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man abufing his man in that coat, which a month or two before was the most pleafing diftinction he was confcious of in himfelf. He would turn his difcourfe ftill more pleasantly upon the ladies bounties of this kind; and I have heard him fay he knew a fine woman, who diftributed rewards and punishments in giving becoming or unbecoming dreffes to her maids.

But my good friend is above these little inftances of good-will, in bestowing only trifles on his fervants; a good fervant to him is fure of having it in his choice very foon of being no fervant at all. As I before obferved, he is fo good an husband, and knows fo thoroughly that the skill of the purfe is the cardinal virtue of this life; I fay, he knows fo well that frugality is the fupport of generofity, that he can often fpare a large fine when a tenement falls, and give that fettlement to a good fervant who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger pay the fine to that fervant, for his more comfortable maintenance, if he itays in his fervice.

A man of honour and generofity confiders it would be miferable to himself to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best perfon breathing, and for that reafon goes on as faft as he is able to put his fervants into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's eftate is tenanted by perfons who have ferved himself or his ancestors. It was to me extremely pleafant to obferve the vifitants from feveral parts to welcome his arrival into the country; and all the difference that I could take notice of between the late fervants who came to fee him, and thofe who staid in the family, was that thefe latter were looked upon as finer gentlemen and better courtiers.

This manumiffion and placing them in a way of livelihood, I look upon as only what is due to a good fervant, which encouragement will make his fucceffor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is fomething wonderful in the narrowness of thofe minds, which can be pleased, and be barren of bounty to thofe who please them.

One might, on this occafion, recount the fenfe that great perfons in all ages have had of the merit of their dependents, and the heroic fervices which men have done their mafters in the extremity of their fortunes; and fhewn to their undone patrons, that fortune was all the difference between them; but as I defign this my fpeculation only as a gen tle admonition to thankless mafters, I fhall not go out of the occurrences of common life, but affert it as a general obfervation, that I never faw but in Sir Roger's family, and one or two more, good fervants treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their children's children, and this very morning he fent his coachman's grandfon to prentice. I fhall conclude this paper with an account of a picture in his gallery, where there are many which will deferve my future obfervation.

At the very upper end of this handfome structure I faw the portraiture of two young men standing in a river, the one naked, the other in a livery. The perfon fupported feemed half dead, but ftill fo much alive as to fhew in his face exquifite 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 perfon in the livery was a fervant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the shore while his mafter was fwimming, and obferving him taken with fome fudden illness, and fink under water, jumped in and faved him. He told me Sir Roger took off the drefs he was in as foon as he came home, and by a great bounty at that time, followed by his favour ever fince, had made him mafter of that pretty feat which we saw at a distance as we came to this houfe. I remembered indeed Sir Roger faid there lived a very worthy gentleman, to whom he was highly ubliged, without mentioning any thing further. Upon my looking a little diffatisfied at fome part of the picture, my attendant informed me that it was against Sir Roger's will, and at the earnest requeft of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in the habit in which he had fayed his mafter.

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N® CVIII.

N° CVIII. WEDNESDAY, JULY 4.

GRATIS ANHELANS, MULTA AGENDO NIHIL AGENS.

PHEDR. FAB. V. L. 2.

OUT OF BREATH TO NO PURPOSE, AND VERY BUSY ABOUT NOTHING.

S I was yesterday morning walk

good correfpondence among all the gen

Aing with Koger before his flemen about him. He carries a tulip

boufe, 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 fervice to him, and intended to come and dine with him. At the fame time he delivered a letter which my friend read to me as foon as the meffenger left him.

SIR ROGER,

Defire you to accept of a jack, which is the best I have caught this feason. I intend to come and itay with you a week, and fee how the perch bite in the Black River. I obferved with fome concern, the last time I faw you upon the bowling-green, that your whip wanted a lafh to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I twifted laft week, which I hope will ferve you all the time you are in the country. I have not been out of the faddle for fix days last paft, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldeft fon. He takes to his learning hugely. Iam, Sir, your humble fervant,

WILL WIMBLE.

