivered down from father to son whole and entire, without the
loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six
hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that before my birth my
mother dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge: whether this might
proceed from a lawsuit which was then depending[4] in the family, or my
father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not
so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my
future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood
put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in
the world, and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother's
dream: for, as she has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was
two months old, and would not make use of my coral until they had taken
away the bells from it.

As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I
shall pass it over in silence. I find, that, during my nonage[5], I had
the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my
schoolmaster, who used to say, that my parts[6] were solid, and would
wear well. I had not been long at the University, before I distinguished
myself by a most profound silence; for during the space of eight years,
excepting in the public exercises[7] of the college, I scarce uttered the
quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever
spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this
learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies, that
there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or the modern
tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign
countries, and therefore left the University, with the character of an
odd unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would
but show it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the
countries of Europe, in which there was anything new or strange to be
seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the
controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I
made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a
pyramid: and, as soon as I had set myself right in that particular,
returned to my native country with great satisfaction.

I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in
most public places, though there are not above half a dozen of my select
friends that know me; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular
account. There is no place of general resort, wherein I do not often make
my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of
politicians at Will's[8], and listening with great attention to the
narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I
smoke a pipe at Child's[8], and, whilst I seem attentive to nothing but
the _Postman_[9], overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I
appear on Sunday nights at St. James's[8] coffee-house, and sometimes
join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes
there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known at the
Grecian[8], the Cocoa-Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury Lane and
the Hay-Market. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for
above these ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of
stock-jobbers at Jonathan's: in short, wherever I see a cluster of
people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own
club.

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind, than as one of
the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman,
soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical
part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband or a
father, and can discern the errors in the economy[10], business, and
diversion of others, better than those who are engaged in them, as
standers-by discover blots[11], which are apt to escape those who are in
the game. I never espoused any party with violence, and am resolved to
observe an exact neutrality between the Whigs and Tories, unless I shall
be forced to declare myself by the hostilities of either side. In short,
I have acted in all the parts of my life as a looker-on, which is the
character I intend to preserve in this paper.

I have given the reader just so much of my history and character, as to
let him see I am not altogether unqualified for the business I have
undertaken. As for other particulars in my life and adventures, I shall
insert them in following papers, as I shall see occasion. In the
meantime, when I consider how much I have seen, read, and heard, I begin
to blame my own taciturnity; and, since I have neither time nor
inclination to communicate the fulness of my heart in speech, I am
resolved to do it in writing, and to print myself out, if possible,
before I die. I have been often told by my friends, that it is pity so
many useful discoveries which I have made should be in the possession of
a silent man. For this reason, therefore, I shall publish a sheet-full of
thoughts every morning, for the benefit of my contemporaries; and if I
can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in
which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the
secret satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.

There are three very material points which I have not spoken to[12] in
this paper; and which, for several important reasons, I must keep to
myself, at least for some time: I mean, an account of my name, my age,
and my lodgings. I must confess, I would gratify my reader in anything
that is reasonable; but as for these three particulars, though I am
sensible they might tend very much to the embellishment of my paper, I
cannot yet come to a resolution of communicating them to the public. They
would indeed draw me out of that obscurity which I have enjoyed for many
years, and expose me in public places to several salutes and civilities,
which have been always very disagreeable to me; for the greatest pain I
can suffer, is the being talked to, and being stared at. It is for this
reason likewise, that I keep my complexion[13] and dress as very great
secrets; though it is not impossible, but I may make discoveries[14] of
both in the progress of the work I have undertaken.

After having been thus particular upon myself, I shall, in to-morrow's
paper, give an account of those gentlemen who are concerned with me in
this work; for, as I have before intimated, a plan of it is laid and
concerted (as all other matters of importance are) in a club. However, as
my friends have engaged me to stand in the front, those who have a mind
to correspond with me, may direct their letters to the _Spectator_, at
Mr. Buckley's in Little Britain. For I must further acquaint the reader,
that, though our club meets only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have
appointed a committee to sit every night, for the inspection of all such
papers as may contribute to the advancement of the public weal.

  C.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Black._ Dark.

[2] _Choleric._ Liable to anger.

[3] _Digesting._ Arranging methodically.

[4] _Depending._ Modern English _pending_.

[5] _Nonage._ Minority.

[6] _Parts._ Powers.

[7] _Public exercises._ Examinations for degrees at Oxford and Cambridge
formerly took the form of public debates.

[8] _Will's_, _Child's_, _St. James's_, _Grecian_. Coffee-houses; all
these, and the cocoa-houses too, tended to become the special haunts of
members of some particular party, profession, etc.; _e.g._, Will's was
literary, St. James's Whig.

[9] _Postman._ A weekly newspaper.

[10] _Economy._ Household management.

[11] _Blots._ Exposed pieces in backgammon.

[12] _Spoken to._ Referred to.

[13] _Complexion._ Countenance.

[14] _Discoveries._ Disclosures.




NO. 2. FRIDAY, MARCH 2

                _Ast alii sex
    Et plures uno conclamant ore._

    JUV. _Sat._ vii. ver. 167.

    Six more at least join their consenting voice.


The first of our society is a gentleman of Worcestershire, of ancient
descent, a baronet, his name is Sir Roger de Coverley. His
great-grandfather was inventor of that famous country-dance which is
called after him. All who know that shire are very well acquainted with
the parts and merits of Sir Roger. He is a gentleman that is very
singular in his behaviour, but his singularities proceed from his good
sense, and are contradictions to the manners of the world, only as he
thinks the world is in the wrong. However this humour creates him no
enemies, for he does nothing with sourness or obstinacy; and his being
unconfined to modes and forms, makes him but the readier and more capable
to please and oblige all who know him. When he is in town, he lives in
Soho Square. It is said, he keeps himself a bachelor by reason he was
crossed in love by a perverse beautiful widow of the next county to him.
Before this disappointment, Sir Roger was what you call a Fine Gentleman,
had often supped with my Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege[15],
fought a duel upon his first coming to town, and kicked Bully Dawson[16]
in a public coffee-house for calling him youngster. But being ill-used by
the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and a half; and
though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he
grew careless of himself, and never dressed[17] afterwards. He continues
to wear a coat and doublet of the same cut that were in fashion at the
time of his repulse, which, in his merry humours, he tells us, has been
in and out twelve times since he first wore it. He is now in his
fifty-sixth year, cheerful, gay, and hearty; keeps a good house both in
town and country; a great lover of mankind; but there is such a mirthful
cast in his behaviour, that he is rather beloved than esteemed. His
tenants grow rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young women
profess love to him, and the young men are glad of his company: when he
comes into a house he calls the servants by their names, and talks all
the way upstairs to a visit. I must not omit, that Sir Roger is a justice
of the Quorum[18]; that he fills the chair at a quarter-session with
great abilities, and three months ago gained universal applause by
explaining a passage in the Game Act[19].

The gentleman next in esteem and authority among us, is another bachelor,
who is a member of the Inner Temple; a man of great probity, wit, and
understanding; but he has chosen his place of residence rather to obey
the direction of an old humoursome[20] father, than in pursuit of his own
inclinations. He was placed there to study the laws of the land, and is
the most learned of any of the house in those of the stage. Aristotle and
Longinus[21] are much better understood by him than Littleton or
Coke[22]. The father sends up every post questions relating to
marriage-articles, leases, and tenures, in the neighbourhood; all which
questions he agrees with an attorney to answer and take care of in the
lump. He is studying the passions themselves, when he should be inquiring
into the debates among men which arise from them. He knows the argument
of each of the orations of Demosthenes and Tully[23], but not one case in
the reports of our own courts. No one ever took him for a fool, but none,
except his intimate friends, know he has a great deal of wit[24]. This
turn makes him at once both disinterested and agreeable: as few of his
thoughts are drawn from business, they are most of them fit for
conversation. His taste of books is a little too just for the age he
lives in; he has read all, but approves of very few. His familiarity with
the customs, manners, actions, and writings of the ancients, makes him a
very delicate observer of what occurs to him in the present world. He is
an excellent critic, and the time of the play is his hour of business;
exactly at five he passes through New Inn, crosses through Russell Court,
and takes a turn at Will's until the play begins; he has his shoes rubbed
and his periwig powdered at the barber's as you go into the Rose[25]. It
is for the good of the audience when he is at a play, for the actors have
an ambition to please him.

The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Freeport, a merchant of
great eminence in the city of London. A person of indefatigable industry,
strong reason, and great experience. His notions of trade are noble and
generous, and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting,
which would make no great figure were he not a rich man) he calls the sea
the British Common. He is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and
will tell you that it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by
arms; for true power is to be got by arts and industry. He will often
argue, that if this part of our trade were well cultivated, we should
gain from one nation; and if another, from another. I have heard him
prove, that diligence makes more lasting acquisitions than valour, and
that sloth has ruined more nations than the sword. He abounds in several
frugal maxims, amongst which the greatest favourite is, "A penny saved is
a penny got." A general trader of good sense is pleasanter company than a
general scholar; and Sir Andrew having a natural unaffected eloquence,
the perspicuity of his discourse gives the same pleasure that wit would
in another man. He has made his fortunes himself; and says that England
may be richer than other kingdoms, by as plain methods as he himself is
richer than other men; though, at the same time, I can say this of him,
that there is not a point in the compass but blows home a ship in which
he is an owner.

Next to Sir Andrew in the club-room sits Captain Sentry, a gentleman of
great courage, good understanding, but invincible modesty. He is one of
those that deserve very well, but are very awkward at putting their
talents within the observation of such as should take notice of them. He
was some years a captain, and behaved himself with great gallantry in
several engagements, and at several sieges; but having a small estate of
his own, and being next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted a way of life
in which no man can rise suitably to his merit, who is not something of a
courtier, as well as a soldier. I have heard him often lament, that in a
profession where merit is placed in so conspicuous a view, impudence
should get the better of modesty. When he has talked to this purpose, I
never heard him make a sour expression, but frankly confess that he left
the world[26] because he was not fit for it. A strict honesty and an even
regular behaviour, are in themselves obstacles to him that must press
through crowds, who endeavour at the same end with himself, the favour of
a commander. He will however, in his way of talk, excuse generals, for
not disposing according to men's desert, or inquiring into it: For, says
he, that great man who has a mind to help me, has as many to break
through to come at me, as I have to come at him: Therefore he will
conclude, that the man who would make a figure, especially in a military
way, must get over all false modesty, and assist his patron against the
importunity of other pretenders, by a proper assurance in his own
vindication[27]. He says it is a civil[28] cowardice to be backward in
asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to be slow
in attacking when it is your duty. With this candour does the gentleman
speak of himself and others. The same frankness runs through all his
conversation. The military part of his life has furnished him with many
adventures, in the relation of which he is very agreeable to the company;
for he is never overbearing, though accustomed to command men in the
utmost degree below him; nor ever too obsequious, from an habit of
obeying men highly above him.

But that our society may not appear a set of humorists[29], unacquainted
with the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have among us the
gallant Will Honeycomb, a gentleman who, according to his years, should
be in the decline of his life, but having ever been very careful of his
person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has made but a very
little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces in his
brain. His person is well turned[30], of a good height. He is very ready
at that sort of discourse with which men usually entertain women. He has
all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits[31] as others do
men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the
history of every mode, and can inform you from which of the French ladies
our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that way
of placing their hoods, and whose vanity to show her foot made that part
of the dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and
knowledge have been in the female world: as other men of his age will
take notice to you what such a minister said upon such and such an
occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court,
such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head of
his troop in the Park. In all these important relations, he has ever
about the same time received a kind glance or a blow of a fan from some
celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord Such-a-one. This way of
talking of his very much enlivens the conversation among us of a more
sedate turn; and I find there is not one of the company, but myself, who
rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of man who is
usually called a well-bred Fine Gentleman. To conclude his character,
where women are not concerned, he is an honest worthy man.

I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak of, as
one of our company; for he visits us but seldom, but, when he does, it
adds to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a
very philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life, and
the most exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak
constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such cares and business
as preferments in his function would oblige him to: he is therefore among
divines what a chamber-counsellor[32] is among lawyers. The probity of
his mind, and the integrity of his life, create him followers, as being
eloquent or loud advances others. He seldom introduces the subject he
speaks upon; but we are so far gone in years, that he observes when he is
among us, an earnestness to have him fall on some divine topic[33], which
he always treats with much authority, as one who has no interests in this
world, as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, and
conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are my ordinary
companions.

  R.


FOOTNOTES:

[15] _Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege._ Well-known leaders of
fashion and dissipation.

[16] _Bully Dawson._ A notorious swaggerer and sharper.

[17] _Dressed._ _I.e._, fashionably.

[18] _Quorum._ Panel of magistrates.

[19] _Game Act._ Laws dating from very early times and regulating the
licence to kill game.

[20] _Humoursome._ Capricious.

[21] _Aristotle and Longinus._ Aristotle's _Poetics_ and Longinus on the
_Sublime_ are classics of literary criticism.

[22] _Littleton or Coke._ Famous writers on law.

[23] _Demosthenes and Tully._ Demosthenes and M. Tullius Cicero, the
great orators of Athens and Rome respectively.

[24] _Wit._ Cleverness.

[25] _The Rose._ The Rose tavern was frequented by actors.

[26] _The world._ _I.e._, of public life.

[27] _Own vindication._ Self-assertion.

[28] _Civil._ Civilian.

[29] _Humorists._ Eccentrics.

[30] _Turned._ Shaped.

[31] _Habits._ Clothes; _i.e._, fashions.

[32] _Chamber-counsellor._ Barrister whose practice is confined to
consultations.

[33] _Divine topic._ Topic of divinity.




NO. 106. MONDAY, JULY 2

                    _Hinc tibi copia
    Manabit ad plenum, benigno
      Ruris honorum opulenta cornu._

    HOR. _Od._ xvii. l. i. ver. 14.

            Here to thee shall plenty flow,
    And all her riches show.
    To raise the honour of the quiet plain.

    CREECH.


Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley
to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him
thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house,
where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who
is very well acquainted with my humour[34], lets me rise and go to bed
when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit
still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of
the country come to see him, he only shows me at a distance: as I have
been walking in his fields, I have observed them stealing a sight of me
over an hedge, and have heard the Knight desiring them not to let me see
them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober
and staid persons; for, as the Knight is the best master in the world, he
seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his
servants never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics are all
in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his _valet de
chambre_ for his brother, his butler is grey-headed, his groom is one of
the gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of
a privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even in the old
house-dog, and in a grey pad[35] that is kept in the stable with great
care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has
been useless for several years.

I could not but observe, with a great deal of pleasure, the joy that
appeared in the countenance of these ancient domestics upon my friend's
arrival at his country seat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at
the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do
something for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not employed. At
the same time the good old Knight, with a mixture of the father and the
master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with
several kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and
good-nature engages everybody to him, so that when he is pleasant
upon[36] any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so much
as the person whom he diverts himself with: on the contrary, if he
coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by
to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants.

[Illustration: 'Every one of them press'd forward to do something for
him.']

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who
is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants,
wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they have often heard their
master talk of me as of his particular friend.

My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the woods or
the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir Roger, and has
lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This
gentleman is a person of good sense and some learning, of a very regular
life, and obliging conversation[37]: he heartily loves Sir Roger, and
knows that he is very much in the old Knight's esteem, so that he lives
in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger, amidst
all his good qualities, is something of an humorist[38]; and that his
virtues, as well as imperfections, are, as it were, tinged by a certain
extravagance, which makes them particularly _his_, and distinguishes them
from those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally very
innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and
more delightful than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in
their common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last night,
he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now mentioned? And
without staying for my answer, told me, that he was afraid of being
insulted with Latin and Greek at his own table; for which reason he
desired a particular friend of his at the University to find him out a
clergyman rather of plain sense than much learning, of a good aspect, a
clear voice, a sociable temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a
little of backgammon. My friend, says Sir Roger, found me out this
gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me,
a good scholar, though he does not show it: I have given him the
parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value, have settled upon
him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he shall find that he was
higher in my esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me
thirty years; and though he does not know I have taken notice of it, has
never in all that time asked anything of me for himself, though he is
every day soliciting me for something in behalf of one or other of my
tenants, his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit in the parish
since he has lived among them: if any dispute arises they apply
themselves to him for the decision; if they do not acquiesce in his
judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice at most, they
appeal to me. At his first settling with me, I made him a present of all
the good sermons which have been printed in English, and only begged of
him that every Sunday he would pronounce one of them in the pulpit.
Accordingly, he has digested[39] them into such a series, that they
follow one another naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity.

As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman we were talking of
came up to us; and upon the Knight's asking him who preached to-morrow
(for it was Saturday night,) told us, the Bishop of St. Asaph in the
morning, and Dr. South in the afternoon. He then showed us his list of
preachers for the whole year, where I saw with a great deal of pleasure
Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with
several living authors who have published discourses of practical
divinity. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but I very
much approved of my friend's insisting upon the qualifications of a good
aspect and a clear voice; for I was so charmed with the gracefulness of
his figure and delivery, as well as with the discourses he pronounced,
that I think I never passed any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon
repeated after this manner, is like the composition of a poet in the
mouth of a graceful actor.

I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this
example; and, instead of wasting their spirits in laborious compositions
of their own, would endeavour after a handsome elocution[40], and all
those other talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned by
greater masters. This would not only be more easy to themselves, but more
edifying to the people.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[34] _Humour._ Disposition.

[35] _Pad._ Easy-paced horse.

[36] _Is pleasant upon._ Jokes with; chaffs.

[37] _Conversation._ Manner of conducting oneself in intercourse.
Compare note on p. 40.

[38] _Humorist._ Whimsical person.

[39] _Digested._ Arranged.

[40] _Handsome elocution._ Good style of delivery.




NO. 107. TUESDAY, JULY 3

    _Aesopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici,
    Servumque collocârunt aeterna in basi,
    Patere honoris scirent ut cunctis viam._

    PHÆDR. _Epilog._ l. 2.

    The Athenians erected a large statue to Æsop, and placed him,
    though a slave, on a lasting pedestal; to show, that the way to
    honour lies open indifferently to all.


The reception, manner of attendance, undisturbed freedom and quiet, which
I meet with here in the country, has confirmed me in the opinion I always
had, that the general corruption of manners in servants is owing to the
conduct of masters. The aspect of every one in the family[41] carries so
much satisfaction, that it appears he knows the happy lot which has
befallen him in being a member of it. There is one particular which I
have seldom seen but at Sir Roger's; it is usual in all other places,
that servants fly from the parts of the house through which their master
is passing; on the contrary, here they industriously[42] place themselves
in his way; and it is on both sides, as it were, understood as a visit
when the servants appear without calling. This proceeds from the humane
and equal temper of the man of the house, who also perfectly well knows
how to enjoy a great estate, with such economy as ever to be much
beforehand[43]. This makes his own mind untroubled, and consequently
unapt to vent peevish expressions, or give passionate or inconsistent
orders to those about him. Thus respect and love go together; and a
certain cheerfulness in performance of their duty is the particular
distinction of the lower part of this family. When a servant is called
before his master, he does not come with an expectation to hear himself
rated for some trivial fault, threatened to be stripped[44] or used with
any other unbecoming language, which mean masters often give to worthy
servants; but it is often to know what road he took, that he came so
readily back according to order; whether he passed by such a ground; if
the old man who rents it is in good health; or whether he gave Sir
Roger's love to him, or the like.

A man who preserves a respect, founded on his benevolence to his
dependents, lives rather like a prince than a master in his family; his
orders are received as favours, rather than duties; and the distinction
of approaching him is part of the reward for executing what is commanded
by him.

There is another circumstance in which my friend excels in his
management, which is the manner of rewarding his servants: he has ever
been of opinion, that giving his cast clothes to be worn by valets has a
very ill effect upon little minds, and creates a silly sense of equality
between the parties, in persons affected only with outward things. I have
heard him often pleasant on this occasion[45], and describe a young
gentleman abusing his man in that coat, which a month or two before was
the most pleasing distinction he was conscious of in himself. He would
turn his discourse still more pleasantly upon the ladies' bounties of
this kind; and I have heard him say he knew a fine woman, who distributed
rewards and punishments in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her
maids.

But my good friend is above these little instances of good-will, in
bestowing only trifles on his servants; a good servant to him is sure of
having it in his choice very soon of being no servant at all. As I
before observed, he is so good an husband[46], and knows so thoroughly
that the skill of the purse is the cardinal virtue of this life: I say,
he knows so well that frugality is the support of generosity, that he can
often spare a large fine[47] when a tenement falls, and give that
settlement to a good servant, who has a mind to go into the world, or
make a stranger pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable
maintenance, if he stays in his service.

A man of honour and generosity considers it would be miserable to himself
to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best person
breathing, and for that reason goes on as fast as he is able to put his
servants into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's
estate is tenanted by persons who have served himself or his ancestors.
It was to me extremely pleasant to observe the visitants from several
parts to welcome his arrival in the country; and all the difference that
I could take notice of between the late servants who came to see him, and
those who stayed in the family, was, that these latter were looked upon
as finer gentlemen and better courtiers.

This manumission[48] and placing them in a way of livelihood, I look upon
as only what is due to a good servant, which encouragement will make his
successor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is
something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds, which can be
pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who please them.

One might, on this occasion, recount the sense that great persons in all
ages have had of the merit of their dependents, and the heroic services
which men have done their masters in the extremity of their fortunes; and
shown, to their undone[49] patrons, that fortune was all the
difference[50] between them; but as I design this my speculation only as
a gentle admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out of the
occurrences of common life, but assert it as a general observation, that
I never saw but in Sir Roger's family, and one or two more, good servants
treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their
children's children, and this very morning he sent his coachman's
grandson to prentice. I shall conclude this paper with an account of a
picture in his gallery, where there are many which will deserve my future
observation.

At the very upper end of this handsome structure I saw the portraiture of
two young men standing in a river, the one naked, the other in a livery.
The person supported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to show
in his face exquisite joy and love towards the other. I thought the
fainting figure resembled my friend Sir Roger; and looking at the butler,
who stood by me, for an account of it, he informed me that the person in
the livery was a servant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the shore while
his master was swimming, and observing him taken with some sudden
illness, and sink under water, jumped in and saved him. He told me Sir
Roger took off the dress[51] he was in as soon as he came home, and by a
great bounty at that time, followed by his favour ever since, had made
him master of that pretty seat which we saw at a distance as we came to
this house. I remembered indeed Sir Roger said there lived a very worthy
gentleman, to whom he was highly obliged, without mentioning anything
further. Upon my looking a little dissatisfied at some part of the
picture, my attendant informed me that it was against Sir Roger's will,
and at the earnest request of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in
the habit[52] in which he had saved his master.

  R.


FOOTNOTES:

[41] _Family._ Family in its original Latin meaning of _household_.

[42] _Industriously._ On purpose.

[43] _With such economy ... beforehand._ With such thrift as always to
be well within his income.

[44] _Stripped._ Discharged.

[45] _Pleasant on this occasion._ Joking on this topic.

[46] _So good an husband._ So thrifty a man.

[47] _Fine._ Premium paid by new tenant to landlord.

[48] _Manumission._ Release from service.

[49] _Undone._ Ruined.

[50] _All the difference._ The only difference.

[51] _Took off the dress._ Dress = livery: _i.e._, would not allow him
to remain a servant.

[52] _Habit._ Dress.




NO. 108. WEDNESDAY, JULY 4

    _Gratis anhelans, multa agenda nihil agens._

    PHÆDR. _Fab._ v. 1. 2.

    Out of breath to no purpose, and very busy about nothing.


As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his house, a
country fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr. William
Wimble had caught that very morning; and that he presented it, with his
service to him, and intended to come and dine with him. At the same time
he delivered a letter which my friend read to me as soon as the messenger
left him.

     SIR ROGER,

     I desire you to accept of a jack[53], which is the best I have
     caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and
     see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed with some
     concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green, that your
     whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I
     twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all the time you are
     in the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six days last
     past, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to
     his learning hugely. I am, Sir,

     Your humble servant,
     WILL WIMBLE.

This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made me very
curious to know the character and quality of the gentleman who sent them;
which I found to be as follows. Will Wimble is younger brother to a
baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now
between forty and fifty; but, being bred to no business and born to no
estate, he generally lives with his elder brother as superintendent of
his game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country, and
is very famous for finding out a hare. He is extremely well-versed in all
the little handicrafts of an idle man: he makes a May-fly to a miracle;
and furnishes the whole country[54] with angle-rods. As he is a
good-natured officious[55] fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of
his family, he is a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good
correspondence[56] among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a
tulip-root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy
between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides of
the county. Will is a particular favourite of all the young heirs, whom
he frequently obliges with a net that he has weaved, or a setting dog
that he has made[57] himself: he now and then presents a pair of garters
of his own knitting to their mothers or sisters; and raises a great deal
of mirth among them, by inquiring as often as he meets them _how they
wear_? These gentleman-like manufactures and obliging little humours make
Will the darling of the country.

Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we saw him make up
to us with two or three hazel-twigs in his hand, that he had cut in Sir
Roger's woods, as he came through them in his way to the house. I was
very much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and sincere welcome
with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the secret joy which
his guest discovered[58] at sight of the good old Knight. After the first
salutes were over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants
to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in a little box to a lady
that lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had promised such a
present for above this half-year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned,
but honest Will began to tell me of a large cock pheasant that he had
sprung in one of the neighbouring woods, with two or three other
adventures of the same nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the game
that I look for, and most delight in; for which reason I was as much
pleased with the novelty of the person that talked to me, as he could be
for his life with the springing of a pheasant, and therefore listened to
him with more than ordinary attention.

In the midst of his discourse the bell rung to dinner, where the
gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the huge
jack, he had caught, served up for the first dish in a most sumptuous
manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave us a long account how he had
hooked it, played with it, foiled[59] it, and at length drew it out upon
the bank, with several other particulars that lasted all the first
course. A dish of wild-fowl that came afterwards furnished conversation
for the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of
Will's for improving the quail-pipe[60].

Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was secretly touched with
compassion towards the honest gentleman that had dined with us; and could
not but consider with a great deal of concern, how so good an heart and
such busy hands were wholly employed in trifles; that so much humanity
should be so little beneficial to others, and so much industry so little
advantageous to himself. The same temper of mind and application to
affairs, might have recommended him to the public esteem, and have raised
his fortune in another station of life. What good to his country or
himself might not a trader or merchant have done with such useful though
ordinary qualifications?

Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great family,
who had rather see their children starve like gentlemen, than thrive in a
trade or profession that is beneath their quality. This humour[61] fills
several parts of Europe with pride and beggary. It is the happiness of a
trading nation, like ours, that the younger sons, though incapable of any
liberal art or profession, may be placed in such a way of life, as may
perhaps enable them to vie with the best of their family: accordingly we
find several citizens that were launched into the world with narrow
fortunes, rising by an honest industry to greater estates than those of
their elder brothers. It is not improbable but Will was formerly tried at
divinity, law, or physic; and that, finding his genius did not lie that
way, his parents gave him up at length to his own inventions; but
certainly, however improper he might have been for studies of a higher
nature, he was perfectly well turned[62] for the occupations of trade and
commerce. As I think this is a point which cannot be too much
inculcated, I shall desire my reader to compare what I have here written
with what I have said in my twenty-first speculation.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[53] _Jack._ Pike.

[54] _Country._ Country-side.

[55] _Officious._ Obliging.

[56] _Correspondence._ Inter-communication.

[57] _Made._ Trained.

[58] _Discovered._ Showed.

[59] _Foiled._ Rendered helpless.

[60] _Quail-pipe._ Device for decoying quails.

[61] _Humour._ Prejudice.

[62] _Turned._ Fitted by nature.




NO. 109. THURSDAY, JULY 5

    _Abnormis sapiens._

    HOR. _Sat._ ii. l. 2. ver. 3.

    Of plain good sense, untutor'd in the schools.


I was this morning walking in the gallery when Sir Roger entered at the
end opposite to me, and advancing towards me, said he was glad to meet me
among his relations the De Coverleys, and hoped I liked the
conversation[63] of so much good company, who were as silent as myself. I
knew he alluded to the pictures, and as he is a gentleman who does not a
little value himself upon his ancient descent, I expected he would give
me some account of them. We were now arrived at the upper end of the
gallery, when the Knight faced towards one of the pictures, and, as we
stood before it, he entered into the matter, after his blunt way of
saying things, as they occur to his imagination, without regular
introduction, or care to preserve the appearance of chain of thought.

"It is," said he, "worth while to consider the force of dress; and how
the persons of one age differ from those of another, merely by that only.
One may observe also, that the general fashion of one age has been
followed by one particular set of people in another, and by them
preserved from one generation to another. Thus the vast jetting[64] coat
and small bonnet, which was the habit in Harry the Seventh's time, is
kept on in the yeomen of the guard; not without a good and politic view,
because they look a foot taller, and a foot and an half broader: besides
that the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently more terrible,
and fitter to stand at the entrances of palaces.

"This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed after this manner, and his
cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a hat as I am. He was the
last man that won a prize in the tilt-yard (which is now a common street
before Whitehall). You see the broken lance that lies there by his right
foot; he shivered that lance of his adversary all to pieces; and bearing
himself, look you, sir, in this manner, at the same time he came within
the target[65] of the gentleman who rode against him, and taking him with
incredible force before him on the pommel of his saddle, he in that
manner rid the tournament[66] over, with an air that showed he did it
rather to perform the rule of the lists, than expose his enemy; however,
it appeared he knew how to make use of a victory, and with a gentle trot
he marched up to a gallery where their mistress sat (for they were
rivals) and let him down with laudable courtesy and pardonable
insolence[67]. I don't know but it might be exactly where the
coffee-house is now.

"You are to know this my ancestor was not only of a military genius, but
fit also for the arts of peace, for he played on the bass-viol[68] as well
as any gentleman at court; you see where his viol hangs by his basket-hilt
sword. The action at the tilt-yard you may be sure won the fair lady, who
was a maid of honour, and the greatest beauty of her time; here she stands
the next picture. You see, sir, my great-great-great-grandmother has on
the new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gathered at the
waist: my grandmother appears as if she stood in a large drum, whereas
the ladies now walk as if they were in a go-cart. For all[69] this lady
was bred at court, she became an excellent country wife, she brought ten
children, and when I show you the library, you shall see in her own hand
(allowing for the difference of the language) the best receipt now in
England both for an hasty-pudding and a white-pot.

"If you please to fall back a little, because it is necessary to look at
the three next pictures at one view: these are three sisters. She on the
right hand, who is so beautiful, died a maid; the next to her, still
handsomer, had the same fate, against her will; this homely thing in the
middle had both their portions added to her own, and was stolen by a
neighbouring gentleman, a man of stratagem and resolution, for he
poisoned three mastiffs to come at her, and knocked down two
deer-stealers in carrying her off. Misfortunes happen in all families:
the theft of this romp and so much money, was no great matter to our
estate. But the next heir that possessed it was this soft gentleman, whom
you see there: observe the small buttons, the little boots, the laces,
the slashes[70] about his clothes, and above all the posture he is drawn
in, (which to be sure was his own choosing;) you see he sits with one
hand on a desk writing and looking as it were another way, like an easy
writer, or a sonneteer: he was one of those that had too much wit to know
how to live in the world; he was a man of no justice, but great good
manners; he ruined everybody that had anything to do with him, but never
said a rude thing in his life; the most indolent person in the world, he
would sign a deed that passed away half his estate with his gloves on,
but would not put on his hat before a lady if it were to save his
country. He is said to be the first that made love by squeezing the hand.
He left the estate with ten thousand pounds debt upon it, but however by
all hands I have been informed that he was every way the finest gentleman
in the world. That debt lay heavy on our house for one generation, but it
was retrieved by a gift from that honest man you see there, a citizen of
our name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir Andrew Freeport has
said behind my back, that this man was descended from one of the ten
children of the maid of honour I showed you above; but it was never made
out. We winked at the thing indeed, because money was wanting at that
time."

Here I saw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned my face to the next
portraiture.

Sir Roger went on with his account of the gallery in the following
manner. "This man" (pointing to him I looked at) "I take to be the honour
of our house, Sir Humphrey de Coverley; he was in his dealings as
punctual as a tradesman, and as generous as a gentleman. He would have
thought himself as much undone by breaking his word, as if it were to be
followed by bankruptcy. He served his country as knight of this shire[71]
to his dying day. He found it no easy matter to maintain an integrity in
his words and actions, even in things that regarded the offices which
were incumbent upon him, in the care of his own affairs and relations of
life, and therefore dreaded (though he had great talents) to go into
employments of state, where he must be exposed to the snares of ambition.
Innocence of life and great ability were the distinguishing parts of his
character; the latter, he had often observed, had led to the destruction
of the former, and used frequently to lament that great and good had not
the same signification. He was an excellent husbandman, but had resolved
not to exceed such a degree[72] of wealth; all above it he bestowed in
secret bounties many years after the sum he aimed at for his own use was
attained. Yet he did not slacken his industry, but to a decent old age
spent the life and fortune which was superfluous to himself, in the
service of his friends and neighbours."

Here we were called to dinner, and Sir Roger ended the discourse of[73]
this gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the servant, that this his
ancestor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped being killed in the civil
wars; "For," said he, "he was sent out of the field upon a private
message, the day before the battle of Worcester." The whim[74] of
narrowly escaping by having been within a day of danger, with other
matters above mentioned, mixed with good sense, left me at a loss whether
I was more delighted with my friend's wisdom or simplicity.

  R.


FOOTNOTES:

[63] _Conversation._ Intercourse with. Compare note on p. 28.

[64] _Jetting._ Bulging.

[65] _Target._ Targe or small shield.

[66] _Tournament._ Lists.

[67] _Insolence._ Triumph.

[68] _Bass-viol._ Violoncello.

[69] _For all._ In spite of the fact that.

[70] _Slashes._ Ornamental slits in a doublet, etc.

[71] _Knight of this shire._ M.P. for the county.

[72] _Such a degree._ A fixed amount.

[73] _Discourse of._ Discourse about.

[74] _Whim._ Absurd notion.




NO. 110. FRIDAY, JULY 6

    _Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent._

    VIRG. _Æn._ ii. ver. 755.

    All things are full of horror and affright,
    And dreadful ev'n the silence of the night.

    DRYDEN.


At a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among the ruins of an old
abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms; which are shot up so very high,
that when one passes under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the
tops of them seem to be cawing in another region. I am very much
delighted with this sort of noise, which I consider as a kind of natural
prayer to that Being who supplies the wants of his whole creation, and
who, in the beautiful language of the Psalms, feedeth the young ravens
that call upon him. I like this retirement the better, because of an ill
report it lies under of being _haunted_; for which reason (as I have been
told in the family) no living creature ever walks in it besides the
chaplain. My good friend the butler desired me with a very grave face not
to venture myself in it after sunset, for that one of the footmen had
been almost frighted out of his wits by a spirit that appeared to him in
the shape of a black horse without an head; to which he added, that about
a month ago one of the maids coming home late that way with a pail of
milk upon her head, heard such a rustling among the bushes that she let
it fall.

I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours of nine
and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the
world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up
and down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder bushes, the
harbours of several solitary birds which seldom make their appearance
till the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a churchyard, and
has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is such
an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you stamp but a little
louder than ordinary, you hear the sound repeated. At the same time the
walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens which from time to time are
heard from the tops of them, looks exceeding solemn and venerable. These
objects naturally raise seriousness and attention; and when night
heightens the awfulness of the place, and pours out her supernumerary[75]
horrors upon everything in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds
fill it with spectres and apparitions.

Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of Ideas, has very
curious[76] remarks to show how, by the prejudice of education[77], one
idea often introduces into the mind a whole set that bear no resemblance
to one another in the nature of things. Among several examples of this
kind, he produces the following instance. "The ideas of goblins and
sprites have really no more to do with darkness than light: yet let but a
foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them
there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again so
long as he lives; but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those
frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear
the one than the other."

As I was walking in this solitude, where the dusk of the evening
conspired with so many other occasions of terror, I observed a cow
grazing not far from me, which an imagination that was apt to startle
might easily have construed into a black horse without an head: and I
dare say the poor footman lost his wits upon some such trivial occasion.

My friend Sir Roger has often told me with a good deal of mirth, that at
his first coming to his estate he found three parts of his house
altogether useless; that the best room in it had the reputation of being
haunted, and by that means[78] was locked up; that noises had been heard
in his long gallery, so that he could not get a servant to enter it after
eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of the chambers was nailed
up, because there went a story in the family that a butler had formerly
hanged himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had
shut up half the rooms in the house, in which either her husband, a son,
or daughter had died. The Knight seeing his habitation reduced to so
small a compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his own house, upon
the death of his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung open, and
exorcised[79] by his chaplain, who lay in every room one after another,
and by that means dissipated the fears which had so long reigned in the
family.

I should not have been thus particular upon these ridiculous horrors, did
not I find them so very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the
same time I think a person who is thus terrified with the imagination of
ghosts and spectres, much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the
reports of all historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to
the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous
and groundless: could not I give myself up to this general testimony of
mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons who are now
living, and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact. I might here
add, that not only the historians, to whom we may join the poets, but
likewise the philosophers of antiquity have favoured this opinion.
Lucretius[80] himself, though by the course of his philosophy he was
obliged to maintain that the soul did not exist separate from the body,
makes no doubt of the reality of apparitions, and that men have often
appeared after their death. This I think very remarkable. He was so
pressed[81] with the matter of fact which he could not have the
confidence to deny, that he was forced to account for it by one of the
most absurd unphilosophical notions that was ever started. He tells us,
that the surfaces of all bodies are perpetually flying off from their
respective bodies, one after another; and that these surfaces or thin
cases, that included each other whilst they were joined in the body like
the coats of an onion, are sometimes seen entire when they are separated
from it; by which means we often behold the shapes and shadows of persons
who are either dead or absent.

I shall dismiss this paper with a story out of Josephus, not so much for
the sake of the story itself as for the moral reflections with which the
author concludes it, and which I shall here set down in his own words.
"Glaphyra the daughter of King Archelaus, after the death of her two
first husbands (being married to a third, who was brother to her first
husband, and so passionately in love with her that he turned off his
former wife to make room for this marriage) had a very odd kind of dream.
She fancied that she saw her first husband coming towards her, and that
she embraced him with great tenderness; when in the midst of the pleasure
which she expressed at the sight of him, he reproached her after the
following manner: 'Glaphyra,' says he, 'thou hast made good the old
saying, That women are not to be trusted. Was not I the husband of thy
virginity? Have I not children by thee? How couldst thou forget our loves
so far as to enter into a second marriage, and after that into a third,
nay to take for thy husband a man who has so shamefully crept into the
bed of his brother? However, for the sake of our passed loves, I shall
free thee from thy present reproach, and make thee mine for ever.'
Glaphyra told this dream to several women of her acquaintance, and died
soon after. I thought this story might not be impertinent in this place,
wherein I speak of those kings: besides that the example deserves to be
taken notice of, as it contains a most certain proof of the immortality
of the soul, and of Divine Providence. If any man thinks these facts
incredible, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but let him not
endeavour to disturb the belief of others, who by instances of this
nature are excited to the study of virtue."

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[75] _Supernumerary._ Additional.

[76] _Curious._ Interesting.

[77] _Prejudice of education._ Bent given to the mind by education.

[78] _By that means._ Because of that.

[79] _Exorcised._ Delivered from supernatural influence.

[80] _Lucretius._ Roman philosopher-poet: 95-52 B.C.

[81] _Pressed._ Compelled.




NO. 112. MONDAY, JULY 9

    [Greek: Athanatous men prôta theous, nomô hôs diakeitai,
    Tima.]

    PYTHAG.

    First, in obedience to thy country's rites,
    Worship the immortal Gods.


I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday; and think, if
keeping holy the seventh day were only[82] a human institution, it would
be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and
civilising of mankind. It is certain the country people would soon
degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such
frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet
together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to
converse with one another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties
explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being.
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes
in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes
upon appearing[83] in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such
qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A
country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard, as a
citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parish politics being generally
discussed in that place, either after sermon or before the bell rings.

My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside
of his church with several texts of his own choosing: he has likewise
given a handsome pulpit cloth, and railed in the communion-table at his
own expense. He has often told me, that at his coming to his estate he
found his parishioners very irregular; and that, in order to make them
kneel and join in the responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and
a common-prayer-book; and at the same time employed an itinerant
singing-master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct
them rightly in the tunes of the psalms; upon which they now very much
value themselves, and indeed outdo most of the country churches that I
have ever heard.

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very
good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for,
if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon
recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees
anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servants to
them. Several other of the old Knight's particularities[84] break out
upon these occasions: sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the
singing psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have
done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his
devotion, he pronounces "Amen" three or four times to the same prayer;
and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to count
the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing.

I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst
of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was
about, and not disturb the congregation. This John Matthews it seems is
remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking his
heels for his diversion. This authority of the Knight, though exerted in
that odd manner which accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a
very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to see
anything ridiculous in his behaviour; besides that, the general good
sense and worthiness of his character makes his friends observe these
little singularities as foils, that rather set off than blemish his good
qualities.

As soon as the sermon is finished, nobody presumes to stir till Sir Roger
is gone out of the church. The Knight walks down from his seat in the
chancel between a double row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on
each side; and every now and then inquires how such an one's wife, or
mother, or son, or father do, whom he does not see at church; which is
understood as a secret reprimand to the person that is absent.

The chaplain has often told me, that upon a catechising day, when Sir
Roger has been pleased with a boy that answers well, he has ordered a
bible to be given him next day for his encouragement; and sometimes
accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger, has
likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk's place: and that he may
encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church
service, has promised upon the death of the present incumbent[85], who is
very old, to bestow it according to merit.

The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their
mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable, because the
very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that
arise between the parson and the squire, who live in a perpetual state of
war. The parson is always preaching at the squire, and the squire to be
revenged on the parson never comes to church. The squire has made all his
tenants atheists and tithe-stealers; while the parson instructs them
every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them in
almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In short,
matters are come to such an extremity, that the squire has not said his
prayers either in public or private this half-year; and that the parson
threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray for him in the
face of the whole congregation.

Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal
to the ordinary people; who are so used to be dazzled with riches, that
they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an estate, as
of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth,
how important soever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know
there are several men of five hundred a year, who do not believe it.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[82] _Only._ Merely.

[83] _Puts both the sexes upon appearing._ Impels them to appear.

[84] _Particularities._ Peculiarities.

[85] _Incumbent._ Holder of the post.




NO. 113. TUESDAY, JULY 10

    _Haerent infixi pectore vultus._

    VIRG. _Æn._ iv. ver. 4.

    Her looks were deep imprinted in his heart.


In my first description of the company in which I pass most of my time,
it may be remembered that I mentioned a great affliction which my friend
Sir Roger had met with in his youth; which was no less than a
disappointment in love. It happened this evening that we fell into a very
pleasing walk at a distance from his house: as soon as we came into it,
"It is," quoth the good old man, looking round him with a smile, "very
hard, that any part of my land should be settled[86] upon one who has
used me so ill as the perverse widow did; and yet I am sure I could not
see a sprig of any bough of this whole walk of trees, but I should
reflect upon her and her severity. She has certainly the finest hand of
any woman in the world. You are to know this was the place wherein I used
to muse upon her; and by that custom I can never come into it, but the
same tender sentiments revive in my mind, as if I had actually walked
with that beautiful creature under these shades. I have been fool enough
to carve her name on the bark of several of these trees; so unhappy is
the condition of men in love, to attempt the removing of their passions
by the methods which serve only to imprint it deeper. She has certainly
the finest hand of any woman in the world."

Here followed a profound silence; and I was not displeased to observe my
friend falling so naturally into a discourse, which I had ever before
taken notice he industriously avoided. After a very long pause he entered
upon an account of this great circumstance in his life, with an air which
I thought raised my idea of him above what I had ever had before; and
gave me the picture of that cheerful mind of his, before it received that
stroke which has ever since affected his words and actions. But he went
on as follows.

"I came to my estate in my twenty-second year, and resolved to follow the
steps of the most worthy of my ancestors who have inhabited this spot of
earth before me, in all the methods of hospitality and good
neighbourhood, for the sake of my fame; and in country sports and
recreations, for the sake of my health. In my twenty-third year I was
obliged to serve as sheriff of the county; and, in my servants, officers,
and whole equipage, indulged the pleasure of a young man (who did not
think ill of his own person) in taking that public occasion of showing my
figure and behaviour to advantage. You may easily imagine to yourself
what appearance I made, who am pretty tall, rid[87] well, and was very
well dressed, at the head of a whole county, with music before me, a
feather in my hat, and my horse well bitted. I can assure you I was not a
little pleased with the kind looks and glances I had from all the
balconies and windows as I rode to the hall where the assizes were held.
But when I came there, a beautiful creature in a widow's habit sat in
court, to hear the event of a cause concerning her dower[88]. This
commanding creature (who was born for the destruction of all who behold
her) put on such a resignation in her countenance, and bore the whispers
of all around the court, with such a pretty uneasiness, I warrant you,
and then recovered herself from one eye to another, till she was
perfectly confused by meeting something so wistful in all she
encountered, that at last, with a murrain to her, she cast her bewitching
eye upon me. I no sooner met it, but I bowed like a great surprised
booby; and knowing her cause to be the first which came on, I cried, like
a captivated calf as I was, 'Make way for the defendant's witnesses.'
This sudden partiality made all the county immediately see the sheriff
was also become a slave to the fine widow. During the time her cause was
upon trial, she behaved herself, I warrant you, with such a deep
attention to her business, took opportunities to have little billets
handed to her counsel, then would be in such a pretty confusion,
occasioned, you must know, by acting before so much company, that not
only I, but the whole court was prejudiced in her favour; and all that
the next heir to her husband had to urge, was thought so groundless and
frivolous, that when it came to her counsel to reply, there was not half
so much said as every one besides in the court thought he could have
urged to her advantage. You must understand, sir, this perverse woman is
one of those unaccountable creatures, that secretly rejoice in the
admiration of men, but indulge themselves in no further consequences.
Hence it is that she has ever had a train of admirers, and she removes
from her slaves in town to those in the country, according to the seasons
of the year. She is a reading lady, and far gone in the pleasures of
friendship: she is always accompanied by a confidant, who is witness to
her daily protestations against our sex, and consequently a bar to her
first steps towards love, upon the strength of her own maxims and
declarations.

[Illustration: She began a Discourse to me concerning Love and Honour]

"However, I must needs say this accomplished mistress of mine has
distinguished me above the rest, and has been known to declare Sir Roger
de Coverley was the tamest and most humane[89] of all the brutes in the
country. I was told she said so, by one who thought he rallied[90] me;
but upon the strength of this slender encouragement of being thought
least detestable, I made new liveries, new-paired my coach-horses, sent
them all to town to be bitted, and taught to throw their legs well, and
move all together, before I pretended[91] to cross the country, and wait
upon her. As soon as I thought my retinue suitable to the character of my
fortune and youth, I set out from hence to make my addresses. The
particular skill of this lady has ever been to inflame your wishes, and
yet command respect. To make her mistress of this art, she has a greater
share of knowledge, wit, and good sense, than is usual even among men of
merit. Then she is beautiful beyond the race of women. If you will not
let her go on with a certain artifice with her eyes, and the skill of
beauty, she will arm herself with her real charms, and strike you with
admiration instead of desire. It is certain that if you were to behold
the whole woman, there is that dignity in her aspect, that composure in
her motion, that complacency in her manner, that if her form makes you
hope, her merit makes you fear. But then again she is such a desperate
scholar, that no country gentleman can approach her without being a jest.
As I was going to tell you, when I came to her house I was admitted to
her presence with great civility; at the same time she placed herself to
be first seen by me in such an attitude, as I think you call the posture
of a picture, that she discovered[92] new charms, and I at last came
towards her with such an awe as made me speechless. This she no sooner
observed but she made her advantage of it, and began a discourse to me
concerning love and honour, as they both are followed by pretenders, and
the real votaries to them. When she discussed these points in a
discourse, which I verily believe was as learned as the best philosopher
in Europe could possibly make, she asked me whether she was so happy as
to fall in with my sentiments on these important particulars. Her
confidant sat by her, and upon my being in the last[93] confusion and
silence, this malicious _aide_ of hers turning to her says, 'I am very
glad to observe Sir Roger pauses upon this subject, and seems resolved to
deliver all his sentiments upon the matter when he pleases to speak.'
They both kept their countenances, and after I had sat half an hour
meditating how to behave before such profound casuists, I rose up and
took my leave. Chance has since that time thrown me very often in her
way, and she as often has directed a discourse to me which I do not
understand. This barbarity has kept me ever at a distance from the most
beautiful object my eyes ever beheld. It is thus also she deals with all
mankind, and you must make love to her, as you would conquer the sphinx,
by posing her[94]. But were she like other women, and that there were any
talking to her, how constant must the pleasure of that man be, who would
converse with a creature--But, after all, you may be sure her heart is
fixed on some one or other; and yet I have been credibly informed--but
who can believe half that is said? After she had done speaking to me, she
put her hand to her bosom and adjusted her tucker. Then she cast her eyes
a little down, upon my beholding her too earnestly. They say she sings
excellently: her voice in her ordinary speech has something in it
inexpressibly sweet. You must know I dined with her at a public table the
day after I first saw her, and she helped me to some tansy in the eye of
all the gentlemen in the country. She has certainly the finest hand of
any woman in the world. I can assure you, sir, were you to behold her,
you would be in the same condition; for as her speech is music, her form
is angelic. But I find I grow irregular[95] while I am talking of her;
but indeed it would be stupidity to be unconcerned at such perfection. Oh
the excellent creature! she is as inimitable to all women, as she is
inaccessible to all men."

I found my friend begin to rave, and insensibly[96] led him towards the
house, that we might be joined by some other company; and am convinced
that the widow is the secret cause of all that inconsistency which
appears in some parts of my friend's discourse, though he has so much
command of himself as not directly to mention her, yet according to that
of Martial[97], which one knows not how to render into English, _Dum
tacet hanc loquitur_. I shall end this paper with that whole epigram,
which represents with much humour my honest friend's condition.

    _Quicquid agit Rufus, nihil est, nisi Naevia Rufo,
      Si gaudet, si flet, si tacet, hanc loquitur:
    Coenat, propinat, poscit, negat, annuit, una est
      Naevia; si non sit Naevia, mutus erit.
    Scriberet hesternâ patri cùm luce salutem,
      Naevia lux, inquit, Naevia numen, ave._

    _Epig._ lxix. l. 1.

    Let Rufus weep, rejoice, stand, sit, or walk,
    Still he can nothing but of Nævia talk;
    Let him eat, drink, ask questions, or dispute,
    Still he must speak of Nævia, or be mute.
    He writ to his father, ending with this line,
    I am, my lovely Nævia, ever thine.

  R.


FOOTNOTES:

[86] _Settled._ An obscure expression. Possibly it means "bound up
with."

[87] _Rid._ Rode.

[88] _Dower._ Widow's portion of her husband's property.

[89] _Humane._ Civilised.

[90] _Rallied._ Bantered.

[91] _Pretended._ Presumed.

[92] _Discovered._ Displayed.

[93] _Last._ Utmost.

[94] _Conquer the sphinx, by posing her._ Reference to the story of
Oedipus, who answered the riddle of the Sphinx, whereupon she destroyed
herself. "Pose" her, _i.e._, with a problem she cannot solve.

[95] _Irregular._ Incoherent.

[96] _Insensibly._ Without his noticing it.

[97] _Martial._ Latin satirist: 41-104 A.D.




NO. 115. THURSDAY, JULY 12

    _Ut sit mens sana in corpore sano._

    JUV. _Sat._ x. ver. 356.

    A healthy body and a mind at ease.


Bodily labour is of two kinds, either that which a man submits to for his
livelihood, or that which he undergoes for his pleasure. The latter of
them generally changes the name of labour for that of exercise, but
differs only from ordinary labour as it rises from another motive.

A country life abounds in both these kinds of labour, and for that reason
gives a man a greater stock of health, and consequently a more perfect
enjoyment of himself, than any other way of life. I consider the body as
a system of tubes and glands, or to use a more rustic phrase, a bundle of
pipes and strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a manner as
to make a proper engine for the soul to work with. This description does
not only comprehend the bowels, bones, tendons, veins, nerves, and
arteries, but every muscle and every ligature, which is a composition of
fibres, that are so many imperceptible tubes or pipes interwoven on all
sides with invisible glands or strainers.

This general idea of a human body, without considering it in its niceties
of anatomy, lets us see how absolutely necessary labour is for the right
preservation of it. There must be frequent motions and agitations, to
mix, digest, and separate the juices contained in it, as well as to clear
and cleanse that infinitude of pipes and strainers of which it is
composed, and to give their solid parts a more firm and lasting tone.
Labour or exercise ferments the humours, casts them into their proper
channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret
distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigour, nor
the soul act with cheerfulness.

I might here mention the effects which this has upon all the faculties of
the mind, by keeping the understanding clear, the imagination untroubled,
and refining those spirits that are necessary for the proper exertion of
our intellectual faculties, during the present laws of union between soul
and body. It is to a neglect in this particular[98], that we must ascribe
the spleen[99], which is so frequent in men of studious and sedentary
tempers, as well as the vapours[99] to which those of the other sex are
so often subject.

Had not exercise been absolutely necessary for our well-being, nature
would not have made the body so proper for it, by giving such an activity
to the limbs, and such a pliancy to every part as necessarily produce
these compressions, extensions, contortions, dilatations, and all other
kinds of motions that are necessary for the preservation of such a system
of tubes and glands as has been before mentioned. And that we might not
want inducements to engage us in such an exercise of the body as is
proper for its welfare, it is so ordered that nothing valuable can be
procured without it. Not to mention riches and honour, even food and
raiment are not to be come at without the toil of the hands and sweat of
the brows. Providence furnishes materials, but expects that we should
work them up ourselves. The earth must be laboured before it gives its
increase, and when it is forced into its several products, how many hands
must they pass through before they are fit for use? Manufactures, trade,
and agriculture, naturally employ more than nineteen parts of the species
in twenty; and as for those who are not obliged to labour, by the
condition[100] in which they are born, they are more miserable than the
rest of mankind, unless they indulge themselves in that voluntary labour
which goes by the name of exercise.

My friend Sir Roger has been an indefatigable man in business of this
kind, and has hung several parts of his house with the trophies of his
former labours. The walls of his great hall are covered with the horns of
several kinds of deer that he has killed in the chase, which he thinks
the most valuable furniture of his house, as they afford him frequent
topics of discourse, and show that he has not been idle. At the lower end
of the hall is a large otter's skin stuffed with hay, which his mother
ordered to be hung up in that manner, and the Knight looks upon it with
great satisfaction, because it seems he was but nine years old when his
dog killed him. A little room adjoining to the hall is a kind of arsenal
filled with guns of several sizes and inventions, with which the Knight
has made great havoc in the woods, and destroyed many thousands of
pheasants, partridges and woodcocks. His stable doors are patched[101]
with noses that belonged to foxes of the Knight's own hunting down. Sir
Roger showed me one of them, that for distinction sake has a brass nail
struck through it, which cost him about fifteen hours' riding, carried
him through half a dozen counties, killed him a brace of geldings, and
lost above half his dogs. This the Knight looks upon as one of the
greatest exploits of his life. The perverse widow, whom I have given some
account of, was the death of several foxes; for Sir Roger has told me
that in the course of his amours[102] he patched the western door of his
stable. Whenever the widow was cruel, the foxes were sure to pay for it.
In proportion as his passion for the widow abated and old age came on, he
left off fox-hunting; but a hare is not yet safe that sits within ten
miles of his house.

There is no kind of exercise which I would so recommend to my readers of
both sexes as this of riding, as there is none which so much conduces to
health, and is every way accommodated to the body, according to the
_idea_ which I have given of it. Doctor Sydenham is very lavish in its
praises; and if the English reader will see the mechanical effects of it
described at length, he may find them in a book published not many years
since, under the title of _Medicina Gymnastica_. For my own part, when I
am in town, for want of these opportunities, I exercise myself an hour
every morning upon a dumb bell that is placed in a corner of my room, and
pleases me the more because it does everything I require of it in the
most profound silence. My landlady and her daughters are so well
acquainted with my hours of exercise, that they never come into my room
to disturb me whilst I am ringing.

When I was some years younger than I am at present, I used to employ
myself in a more laborious diversion, which I learned from a Latin
treatise of exercises that is written with great erudition: it is there
called the [Greek: skiomachia], or the fighting with a man's own shadow,
and consists in the brandishing of two short sticks grasped in each hand,
and loaden with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the chest,
exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing, without
the blows. I could wish that several learned men would lay out that time
which they employ in controversies and disputes about nothing, in this
method of fighting with their own shadows. It might conduce very much to
evaporate the spleen, which makes them uneasy[103] to the public as well
as to themselves.

To conclude, as I am a compound of soul and body, I consider myself as
obliged to a double scheme of duties; and think I have not fulfilled the
business of the day when I do not thus employ the one in labour and
exercise, as well as the other in study and contemplation.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[98] _Particular._ Respect.

[99] _Spleen_, _vapours_. Attacks of depression or melancholy.

[100] _Condition._ Rank.

[101] _Patched._ Decorated.

[102] _Amours._ Courtship.

[103] _Uneasy._ Trying.




NO. 116. FRIDAY, JULY 13

              _Vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron,
    Taygetique canes._

    VIRG. _Georg._ iii. ver. 43.

    The echoing hills and chiding hounds invite.


Those who have searched into human nature observe that nothing so much
shows the nobleness of the soul as that its felicity consists in action.
Every man has such an active principle in him, that he will find out
something to employ himself upon, in whatever place or state of life he
is posted. I have heard of a gentleman who was under close confinement in
the Bastile seven years; during which time he amused himself in
scattering a few small pins about his chamber, gathering them up again,
and placing them in different figures on the arm of a great chair. He
often told his friends afterwards, that unless he had found out this
piece of exercise, he verily believed he should have lost his senses.

After what has been said, I need not inform my readers that Sir Roger,
with whose character I hope they are at present pretty well acquainted,
has in his youth gone through the whole course of those rural diversions
which the country abounds in; and which seem to be extremely well suited
to that laborious industry a man may observe here in a far greater degree
than in towns and cities. I have before hinted at some of my friend's
exploits: he has in his youthful days taken forty coveys of partridges
in a season; and tired many a salmon with a line consisting but of a
single hair. The constant thanks and good wishes of the neighbourhood
always attended him, on account of his remarkable enmity towards foxes;
having destroyed more of those vermin in one year, than it was thought
the whole country could have produced. Indeed the Knight does not scruple
to own among his most intimate friends, that in order to establish his
reputation this way, he has secretly sent for great numbers of them out
of other counties, which he used to turn loose about the country by
night, that he might the better signalise himself in their destruction
the next day. His hunting horses were the finest and best managed[104] in
all these parts: his tenants are still full of the praises of a grey
stone-horse[105] that unhappily staked[106] himself several years since,
and was buried with great solemnity in the orchard.

Sir Roger, being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in
action, has disposed of his beagles and got a pack of stop-hounds[107].
What these want in speed, he endeavours to make amends for by the
deepness of their mouths[108] and the variety of their notes, which are
suited in such manner to each other, that the whole cry[109] makes up a
complete concert. He is so nice[110] in this particular, that a
gentleman having made him a present of a very fine hound the other day,
the Knight returned it by the servant with a great many expressions of
civility; but desired him to tell his master, that the dog he had sent
was indeed a most excellent bass, but that at present he only wanted a
counter-tenor[111]. Could I believe my friend had ever read Shakespeare,
I should certainly conclude he had taken the hint from Theseus in the
_Midsummer Night's Dream_.

    My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
    So flu'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
    With ears that sweep away the morning dew.
    Crook-knee'd and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls,
    Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouths like bells,
    Each under each: a cry more tuneable
    Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn.

Sir Roger is so keen at this sport, that he has been out almost every day
since I came down; and upon the chaplain's offering to lend me his easy
pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of the company. I
was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the general
benevolence[112] of all the neighbourhood towards my friend. The farmer's
sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the good old
Knight as he passed by; which he generally requited with a nod or a
smile, and a kind inquiry after their fathers and uncles.

After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath, and
the sportsmen began to beat. They had done so for some time, when as I
was at a little distance from the rest of the company, I saw a hare pop
out from a small furze-brake almost under my horse's feet. I marked the
way she took, which I endeavoured to make the company sensible of by
extending my arm; but to no purpose, until Sir Roger, who knows that none
of my extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me, and asked
me if puss was gone that way? Upon my answering "Yes," he immediately
called in the dogs, and put them upon the scent. As they were going off,
I heard one of the country fellows muttering to his companion, "That it
was a wonder they had not lost all their sport, for want of the silent
gentleman's crying 'Stole away[113].'"

This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a rising
ground, from whence I could have the pleasure of the whole chase, without
the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds. The hare immediately threw
them above a mile behind her; but I was pleased to find, that instead of
running straight forwards, or, in hunter's language, flying the country,
as I was afraid she might have done, she wheeled about, and described a
sort of circle round the hill where I had taken my station, in such
manner as gave me a very distinct view of the sport. I could see her
first pass by, and the dogs some time afterwards unravelling the whole
track she had made, and following her through all her doubles. I was at
the same time delighted in observing that deference which the rest of
the pack paid to each particular hound, according to the character he had
acquired amongst them: if they were at a fault, and an old hound of
reputation opened but once, he was immediately followed by the whole cry;
while a raw dog, or one who was a noted liar, might have yelped his heart
out without being taken notice of.

The hare now, after having squatted two or three times, and been put up
again as often, came still nearer to the place where she was at first
started. The dogs pursued her, and these were followed by the jolly
Knight, who rode upon a white gelding, encompassed by his tenants and
servants, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety of five and twenty.
One of the sportsmen rode up to me, and told me that he was sure the
chase was almost at an end, because the old dogs, which had hitherto lain
behind, now headed the pack. The fellow was in the right. Our hare took a
large field just under us, followed by the full cry in view. I must
confess the brightness of the weather, the cheerfulness of everything
around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a
double echo from two neighbouring hills, with the hallooing of the
sportsmen and the sounding of the horn, lifted my spirits into a most
lively pleasure, which I freely indulged because I knew it was innocent.
If I was under any concern, it was on the account of the poor hare, that
was now quite spent and almost within the reach of her enemies; when the
huntsman, getting forward, threw down his pole[114] before the dogs.
They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been
pursuing for almost as many hours; yet on the signal before mentioned
they all made a sudden stand, and though they continued opening as much
as before, durst not once attempt to pass beyond the pole. At the same
time Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting, took up the hare in his arms;
which he soon delivered to one of his servants, with an order, if she
could be kept alive, to let her go in his great orchard; where it seems
he has several of these prisoners of war, who live together in a very
comfortable captivity. I was highly pleased to see the discipline of the
pack, and the good nature of the Knight, who could not find in his heart
to murder a creature that had given him so much diversion.

[Illustration: Chearing his Hounds with all the Gaiety of Five and
Twenty]

As we were returning home, I remembered that Monsieur Paschal[115] in his
most excellent discourse on "the misery of man," tells us, that "all our
endeavours after greatness proceed from nothing but a desire of being
surrounded by a multitude of persons and affairs that may hinder us from
looking into ourselves, which is a view we cannot bear." He afterwards
goes on to show that our love of sports comes from the same reason, and
is particularly severe upon hunting. "What," says he, "unless it be to
drown thought, can make men throw away so much time and pains upon a
silly animal, which they might buy cheaper in the market?" The foregoing
reflection is certainly just, when a man suffers his whole mind to be
drawn into his sports, and altogether loses himself in the woods; but
does not affect those who propose a far more laudable end for this
exercise; I mean, the preservation of health, and keeping all the organs
of the soul in a condition to execute her orders. Had that incomparable
person, whom I last quoted, been a little more indulgent to himself in
this point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much longer:
whereas, through too great an application to his studies in his youth, he
contracted that ill habit[116] of body, which, after a tedious sickness,
carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole history we
have of his life till that time, is but one continued account of the
behaviour of a noble soul struggling under innumerable pains and
distempers.

For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my stay with Sir
Roger; and shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my
country friends, as the best kind of physic for mending a bad
constitution, and preserving a good one.

I cannot do this better, than in the following lines out of Mr. Dryden:--

    The first physicians by debauch were made;
    Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade.
    By chase our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food;
    Toil strung the nerves, and purifi'd the blood;
    But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
    Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
    Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
    Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
    The wise for cure on exercise depend;
    God never made his work for man to mend.

  X.


FOOTNOTES:

[104] _Managed._ Trained.

[105] _Stone-horse._ Stallion.

[106] _Staked._ Impaled.

[107] _Stop-hounds._ Hounds trained to go slowly and stop at a signal
from the huntsman.

[108] _Mouths._ Cry.

[109] _Cry._ Pack.

[110] _Nice._ Precise, fastidious.

[111] _Counter-tenor._ Alto.

[112] _Benevolence._ Good-will.

[113] _Stole away._ The correct hunting cry which the Spectator should
have given.

[114] _Pole._ A leaping-pole carried by the huntsman, who was on foot,
and thrown by him as a signal to the hounds to stop.

[115] _Monsieur Paschal._ French philosopher: 1622-62.

[116] _Habit._ Constitution.




NO. 117. SATURDAY, JULY 14

    _Ipsi sibi somnia fingunt._

    VIRG. _Ecl._ viii. ver. 108.

    Their own imaginations they deceive.


There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter[117], without
engaging[118] his assent to one side or the other. Such a hovering faith
as this, which refuses to settle upon any determination[119], is
absolutely necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid errors and
prepossessions. When the arguments press equally on both sides in matters
that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to give up ourselves to
neither.

It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft.
When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of the world, not
only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West Indies, but from
every particular nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there
is such an intercourse and commerce with evil spirits, as that which we
express by the name of witchcraft. But when I consider that the ignorant
and credulous parts of the world abound most in these relations, and that
the persons among us, who are supposed to engage in such an infernal
commerce, are people of a weak understanding and crazed imagination, and
at the same time reflect upon the many impostures and delusions of this
nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavour to suspend my
belief till I hear more certain accounts than any which have yet come to
my knowledge. In short, when I consider the question whether there are
such persons in the world as those we call witches, my mind is divided
between the two opposite opinions; or rather, (to speak my thoughts
freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as
witchcraft; but, at the same time, can give no credit to any particular
instance of it.

I am engaged in this speculation by some occurrences that I met with
yesterday, which I shall give my reader an account of at large. As I was
walking with my friend Sir Roger by the side of one of his woods, an old
woman applied herself to me for my charity. Her dress and figure put me
in mind of the following description in Otway:--

      In a close lane as I pursu'd my journey,
    I spy'd a wrinkled Hag, with age grown double,
    Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.
    Her eyes with scalding rheum were gall'd and red;
    Cold palsy shook her head; her hands seem'd wither'd;
    And on her crooked shoulders had she wrapp'd
    The tatter'd remnants of an old strip'd hanging,
    Which serv'd to keep her carcase from the cold:
    So there was nothing of a piece about her.
    Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsely patch'd
    With diff'rent-colour'd rags, black, red, white, yellow,
    And seem'd to speak variety of wretchedness.

As I was musing on this description, and comparing it with the object
before me, the Knight told me, that this very old woman had the
reputation of a witch all over the country, that her lips were observed
to be always in motion, and that there was not a switch about her house
which her neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of
miles. If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws that
lay in the figure of a cross before her. If she made any mistake at
church, and cried Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude
that she was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a maid in the
parish that would take a pin of her, though she should offer a bag of
money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the
country ring with several imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her.
If the dairy-maid does not make the butter come so soon as she would have
it, Moll White is at the bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the
stable, Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected
escape from the hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White. "Nay," (says Sir
Roger) "I have known the master of the pack, upon such an occasion, send
one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning."

[Illustration: Moll White]

This account raised my curiosity so far, that I begged my friend Sir
Roger to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a solitary corner
under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering Sir Roger winked to
me, and pointed at something that stood behind the door, which, upon
looking that way, I found to be an old broomstaff. At the same time he
whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby cat that sat in the
chimney-corner, which, as the old Knight told me, lay under as bad a
report as Moll White herself; for, besides that Moll is said often to
accompany her in the same shape, the cat is reported to have spoken twice
or thrice in her life, and to have played several pranks above the
capacity of an ordinary cat.

I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so much wretchedness and
disgrace, but at the same time could not forbear smiling to hear Sir
Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a
justice of peace to avoid all communication with the Devil, and never to
hurt any of her neighbour's cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty,
which was very acceptable.

In our return home Sir Roger told me, that old Moll had been often
brought before him for making children spit pins, and giving maids the
nightmare; and that the country people would be tossing her into a pond,
and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his
chaplain.

I have since found, upon inquiry, that Sir Roger was several times
staggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old
woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county sessions,
had not his chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the contrary.

I have been the more particular[120] in this account, because I hear
there is scarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it.
When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to a parish, she
is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole country with
extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the
meantime, the poor wretch that is the innocent occasion of so many evils
begins to be frighted at herself, and sometimes confesses secret
commerce[121] and familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious
old age. This frequently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of
compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence towards those poor
decrepit parts of our species, in whom human nature is defaced by
infirmity and dotage.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[117] _Neuter._ Neutral.

[118] _Engaging._ Binding.

[119] _Determination._ Fixed opinion.

[120] _Been the more particular._ Given fuller details.

[121] _Commerce._ Intercourse.




NO. 118. MONDAY, JULY 16

    _Haeret lateri lethalis arundo._

    VIRG. _Æn._ iv. ver. 73.

                              The fatal dart
    Sticks in his side, and rankles in his heart.

    DRYDEN.


This agreeable seat is surrounded with so many pleasing walks, which are
struck out of a wood, in the midst of which the house stands, that one
can hardly ever be weary of rambling from one labyrinth of delight to
another. To one used to live in a city the charms of the country are so
exquisite, that the mind is lost in a certain transport which raises us
above ordinary life, and is yet not strong enough to be inconsistent with
tranquillity. This state of mind was I in, ravished with the murmur of
waters, the whisper of breezes, the singing of birds; and whether I
looked up to the heavens, down to the earth, or turned on the prospects
around me, still struck with new sense of pleasure; when I found by the
voice of my friend, who walked by me, that we had insensibly strolled
into the grove sacred to the widow. "This woman," says he, "is of all
others the most unintelligible; she either designs to marry, or she does
not. What is the most perplexing of all, is, that she doth not either say
to her lovers she has any resolution against that condition of life in
general, or that she banishes them; but, conscious of her own merit, she
permits their addresses, without fear of any ill consequence, or want of
respect, from their rage or despair. She has that in her aspect, against
which it is impossible to offend. A man whose thoughts are constantly
bent upon so agreeable an object, must be excused if the ordinary
occurrences in conversation[122] are below his attention. I call her
indeed perverse; but, alas! why do I call her so? Because her superior
merit is such, that I cannot approach her without awe, that my heart is
checked by too much esteem: I am angry that her charms are not more
acceptable, that I am more inclined to worship than salute[123] her: how
often have I wished her unhappy, that I might have an opportunity of
serving her? and how often troubled in that very imagination, at giving
her the pain of being obliged? Well, I have led a miserable life in
secret upon her account; but fancy she would have condescended to have
some regard for me, if it had not been for that watchful animal her
confidant.

"Of all persons under the sun" (continued he, calling me by my name) "be
sure to set a mark upon confidants: they are of all people the most
impertinent. What is most pleasant[124] to observe in them, is, that they
assume to themselves the merit of the persons whom they have in their
custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of
surprises, therefore full of suspicions of the least indifferent thing,
particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar
with the old. Themista, her favourite woman, is every whit as careful of
whom she speaks to, and what she says. Let the ward be a beauty, her
confidant shall treat you with an air of distance; let her be a fortune,
and she assumes the suspicious behaviour of her friend and patroness.
Thus it is that very many of our unmarried women of distinction, are to
all intents and purposes married, except the consideration of[125]
different sexes. They are directly under the conduct of their whisperer;
and think they are in a state of freedom, while they can prate with one
of these attendants of all men in general, and still avoid the man they
most like. You do not see one heiress in a hundred whose fate does not
turn upon this circumstance of choosing a confidant. Thus it is that the
lady is addressed to, presented[126] and flattered, only by proxy, in her
woman. In my case, how is it possible that--" Sir Roger was proceeding in
his harangue, when we heard the voice of one speaking very importunately,
and repeating these words, "What, not one smile?" We followed the sound
till we came to a close thicket, on the other side of which we saw a
young woman sitting as it were in a personated sullenness[127], just over
a transparent fountain. Opposite to her stood Mr. William, Sir Roger's
master of the game[128]. The Knight whispered me, "Hist! these are
lovers." The huntsman looking earnestly at the shadow of the young maiden
in the stream, "Oh thou dear picture, if thou couldst remain there in the
absence of that fair creature whom you represent in the water, how
willingly could I stand here satisfied for ever, without troubling my
dear Betty herself with any mention of her unfortunate William, whom she
is angry with: but alas! when she pleases to be gone, thou wilt also
vanish--yet let me talk to thee while thou dost stay. Tell my dearest
Betty thou dost not more depend upon her, than does her William: her
absence will make away with me as well as thee. If she offers to remove
thee, I will jump into these waves to lay hold on thee; herself, her own
dear person, I must never embrace again.--Still do you hear me without
one smile--It is too much to bear--" He had no sooner spoke these words,
but he made an offer of throwing himself into the water: at which his
mistress started up, and at the next instant he jumped across the
fountain and met her in an embrace. She, half recovering from her fright,
said, in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of
complaint, "I thought how well you would drown yourself. No, no, you
won't drown yourself till you have taken your leave of Susan Holiday."
The huntsman, with a tenderness that spoke the most passionate love, and
with his cheek close to hers, whispered the softest vows of fidelity in
her ear, and cried, "Don't, my dear, believe a word Kate Willow says; she
is spiteful, and makes stories because she loves to hear me talk to
herself for your sake." "Look you there," quoth Sir Roger, "do you see
there, all mischief comes from confidants! But let us not interrupt them;
the maid is honest, and the man dares not be otherwise, for he knows I
loved her father: I will interpose in this matter, and hasten the
wedding. Kate Willow is a witty mischievous wench in the neighbourhood,
who was a beauty, and makes me hope I shall see the perverse widow in her
condition. She was so flippant with her answers to all the honest fellows
that came near her, and so very vain of her beauty, that she has valued
herself upon her charms till they are ceased. She therefore now makes it
her business to prevent other young women from being more discreet than
she was herself: however, the saucy thing said the other day well
enough, 'Sir Roger and I must make a match, for we are both despised by
those we loved.' The hussy has a great deal of power wherever she comes,
and has her share of cunning.

"However, when I reflect upon this woman, I do not know whether in the
main I am the worse for having loved her: whenever she is recalled to my
imagination my youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth in my veins.
This affliction in my life has streaked all my conduct with a softness,
of which I should otherwise have been incapable. It is, perhaps, to this
dear image in my heart owing that I am apt to relent, that I easily
forgive, and that many desirable things are grown into my temper, which I
should not have arrived at by better motives than the thought of being
one day hers. I am pretty well satisfied such a passion as I have had is
never well cured; and, between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it
has had some whimsical[129] effect upon my brain: for I frequently find,
that in my most serious discourse I let fall some comical familiarity of
speech, or odd phrase, that makes the company laugh; however, I cannot
but allow she is a most excellent woman. When she is in the country I
warrant she does not run into dairies, but reads upon[130] the nature of
plants; but has a glass-hive, and comes into the garden out of books to
see them work, and observe the policies[131] of their commonwealth. She
understands everything. I would give ten pounds to hear her argue with
my friend Sir Andrew Freeport about trade. No, no, for all she looks so
innocent as it were, take my word for it she is no fool."

  T.


FOOTNOTES:

[122] _Conversation._ General intercourse.

[123] _Salute._ Kiss.

[124] _Pleasant._ Ludicrous.

[125] _Except the consideration of._ Except in respect of.

[126] _Presented._ _I.e._, with gifts.

[127] _Personated sullenness._ Pretended, or possibly the image of,
sullenness.

[128] _Master of the game._ Huntsman.

[129] _Whimsical._ Fantastic.

[130] _Upon._ About.

[131] _Policies._ Organisation.




NO. 122. FRIDAY, JULY 20

    _Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est._

    PUBL. SYR. _Frag._

    An agreeable companion upon the road is as good as a coach.


A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart;
his next, to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes
with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there
cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those
approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the
public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict he passes
upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of
all that know him.

My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace
within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. He receives a
suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind, in the returns
of affection and good-will, which are paid him by every one that lives
within his neighbourhood. I lately met with two or three odd instances of
that general respect which is shown to the good old Knight. He would
needs carry Will Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes: as we
were upon the road Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rid
before us, and conversed with them for some time; during which my friend
Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters.

"The first of them," says he, "that has a spaniel by his side, is a
yeoman of about an hundred pounds a year, an honest man: he is just
within the Game Act[132], and qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant: he
knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that
means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as
himself. He would be a good neighbour if he did not destroy so many
partridges: in short, he is a very sensible man; shoots flying; and has
been several times foreman of the petty jury.

"The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for
taking the law of everybody. There is not one in the town where he lives
that he has not sued at the quarter sessions. The rogue had once the
impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs,
damages, and ejectments: he plagued a couple of honest gentlemen so long
for a trespass in breaking one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell
the ground it inclosed to defray the charges of the prosecution: his
father left him fourscore pounds a year; but he has cast and been
cast[133] so often, that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is
going upon the old business of the willow tree."

[Illustration]

As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will Wimble and
his two companions stopped short till we came up to them. After having
paid their respects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and he
must appeal to him upon a dispute that arose between them. Will it seems
had been giving his fellow-traveller an account of his angling one day in
such a hole; when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him
that Mr. Such-a-one, if he pleased, might take the law of him for fishing
in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard them both, upon a
round trot[134]; and after having paused some time told them, with the
air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that much might be
said on both sides. They were neither of them dissatisfied with the
Knight's determination, because neither of them found himself in the
wrong by it: upon which we made the best of our way to the assizes.

The court was sat before Sir Roger came; but notwithstanding all the
justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made room for the
old Knight at the head of them; who for his reputation in the county took
occasion to whisper in the judge's ear, "That he was glad his Lordship
had met with so much good weather in his circuit." I was listening to the
proceeding of the court with much attention, and infinitely pleased with
that great appearance and solemnity which so properly accompanies such a
public administration of our laws; when, after about an hour's sitting, I
observed to my great surprise, in the midst of a trial, that my friend
Sir Roger was getting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, till I
found he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences, with a look of
much business and great intrepidity.

Upon his first rising the court was hushed, and a general whisper ran
among the country people, that Sir Roger was up. The speech he made was
so little to the purpose, that I shall not trouble my readers with an
account of it; and I believe was not so much designed by the Knight
himself to inform the court, as to give him a figure in my eye, and keep
up his credit in the country.

I was highly delighted, when the court rose, to see the gentlemen of the
country gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment
him most; at the same time that the ordinary people gazed upon him at a
distance, not a little admiring his courage, that was not afraid to speak
to the judge.

In our return home we met with a very odd accident[135]; which I cannot
forbear relating, because it shows how desirous all who know Sir Roger
are of giving him marks of their esteem. When we were arrived upon the
verge of his estate, we stopped at a little inn to rest ourselves and our
horses. The man of the house had it seems been formerly a servant in the
Knight's family; and to do honour to his old master, had some time since,
unknown to Sir Roger, put him up in a sign-post before the door; so that
the Knight's head had hung out upon the road about a week before he
himself knew anything of the matter. As soon as Sir Roger was acquainted
with it, finding that his servant's indiscretion proceeded wholly from
affection and good-will, he only told him that he had made him too high a
compliment; and when the fellow seemed to think that could hardly be,
added with a more decisive look, "That it was too great an honour for any
man under a duke"; but told him at the same time that it might be altered
with a very few touches, and that he himself would be at the charge[136]
of it. Accordingly they got a painter by the Knight's directions to add
a pair of whiskers to the face, and by a little aggravation[137] of the
features to change it into the Saracen's Head. I should not have known
this story had not the innkeeper, upon Sir Roger's alighting, told him in
my hearing, "That his honour's head was brought back last night with the
alterations that he had ordered to be made in it." Upon this my friend,
with his usual cheerfulness, related the particulars above mentioned, and
ordered the head to be brought into the room. I could not forbear
discovering greater expressions of mirth than ordinary upon the
appearance of this monstrous face, under which, notwithstanding it was
made to frown and stare in a most extraordinary manner, I could still
discover a distant resemblance of my old friend. Sir Roger upon seeing me
laugh, desired me to tell him truly if I thought it possible for people
to know him in that disguise. I at first kept my usual silence; but upon
the Knight's conjuring[138] me to tell him whether it was not still more
like himself than a Saracen, I composed my countenance in the best manner
I could, and replied, that much might be said on both sides.

These several adventures, with the Knight's behaviour in them, gave me as
pleasant a day as ever I met with in any of my travels.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[132] _Game Act._ See note on p. 19.

[133] _Cast and been cast._ Won and lost his case.

[134] _Upon a round trot._ While trotting briskly.

[135] _Accident._ Incident.

[136] _Charge._ Expense.

[137] _Aggravation._ Exaggeration.

[138] _Conjuring._ Adjuring, entreating.




NO. 130. MONDAY, JULY 30

                      _Semperque recentes
    Convectare juvat praedas, et vivere rapto._

    VIRG. _Æn._ vii. ver. 748.

    Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade.

    DRYDEN.


As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir Roger, we
saw at a little distance from us a troop of gipsies. Upon the first
discovery of them, my friend was in some doubt whether he should not
exert[139] the Justice of the Peace upon such a band of lawless vagrants;
but not having his clerk with him, who is a necessary counsellor on these
occasions, and fearing that his poultry might fare the worse for it, he
let the thought drop: but at the same time gave me a particular account
of the mischiefs they do in the country, in stealing people's goods and
spoiling their servants. "If a stray piece of linen hangs upon an hedge,"
says Sir Roger, "they are sure to have it; if the hog loses his way in
the fields, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey; our geese cannot
live in peace for them; if a man prosecutes them with severity, his
hen-roost is sure to pay for it: they generally straggle into these parts
about this time of the year; and set the heads of our servant-maids so
agog for husbands, that we do not expect to have any business done as it
should be whilst they are in the country. I have an honest dairy-maid
who crosses their hands with a piece of silver every summer, and never
fails being promised the handsomest young fellow in the parish for her
pains. Your friend the butler has been fool enough to be seduced by them;
and though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork, or a spoon every time his
fortune is told him, generally shuts himself up in the pantry with an old
gipsy for above half an hour once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the
things they live upon, which they bestow very plentifully upon all those
that apply themselves to them. You see now and then some handsome young
jades among them: the sluts have very often white teeth and black eyes."

[Illustration: Told him, That he had a Widow in his Line of Life]

Sir Roger observing that I listened with great attention to his account
of a people who were so entirely new to me, told me, that if I would they
should tell us our fortunes. As I was very well pleased with the Knight's
proposal, we rid up and communicated our hands to them. A Cassandra[140]
of the crew, after having examined my lines very diligently, told me,
that I loved a pretty maid in a corner[141], that I was a good woman's
man, with some other particulars which I do not think proper to relate.
My friend Sir Roger alighted from his horse, and exposing his palm to two
or three that stood by him, they crumpled it into all shapes, and
diligently scanned every wrinkle that could be made in it; when one of
them, who was older and more sunburnt than the rest, told him, that he
had a widow in his line of life: upon which the Knight cried, "Go, go,
you are an idle baggage"; and at the same time smiled upon me. The gipsy
finding he was not displeased in his heart, told him, after a further
inquiry into his hand, that his true-love was constant, and that she
should dream of him to-night: my old friend cried "pish," and bid her go
on. The gipsy told him that he was a bachelor, but would not be so long;
and that he was dearer to somebody than he thought: the Knight still
repeated she was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. "Ah, master," says
the gipsy, "that roguish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's heart ache;
you ha'n't that simper about the mouth for nothing--" The uncouth
gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an
oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be short, the Knight left
the money with her that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on
his horse.

As we were riding away, Sir Roger told me, that he knew several sensible
people who believed these gipsies now and then foretold very strange
things; and for half an hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary.
In the height of his good-humour, meeting a common beggar upon the road
who was no conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his pocket was
picked; that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of vermin are
very dexterous.

I might here entertain my reader with historical remarks on this idle
profligate people, who infest all the countries of Europe, and live in
the midst of governments in a kind of commonwealth by themselves. But
instead of entering into observations of this nature, I shall fill the
remaining part of my paper with a story which is still fresh in Holland,
and was printed in one of our monthly accounts about twenty years ago.
"As the _trekschuyt_, or hackney-boat, which carries passengers from
Leyden to Amsterdam, was putting off, a boy running along the side of the
canal desired to be taken in; which the master of the boat refused,
because the lad had not quite money enough to pay the usual fare. An
eminent merchant being pleased with the looks of the boy, and secretly
touched with compassion towards him, paid the money for him, and ordered
him to be taken on board. Upon talking with him afterwards, he found that
he could speak readily in three or four languages, and learned upon
further examination that he had been stolen away when he was a child by a
gipsy, and had rambled ever since with a gang of those strollers[142] up
and down several parts of Europe. It happened that the merchant, whose
heart seems to have inclined towards the boy by a secret kind of
instinct, had himself lost a child some years before. The parents, after
a long search for him, gave him for drowned in one of the canals with
which that country abounds; and the mother was so afflicted at the loss
of a fine boy, who was her only son, that she died for grief of it. Upon
laying together all particulars, and examining the several moles and
marks by which the mother used to describe the child when he was first
missing, the boy proved to be the son of the merchant whose heart had so
unaccountably melted at the sight of him. The lad was very well pleased
to find a father who was so rich, and likely to leave him a good estate;
the father on the other hand was not a little delighted to see a son
return to him, whom he had given for lost, with such a strength of
constitution, sharpness of understanding, and skill in languages." Here
the printed story leaves off; but if I may give credit to reports, our
linguist having received such extraordinary rudiments towards a good
education, was afterwards trained up in everything that becomes a
gentleman; wearing off by little and little all the vicious habits and
practices that he had been used to in the course of his peregrinations:
nay, it is said, that he has since been employed in foreign courts upon
national business, with great reputation to himself and honour to those
who sent him, and that he has visited several countries as a public
minister, in which he formerly wandered as a gipsy.

  C.


FOOTNOTES:

[139] _Exert._ Exert the power of.

[140] _Cassandra._ Reference to the mad prophetess of that name in the
story of Troy.

[141] _In a corner._ In secret.

[142] _Strollers._ Vagabonds.




NO. 131. TUESDAY, JULY 31

    _Ipsae rursum concedite sylvae._

    VIRG. _Ecl._ x. ver. 63.

    Once more, ye woods, adieu.


It is usual for a man who loves country sports to preserve the game on
his own grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his
neighbour. My friend Sir Roger generally goes two or three miles from his
house, and gets into the frontiers of his estate, before he beats about
in search of a hare or partridge, on purpose to spare his own fields,
where he is always sure of finding diversion, when the worst comes to the
worst. By this means the breed about his house has time to increase and
multiply, beside that the sport is the more agreeable where the game is
the harder to come at, and where it does not lie so thick as to produce
any perplexity or confusion in the pursuit. For these reasons the country
gentleman, like the fox, seldom preys near his own home.

In the same manner I have made a month's excursion out of the town, which
is the great field of game for sportsmen of my species, to try my fortune
in the country, where I have started several subjects, and hunted them
down, with some pleasure to myself, and I hope to others. I am here
forced to use a great deal of diligence before I can spring[143] anything
to my mind, whereas in town, whilst I am following one character, it is
ten to one but I am crossed in my way by another, and put up such a
variety of odd creatures in both sexes, that they foil the scent of one
another, and puzzle the chase. My greatest difficulty in the country is
to find sport, and in town to choose it. In the meantime, as I have given
a whole month's rest to the cities of London and Westminster, I promise
myself abundance of new game upon my return thither.

It is indeed high time for me to leave the country, since I find the
whole neighbourhood begin to grow very inquisitive after my name and
character: my love of solitude, taciturnity, and particular[144] way of
life, having raised a great curiosity in all these parts.

The notions which have been framed of me are various: some look upon me
as very proud, some as very modest, and some as very melancholy. Will
Wimble, as my friend the butler tells me, observing me very much alone,
and extremely silent when I am in company, is afraid I have killed a man.
The country people seem to suspect me for a conjurer; and some of them,
hearing of the visit which I made to Moll White, will needs have it that
Sir Roger has brought down a cunning man with him, to cure the old woman,
and free the country from her charms. So that the character which I go
under in part of the neighbourhood, is what they here call a "white
witch[145]."

A justice of peace, who lives about five miles off, and is not of Sir
Roger's party, has it seems said twice or thrice at his table, that he
wishes Sir Roger does not harbour a Jesuit in his house, and that he
thinks the gentlemen of the country would do very well to make me give
some account of myself.

On the other side, some of Sir Roger's friends are afraid the old Knight
is imposed upon by a designing fellow, and as they have heard that he
converses very promiscuously[146] when he is in town, do not know but he
has brought down with him some discarded[147] Whig, that is sullen, and
says nothing because he is out of place.

Such is the variety of opinions which are here entertained of me, so that
I pass among some for a disaffected person, and among others for a Popish
priest; among some for a wizard, and among others for a murderer; and all
this for no other reason, that I can imagine, but because I do not hoot
and hollow, and make a noise. It is true my friend Sir Roger tells them,
_That it is my way_, and that I am only a philosopher; but this will not
satisfy them. They think there is more in me than he discovers[148], and
that I do not hold my tongue for nothing.

For these and other reasons I shall set out for London to-morrow, having
found by experience that the country is not a place for a person of my
temper, who does not love jollity, and what they call good
neighbourhood[149]. A man that is out of humour when an unexpected guest
breaks in upon him, and does not care for sacrificing an afternoon to
every chance-comer; that will be the master of his own time, and the
pursuer of his own inclinations, makes but a very unsociable figure in
this kind of life. I shall therefore retire into the town, if I may make
use of that phrase, and get into the crowd again as fast as I can, in
order to be alone. I can there raise what speculations I please upon
others, without being observed myself, and at the same time enjoy all the
advantages of company with all the privileges of solitude. In the
meanwhile, to finish the month, and conclude these my rural speculations,
I shall here insert a letter from my friend Will Honeycomb, who has not
lived a month for these forty years out of the smoke of London, and
rallies me after his way upon my country life.

     DEAR SPEC,

     I suppose this letter will find thee[150] picking of daisies, or
     smelling to a lock of hay, or passing away thy time in some
     innocent country diversion of the like nature. I have however
     orders from the club to summon thee up to town, being all of us
     cursedly afraid thou wilt not be able to relish our company, after
     thy conversations with Moll White and Will Wimble. Prithee do not
     send us up any more stories of a cock and a bull, nor frighten the
     town with spirits and witches. Thy speculations begin to smell
     confoundedly of woods and meadows. If thou dost not come up
     quickly, we shall conclude that thou art in love with one of Sir
     Roger's dairymaids. Service to the Knight. Sir Andrew is grown the
     cock of the club since he left us, and if he does not return
     quickly will make every mother's son of us commonwealth's men[151].

     Dear Spec,
     Thine eternally,
     WILL HONEYCOMB.

  C.


FOOTNOTES:

[143] _Spring._ Start from its hiding-place.

[144] _Particular._ Peculiar.

[145] _White witch._ One who uses supernatural powers, but only for good
purposes.

[146] _Converses very promiscuously._ Mixes with all sorts of people.

[147] _Discarded._ Out of office.

[148] _Discovers._ Reveals.

[149] _Neighbourhood._ Sociability.

[150] _Thee._ The now obsolete familiar use of _thou_ and _thee_.

[151] _Commonwealth's men._ Republicans.




NO. 269. TUESDAY, JANUARY 8

              _Aevo rarissima nostro
    Simplicitas._

    OVID, _Ars Am._ lib. i. ver. 241.

    Most rare is now our old simplicity.

    DRYDEN.


I was this morning surprised with a great knocking at the door, when my
landlady's daughter came up to me, and told me that there was a man below
desired to speak with me. Upon my asking her who it was, she told me it
was a very grave elderly person, but that she did not know his name. I
immediately went down to him, and found him to be the coachman of my
worthy friend Sir Roger de Coverley. He told me, that his master came to
town last night, and would be glad to take a turn[152] with me in Gray's
Inn walks. As I was wondering in myself what had brought Sir Roger to
town, not having lately received any letter from him, he told me that his
master was come up to get a sight of Prince Eugene[153], and that he
desired I would immediately meet him.

I was not a little pleased with the curiosity of the old Knight, though I
did not much wonder at it, having heard him say more than once in private
discourse, that he looked upon Prince Eugenio (for so the Knight always
calls him) to be a greater man than Scanderbeg[154].

I was no sooner come into Gray's Inn walks, but I heard my friend upon
the terrace hemming[155] twice or thrice to himself with great vigour,
for he loves to clear his pipes in good air (to make use of his own
phrase), and is not a little pleased with any one who takes notice of the
strength which he still exerts in his morning hems.

I was touched with a secret joy at the sight of the good old man, who
before he saw me was engaged in conversation with a beggar man that had
asked an alms of him. I could hear my friend chide him for not finding
out some work; but at the same time saw him put his hand in his pocket
and give him sixpence.

Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consisting of many kind
shakes of the hand, and several affectionate looks which we cast upon one
another. After which the Knight told me my good friend his chaplain was
very well, and much at my service, and that the Sunday before he had made
a most incomparable sermon out of Dr. Barrow. "I have left," says he,
"all my affairs in his hands, and being willing to lay an obligation upon
him, have deposited with him thirty merks[156], to be distributed among
his poor parishioners."

He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon
which he put his hand into his fob[157], and presented me in his name
with a tobacco-stopper, telling me that Will had been busy all the
beginning of the winter in turning great quantities of them; and that he
made a present of one to every gentleman in the country who has good
principles, and smokes. He added, that poor Will was at present under
great tribulation, for that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for
cutting some hazel-sticks out of one of his hedges.

Among other pieces of news which the Knight brought from his country
seat, he informed me that Moll White was dead; and that about a month
after her death the wind was so very high, that it blew down the end of
one of his barns. "But for my own part," says Sir Roger, "I do not think
that the old woman had any hand in it."

He afterwards fell into an account of the diversions which had passed in
his house during the holidays; for Sir Roger, after the laudable custom
of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from
him that he had killed eight fat hogs for this season, that he had dealt
about his chines very liberally amongst his neighbours, and that in
particular he had sent a string of hogs-puddings with a pack of cards to
every poor family in the parish. "I have often thought," says Sir Roger,
"it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of
winter. It is the most dead uncomfortable time of the year, when the
poor people would suffer very much from their poverty and cold, if they
had not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to support them. I
love to rejoice their poor hearts at this season, and to see the whole
village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my
small beer, and set it a running for twelve days to every one that calls
for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince-pie upon the
table, and am wonderfully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole
evening in playing their innocent tricks, and smutting one another[158].
Our friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shows a thousand
roguish tricks upon these occasions."

I was very much delighted with the reflection of my old friend, which
carried so much goodness in it. He then launched out into the praise of
the late Act of Parliament[159] for securing the Church of England, and
told me, with great satisfaction, that he believed it already began to
take effect, for that a rigid dissenter who chanced to dine at his house
on Christmas Day, had been observed to eat very plentifully of his
plum-porridge[160].

After having dispatched all our country matters, Sir Roger made several
inquiries concerning the club, and particularly of his old antagonist Sir
Andrew Freeport. He asked me with a kind of a smile, whether Sir Andrew
had not taken the advantage of his absence, to vent among them some of
his republican doctrines; but soon after gathering up his countenance
into a more than ordinary seriousness, "Tell me truly," says he, "do not
you think Sir Andrew had a hand in the Pope's procession[161]?"--but
without giving me time to answer him, "Well, well," says he, "I know you
are a wary man, and do not care to talk of public matters."

The Knight then asked me if I had seen Prince Eugenio, and made me
promise to get him a stand in some convenient place, where he might have
a full sight of that extraordinary man, whose presence does so much
honour to the British nation. He dwelt very long on the praises of this
great general, and I found that, since I was with him in the country, he
had drawn many just observations together out of his reading in Baker's
_Chronicle_[162], and other authors, who always lie in his hall window,
which very much redound to the honour of this prince.

Having passed away the greatest part of the morning in hearing the
Knight's reflections, which were partly private, and partly political, he
asked me if I would smoke a pipe with him over a dish of coffee at
Squire's. As I love the old man, I take delight in complying with
everything that is agreeable to him, and accordingly waited on[163] him
to the coffee-house, where his venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of
the whole room. He had no sooner seated himself at the upper end of the
high table, but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of
coffee, a wax-candle, and the _Supplement_, with such an air of
cheerfulness and good humour, that all the boys[164] in the coffee-room
(who seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed on his
several errands, insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea,
until the Knight had got all his conveniences about him.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[152] _Turn._ Stroll.

[153] _Prince Eugene._ Prince of Savoy (1663-1736), who aided
Marlborough at Blenheim and elsewhere, and was at this time on a visit
to London.

[154] _Scanderbeg._ George Castriota, a famous Albanian leader against
the Turks (1403-68).

[155] _Hemming._ Clearing his throat.

[156] _Merks._ A merk is 13s. 4d., but only as a measure of value, not
an actual coin. Compare our present use of a guinea.

[157] _Fob._ Small pocket.

[158] _Smutting one another._ Blacking one another's faces in sport.

[159] _Act of Parliament._ Act of Occasional Uniformity, 1710.

[160] _Rigid dissenter ... plum porridge._ Many Puritans refused to
observe Christmas Day, regarding it as smacking of Popery.

[161] _Pope's procession._ An annual Whig demonstration.

[162] _Baker's Chronicle._ _Chronicle of the Kings of England_ (1643),
by Sir Richard Baker.

[163] _Waited on._ Accompanied.

[164] _Boys._ Waiters.




NO. 329. TUESDAY, MARCH 18

    _Ire tamen restat, Numa quo devenit, et Ancus._

    HOR. _Ep._ vi. l. i. ver. 27.

    With Ancus, and with Numa, kings of Rome,
    We must descend into the silent tomb.


My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me the other night, that he had been
reading my paper upon Westminster Abbey, "in which," says he, "there are
a great many ingenious fancies." He told me at the same time, that he
observed I had promised another paper upon the Tombs, and that he should
be glad to go and see them with me, not having visited them since he had
read history. I could not at first imagine how this came into the
Knight's head, till I recollected that he had been very busy all last
summer upon Baker's _Chronicle_, which he has quoted several times in his
disputes with Sir Andrew Freeport since his last coming to town.
Accordingly I promised to call upon him the next morning, that we might
go together to the Abbey.

I found the Knight under his butler's hands, who always shaves him. He
was no sooner dressed than he called for a glass of the widow Trueby's
water, which they told me he always drank before he went abroad. He
recommended to me a dram of it at the same time, with so much heartiness,
that I could not forbear drinking it. As soon as I had got it down, I
found it very unpalatable, upon which the Knight observing that I had
made several wry faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at
first, but that it was the best thing in the world against the stone or
gravel.

I could have wished indeed that he had acquainted me with the virtues of
it sooner; but it was too late to complain, and I knew what he had done
was out of goodwill. Sir Roger told me further, that he looked upon it to
be very good for a man whilst he stayed in town, to keep off infection,
and that he got together a quantity of it upon the first news of the
sickness being at Dantzick: when of a sudden, turning short to one of his
servants who stood behind him, he bid him call a hackney-coach, and take
care it was an elderly man that drove it.

He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Trueby's water, telling me that
the widow Trueby was one who did more good than all the doctors or
apothecaries in the country: that she distilled every poppy that grew
within five miles of her; that she distributed her water gratis among all
sorts of people; to which the Knight added, that she had a very great
jointure[165], and that the whole country would fain have it a match
between him and her; "and truly," says Sir Roger, "if I had not been
engaged[166], perhaps I could not have done better."

His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him he had called a
coach. Upon our going to it, after having cast his eye upon the wheels,
he asked the coachman if his axle-tree was good; upon the fellow's
telling him he would warrant it, the Knight turned to me, told me he
looked like an honest man, and went in without further ceremony.

We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his head, called the
coachman down from his box, and, upon presenting himself at the window,
asked him if he smoked; as I was considering what this would end in, he
bid him stop by the way at any good tobacconist's and take in a roll of
their best Virginia. Nothing material happened in the remaining part of
our journey, till we were set down at the west end of the Abbey.

As we went up the body of the church, the Knight pointed at the trophies
upon one of the new monuments, and cried out, "A brave man, I warrant
him!" Passing afterwards by Sir Cloudesley Shovel[167], he flung his
hand that way, and cried, "Sir Cloudesley Shovel! a very gallant man!" As
he stood before Busby's tomb, the Knight uttered himself again after the
same manner, "Dr. Busby[168], a great man! he whipped my grandfather; a
very great man! I should have gone to him myself, if I had not been a
blockhead; a very great man!"

We were immediately conducted to the little chapel on the right hand. Sir
Roger, planting himself at our historian's elbow, was very attentive to
everything he said, particularly to the account he gave us of the lord
who had cut off the King of Morocco's head. Among several other figures,
he was very well pleased to see the statesman Cecil[169] upon his knees;
and concluding them all to be great men, was conducted to the figure
which represents that martyr to good housewifery, who died by the prick
of a needle. Upon our interpreter's telling us that she was a maid of
honour to Queen Elizabeth, the Knight was very inquisitive into her name
and family; and after having regarded her finger for some time, "I
wonder," says he, "that Sir Richard Baker has said nothing of her in his
_Chronicle_."

We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, where my old friend
after having heard that the stone underneath the most ancient of them,
which was brought from Scotland, was called "Jacob's pillar," sat himself
down in the chair; and looking like the figure of an old Gothic king,
asked our interpreter, what authority they had to say that Jacob had ever
been in Scotland? The fellow, instead of returning him an answer, told
him, that he hoped his honour would pay his forfeit[170]. I could observe
Sir Roger a little ruffled upon being thus trepanned; but our guide not
insisting upon his demand, the Knight soon recovered his good humour, and
whispered in my ear, that if Will Wimble were with us, and saw those two
chairs, it would go hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper out of one or
the other of them.

Sir Roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon Edward the Third's
sword, and leaning upon the pommel[171] of it, gave us the whole history
of the Black Prince; concluding, that, in Sir Richard Baker's opinion,
Edward the Third was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the
English throne.

We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb; upon which Sir Roger
acquainted us, that he was the first who touched for the evil[172]; and
afterwards Henry the Fourth's, upon which he shook his head, and told us
there was fine reading in the casualties[173] of that reign.

Our conductor then pointed to that monument where there is the figure of
one of our English kings without an head; and upon giving us to know,
that the head, which was of beaten silver, had been stolen away several
years since: "Some Whig, I'll warrant you," says Sir Roger; "you ought to
lock up your kings better; they will carry off the body too, if you don't
take care."

The glorious names of Henry the Fifth and Queen Elizabeth gave the Knight
great opportunities of shining, and of doing justice to Sir Richard
Baker; who, as our Knight observed with some surprise, had a great many
kings in him, whose monuments he had not seen in the Abbey.

For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the Knight show such
an honest passion for the glory of his country, and such a respectful
gratitude to the memory of its princes.

I must not omit, that the benevolence of my good old friend, which flows
out towards every one he converses with, made him very kind to our
interpreter, whom he looked upon as an extraordinary man; for which
reason he shook him by the hand at parting, telling him, that he should
be very glad to see him at his lodgings in Norfolk Buildings, and talk
over these matters with him more at leisure.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[165] _Jointure._ Settlement.

[166] _Engaged._ Pledged.

[167] _Sir Cloudesley Shovel._ Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel, drowned
off the Scilly Isles, 1707.

[168] _Dr. Busby._ The famous flogging headmaster of Westminster.

[169] _Cecil._ Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth's Lord High Treasurer.

[170] _Forfeit._ Gratuity due for sitting in the chair.

[171] _Pommel._ Part of the hilt.

[172] _Touched for the evil._ The royal touch was regarded as a cure for
scrofula as late as Queen Anne's time.

[173] _Casualties._ Incidents.




NO. 335. TUESDAY, MARCH 25

    _Respicere exemplar vitae morumque jubebo
    Doctum imitatorem, et veras hinc ducere voces._

    HOR. _Ars Poet._ ver. 317.

    Those are the likest copies, which are drawn
    From the original of human life.

    ROSCOMMON.


My friend Sir Roger de Coverley, when we last met together at the club,
told me that he had a great mind to see the new tragedy[174] with me,
assuring me at the same time, that he had not been at a play these twenty
years. "The last I saw," said Sir Roger, "was the _Committee_, which I
should not have gone to neither, had not I been told beforehand that it
was a good Church of England comedy." He then proceeded to inquire of me
who this Distressed Mother was; and upon hearing that she was Hector's
widow, he told me that her husband was a brave man, and that when he was
a schoolboy he had read his life at the end of the dictionary. My friend
asked me, in the next place, if there would not be some danger in coming
home late, in case the Mohocks[175] should be abroad. "I assure you,"
says he, "I thought I had fallen into their hands last night; for I
observed two or three lusty black men that followed me half-way up Fleet
Street, and mended their pace behind me, in proportion as I put on[176]
to get away from them. You must know," continued the Knight with a smile,
"I fancied they had a mind to _hunt_ me; for I remember an honest
gentleman in my neighbourhood, who was served such a trick in King
Charles the Second's time, for which reason he has not ventured himself
in town ever since. I might have shown them very good sport, had this
been their design; for as I am an old fox-hunter, I should have turned
and dodged, and have played them a thousand tricks they had never seen in
their lives before." Sir Roger added, that if these gentlemen had any
such intention, they did not succeed very well in it; "for I threw them
out," says he, "at the end of Norfolk Street, where I doubled the corner,
and got shelter in my lodgings before they could imagine what was become
of me. However," says the Knight, "if Captain Sentry will make one with
us to-morrow night, and if you will both of you call upon me about four
o'clock, that we may be at the house before it is full, I will have my
coach in readiness to attend you, for John tells me he has got the
fore-wheels mended."

The Captain, who did not fail to meet me there at the appointed hour, bid
Sir Roger fear nothing, for that he had put on the same sword which he
made use of at the battle of Steenkirk. Sir Roger's servants, and among
the rest my old friend the butler, had, I found, provided themselves with
good oaken plants, to attend their master upon this occasion. When we
had placed him in his coach, with myself at his left hand, the Captain
before him, and his butler at the head of his footmen in the rear, we
conveyed him in safety to the play-house, where after having marched up
the entry in good order, the Captain and I went in with him, and seated
him betwixt us in the pit. As soon as the house was full, and the candles
lighted, my old friend stood up and looked about him with that pleasure,
which a mind seasoned with humanity[177] naturally feels in itself, at
the sight of a multitude of people who seemed pleased with one another,
and partake of the same common entertainment. I could not but fancy to
myself, as the old man stood up in the middle of the pit, that he made a
very proper centre to a tragic audience. Upon the entering of
Pyrrhus[178], the Knight told me that he did not believe the King of
France himself had a better strut. I was indeed very attentive to my old
friend's remarks, because I looked upon them as a piece of natural
criticism, and was well pleased to hear him, at the conclusion of almost
every scene, telling me that he could not imagine how the play would end.
One while he appeared much concerned for Andromache; and a little while
after as much for Hermione; and was extremely puzzled to think what would
become of Pyrrhus.

When Sir Roger saw Andromache's obstinate refusal to her lover's
importunities, he whispered me in the ear, that he was sure she would
never have him; to which he added, with a more than ordinary vehemence,
"You cannot imagine, sir, what it is to have to do with a widow." Upon
Pyrrhus his[179] threatening afterwards to leave her, the Knight shook
his head and muttered to himself, "Ay, do if you can." This part dwelt so
much upon my friend's imagination, that at the close of the third act, as
I was thinking of something else, he whispered me in the ear, "These
widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world. But pray,"
says he, "you that are a critic, is the play according to your dramatic
rules, as you call them? Should your people in tragedy always talk to be
understood? Why, there is not a single sentence in this play that I do
not know the meaning of."

The fourth act very luckily begun before I had time to give the old
gentleman an answer: "Well," says the Knight, sitting down with great
satisfaction, "I suppose we are now to see Hector's ghost." He then
renewed his attention, and, from time to time, fell a praising the widow.
He made, indeed, a little mistake as to one of her pages, whom at his
first entering he took for Astyanax[180]; but quickly set himself right
in that particular, though, at the same time, he owned he should have
been very glad to have seen the little boy, "who," says he, "must needs
be a very fine child by the account that is given of him." Upon
Hermione's going off with a menace to Pyrrhus, the audience gave a loud
clap, to which Sir Roger added, "On my word, a notable young baggage!"

As there was a very remarkable silence and stillness in the audience
during the whole action, it was natural for them to take the opportunity
of the intervals between the acts, to express their opinion of the
players, and of their respective parts. Sir Roger hearing a cluster of
them praise Orestes, struck in with them, and told them, that he thought
his friend Pylades was a very sensible man; as they were afterwards
applauding Pyrrhus, Sir Roger put in a second time: "And let me tell
you," says he, "though he speaks but little, I like the old fellow in
whiskers as well as any of them." Captain Sentry seeing two or three
wags, who sat near us, lean with an attentive ear towards Sir Roger, and
fearing lest they should smoke[181] the Knight, plucked him by the elbow,
and whispered something in his ear, that lasted till the opening of the
fifth act. The Knight was wonderfully attentive to the account which
Orestes gives of Pyrrhus his death, and at the conclusion of it, told me
it was such a bloody piece of work, that he was glad it was not done upon
the stage. Seeing afterwards Orestes in his raving fit, he grew more than
ordinary serious, and took occasion to moralise (in his way) upon an evil
conscience, adding, that _Orestes, in his madness, looked as if he saw
something_.

As we were the first that came into the house, so we were the last that
went out of it; being resolved to have a clear passage for our old
friend, whom we did not care to venture among the justling of the crowd.
Sir Roger went out fully satisfied with his entertainment, and we guarded
him to his lodging in the same manner that we brought him to the
play-house; being highly pleased, for my own part, not only with the
performance of the excellent piece which had been presented, but with the
satisfaction which it had given to the old man.

  L.


FOOTNOTES:

[174] _New tragedy._ _The Distressed Mother_, by Ambrose Phillips.

[175] _Mohocks._ Gangs of rowdies who roamed the streets at night and
assaulted passers-by. See _Spectator_, NO. 324

[176] _Put on._ Put on speed.

[177] _Seasoned with humanity._ Tempered with kindliness.

[178] _Pyrrhus._ Son of Achilles, to whom Hector's widow, Andromache,
had fallen as his share of the plunder of Troy.

[179] _Pyrrhus his._ This use is due to a wrong idea that the possessive
termination is an abbreviation of _his_.

[180] _Astyanax._ Son of Hector and Andromache (and subject of one of
the most touching passages in Homer).

[181] _Smoke._ A slang word, equivalent to the modern _rag_.




NO. 383. TUESDAY, MAY 20

    _Criminibus debent hortos._

    JUV. _Sat._ i. ver. 75.

    A beauteous garden, but by vice maintain'd.


As I was sitting in my chamber and thinking on a subject for my next
_Spectator_, I heard two or three irregular bounces[182] at my landlady's
door, and upon the opening of it, a loud cheerful voice inquiring whether
the Philosopher was at home. The child who went to the door answered very
innocently, that he did not lodge there. I immediately recollected[183]
that it was my good friend Sir Roger's voice; and that I had promised to
go with him on the water to Spring Garden[184], in case it proved a good
evening. The Knight put me in mind of my promise from the bottom of the
staircase, but told me that if I was speculating[185] he would stay below
till I had done. Upon my coming down I found all the children of the
family got about my old friend, and my landlady herself, who is a notable
prating gossip, engaged in a conference with him; being mightily pleased
with his stroking her little boy upon the head, and bidding him be a good
child, and mind his book.

We were no sooner come to the Temple stairs, but we were surrounded with
a crowd of watermen offering us their respective services. Sir Roger,
after having looked about him very attentively, spied one with a wooden
leg, and immediately gave him orders to get his boat ready. As we were
walking towards it, "You must know," says Sir Roger, "I never make use of
any body to row me, that has not either lost a leg or an arm. I would
rather bate him a few strokes of his oar[186] than not employ an honest
man that has been wounded in the Queen's service. If I was a lord or a
bishop, and kept a barge, I would not put a fellow in my livery that had
not a wooden leg."

[Illustration: I found all the Children of the Family got about my old
Friend]

My old friend, after having seated himself, and trimmed[187] the boat
with his coachman, who, being a very sober man, always serves for
ballast on these occasions, we made the best of our way for Fox-Hall. Sir
Roger obliged the waterman to give us the history of his right leg, and
hearing that he had left it at La Hogue, with many particulars which
passed in that glorious action, the Knight in the triumph of his heart
made several reflections on the greatness of the British nation; as, that
one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in
danger of popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that the Thames
was the noblest river in Europe, that London Bridge was a greater piece
of work than any of the seven wonders of the world; with many other
honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true
Englishman.

After some short pause, the old Knight turning about his head twice or
thrice, to take a survey of this great metropolis, bid me observe how
thick the city was set with churches, and that there was scarce a single
steeple on this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight!" says Sir
Roger: "there is no religion at this end of the town. The fifty new
churches[188] will very much mend the prospect; but church work is slow,
church work is slow!"

I do not remember I have anywhere mentioned in Sir Roger's character, his
custom of saluting everybody that passes by him with a good-morrow or a
good-night. This the old man does out of the overflowings of his
humanity, though at the same time it renders him so popular among all his
country neighbours, that it is thought to have gone a good way in making
him once or twice knight of the shire[189]. He cannot forbear this
exercise of benevolence even in town, when he meets with any one in his
morning or evening walk. It broke from him to several boats that passed
by us upon the water; but to the Knight's great surprise, as he gave the
good-night to two or three young fellows a little before our landing, one
of them, instead of returning the civility, asked us, what queer old
put[190] we had in the boat? with a great deal of the like Thames
ribaldry. Sir Roger seemed a little shocked at first, but at length
assuming a face of magistracy, told us, "That if he were a Middlesex
justice, he would make such vagrants know that her Majesty's subjects
were no more to be abused by water than by land."

We were now arrived at Spring Garden, which is exquisitely pleasant at
this time of the year. When I considered the fragrancy of the walks and
bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon the trees, and the loose
tribe of people that walked under their shades, I could not but look upon
the place as a kind of Mahometan paradise. Sir Roger told me it put him
in mind of a little coppice by his house in the country, which his
chaplain used to call an aviary of nightingales. "You must understand,"
says the Knight, "there is nothing in the world that pleases a man in
love so much as your nightingale. Ah, Mr. Spectator! the many moonlight
nights that I have walked by myself, and thought on the widow by the
music of the nightingale!" He here fetched a deep sigh, and was falling
into a fit of musing, when a mask, who came behind him, gave him a
gentle tap upon the shoulder, and asked him if he would drink a bottle of
mead with her? But the Knight, being startled at so unexpected a
familiarity, and displeased to be interrupted in his thoughts of the
widow, told her, "she was a wanton baggage," and bid her go about her
business.

We concluded our walk with a glass of Burton ale, and a slice of
hung[191] beef. When we had done eating ourselves, the Knight called a
waiter to him, and bid him carry the remainder to the waterman that had
but one leg. I perceived the fellow stared upon him at the oddness of the
message, and was going to be saucy; upon which I ratified the Knight's
commands with a peremptory look.

  I.


FOOTNOTES:

[182] _Bounces._ Loud knocks.

[183] _Recollected._ We should now say _recognised_.

[184] _Spring Garden._ At Vauxhall.

[185] _Speculating._ Ruminating.

[186] _Bate him a few strokes of his oar._ Excuse his rowing slowly.

[187] _Trimmed._ Balanced.

[188] _The fifty new churches._ Voted by Parliament in 1711 for the
western suburbs.

[189] _Knight of the shire._ M.P. See p. 44.

[190] _Put._ Rustic, boor.

[191] _Hung._ Salted or spiced.




NO. 517. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23

    _Heu pietas! heu prisca fides!_

    VIRG. _Æn._ vi. ver. 878.

    Mirror of ancient faith!
    Undaunted worth! Inviolable truth!

    DRYDEN.


We last night received a piece of ill news at our club, which very
sensibly[192] afflicted every one of us. I question not but my readers
themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it. To keep them no longer
in suspense, Sir Roger de Coverley _is dead_. He departed this life at
his house in the country, after a few weeks' sickness. Sir Andrew
Freeport has a letter from one of his correspondents in those parts, that
informs him the old man caught a cold at the country sessions, as he was
very warmly promoting[193] an address of his own penning, in which he
succeeded according to his wishes. But this particular comes from a Whig
justice of peace, who was always Sir Roger's enemy and antagonist. I have
letters both from the chaplain and Captain Sentry, which mention nothing
of it, but are filled with many particulars to the honour of the good old
man. I have likewise a letter from the butler, who took so much care of
me last summer when I was at the Knight's house. As my friend the butler
mentions, in the simplicity of his heart, several circumstances the
others have passed over in silence, I shall give my reader a copy of his
letter, without any alteration or diminution.

     HONOURED SIR,

     Knowing that you was[194] my old master's good friend, I could not
     forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death, which has
     afflicted the whole country[195], as well as his poor servants, who
     loved him, I may say, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he
     caught his death the last country sessions, where he would go to
     see justice done to a poor widow woman and her fatherless
     children, that had been wronged by a neighbouring gentleman; for
     you know, Sir, my good master was always the poor man's friend.
     Upon his coming home, the first complaint he made was, that he had
     lost his roast-beef stomach, not being able to touch a sirloin,
     which was served up according to custom; and you know he used to
     take great delight in it. From that time forward he grew worse and
     worse, but still kept a good heart to the last. Indeed we were once
     in great hope of his recovery, upon a kind message that was sent
     him from the Widow Lady whom he had made love to the forty last
     years of his life; but this only proved a lightning[196] before
     death. He has bequeathed to this lady, as a token of his love, a
     great pearl necklace, and a couple of silver bracelets set with
     jewels, which belonged to my good old lady his mother: he has
     bequeathed the fine white gelding, that he used to ride a-hunting
     upon, to his chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him;
     and has left you all his books. He has, moreover, bequeathed to the
     chaplain a very pretty tenement with good lands about it. It being
     a very cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning, to
     every man in the parish, a great frieze coat, and to every woman a
     black riding-hood. It was a most moving sight to see him take leave
     of his poor servants, commending us all for our fidelity, whilst we
     were not able to speak a word for weeping. As we most of us are
     grown grey-headed in our dear master's service, he has left us
     pensions and legacies, which we may live very comfortably upon the
     remaining part of our days. He has bequeathed a great deal more in
     charity, which is not yet come to my knowledge, and it is
     peremptorily[197] said in the parish, that he has left money to
     build a steeple to the church; for he was heard to say some time
     ago, that if he lived two years longer, Coverley church should have
     a steeple to it. The chaplain tells everybody that he made a very
     good end, and never speaks of him without tears. He was buried
     according to his own directions, among the family of the Coverleys,
     on the left hand of his father Sir Arthur. The coffin was carried
     by six of his tenants, and the pall held by six of the Quorum: the
     whole parish followed the corpse with heavy hearts, and in their
     mourning suits, the men in frieze, and the women in riding-hoods.
     Captain Sentry, my master's nephew, has taken possession of the
     hall-house, and the whole estate. When my old master saw him, a
     little before his death, he shook him by the hand, and wished him
     joy of the estate which was falling to him, desiring him only to
     make a good use of it, and to pay the several legacies, and the
     gifts of charity which he told him he had left as quit-rents[198]
     upon the estate. The captain truly seems a courteous man, though he
     says but little. He makes much of those whom my master loved, and
     shows great kindnesses to the old house-dog, that you know my poor
     master was so fond of. It would have gone to your heart to have
     heard the moans the dumb creature made on the day of my master's
     death. He has never joyed himself since; no more has any of us. It
     was the melancholiest day for the poor people that ever happened in
     Worcestershire. This is all from,

     Honoured Sir,
     Your most sorrowful servant,
     EDWARD BISCUIT.

     P.S.--My master desired, some weeks before he died, that a book
     which comes up to you by the carrier, should be given to Sir Andrew
     Freeport, in his name.

This letter, notwithstanding the poor butler's manner of writing it, gave
us such an idea of our good old friend, that upon the reading of it there
was not a dry eye in the club. Sir Andrew opening the book, found it to
be a collection of Acts of Parliament. There was in particular the Act
of Uniformity, with some passages in it marked by Sir Roger's own hand.
Sir Andrew found that they related to two or three points, which he had
disputed with Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the club. Sir
Andrew, who would have been merry at such an incident on another
occasion, at the sight of the old man's handwriting burst into tears, and
put the book into his pocket. Captain Sentry informs me, that the Knight
has left rings and mourning for every one in the club.

  O.


FOOTNOTES:

[192] _Sensibly._ Keenly.

[193] _Promoting._ Urging the adoption of.

[194] _You was._ A common seventeenth-century use with the singular
_you_.

[195] _Country._ Country-side.

[196] _Lightning._ Last flash of life (quotation from Shakespeare).

[197] _Peremptorily._ Confidently.

[198] _Quit-rents._ Charges on the estate.


[Illustration]