This extraordinary letter, and meffage that accompanied it, made me very curious to know the character and quality of the gentleman who fent them; which I found to be as follows. Will Wimble is younger brother to a baronet, and defcended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now between forty and fifty; but being bred to no business, and born to no eftate, he generally lives with his elder brother as fuperintendant 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 verfed in all the little handicrafts of an idle man: he makes a May-fly to a miracle; and furnishes the whole country with anglerods. As he is a good-natured officious fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of his family, he is a welcome gueft at every houfe, and keeps up a

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root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the oppofite fides 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 fetting-dog that he has made' himself. He now and then prefents a pair of garters of his own knitting to their mothers or fifters; and raises a great deal of mirth among them, by enquiring as often as he meets them how they wear? Thefe gentlemanlike manufactures and obliging little humours make Will the darling of the

country.

Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we faw him make up to us with two or three hazle-twigs in his hand that he had cut in Sir Ro ger's woods, as he came through them, in his way to the houfe. I was very much pleased to obferve on one fide the hearty and fincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the fecret joy which his guest dif covered at fight of the good old knight. After the first falutes were over, Will defired Sir Roger to lend him one of his fervants to carry a fet of fhuttlecocks he had with him in a little box to a lady that lived about a mile off, to whom it feems he had promifed fuch a prefent for above this half year, Sir Roger's back was no fooner turned, but honeft Will began to tell me of a large cock-pheafant that he had fprung in one of the neighbouring woods, with two or three other adventures of the fame nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for, and moft delight in; for which reason I was as much pleased with the novelty of the perfon that talked to me, as he could be for his life with the fpringing of the pheafant, and therefore liftened to him with more than ordinary attention.

In the midst of this difcourfe the bell rung to dinner, where the gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure

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of feeing the huge jack he had caught, ferved up for the first difh in a moft fumptuous manner. Upon our fitting down to it he gave us a long account how he had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at length drew it out upon the bank, with feveral other particulars that lafted all the first courfe. A difh of wild fowl that came afterwards furmfhed converfation for the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of Will's for improving the quail-pipe.

Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was fecretly touched with compaffion towards the honeft gentleman that had dined with us; and could not but confider with a great deal of concern, how fo good an heart and fuch bufy hands were wholly employed in trifles; that fo much humanity fhould be fo little beneficial to others, and fo much industry fo little advantageous to himfelf. The fame temper of mind and application to affairs might have recommended him to the public efteem, and have raised his fortune in another ftation of life. What good to his country or himfelf might not a trader or merchant have done with fuch useful though ordinary qualifications?

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Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great family, who had rather fee their children ftarve like gentlemen, than thrive in a trade or profeffion that is beneath their quality. This humour fills feveral parts of Europe with pride and beggary. It is the happiness of a trading nation, like our`s, that the younger fons, though incapable of any liberal art or profeffion, may be placed in fuch a way of life, as may perhaps enable them to vie with the best of their family accordingly we find feveral citizens that were launched into the world with narrow fortunes, rifing by an honeft industry to greater eftates than thofe of their elder brothers. It is not improbable but Will was formerly tried at divinity, law or phyfic; 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 ftudies of a higher nature, he was perfectly well turned for the occupations of trade and commerce. As I think this is a point which cannot be too much inculcated, I fhall defire my reader to compare what I have here written with what I have faid in my twenty-first speculation,

N° CIX. THURSDAY, JULY 5.

ABNORMIS SAPIENS

HOR. SAT.11. L. 2. V.3.

OF PLAIN GOOD SENSE, UNTUTOR'D IN THE SCHOOLS.

Was this morning walking in the

the end oppofite to me, and advancing towards me, faid he was glad to meet me among his relations the De Coverley's, and hoped I liked the converfation of fo much good company, who were as filent as myfelf. I knew he alluded to the pictures, and as he is a gentleman who does not a little value himfelf upon his ancient defcent, I expected he would give me fome account of them. We were now arrived at the upper end of the gallery, when the knight faced towards one of the pietures, and as we ftood before it, he entered into the matter, after his blunt way of faying things as they occur to his imagination, without regular introduction, or care to preferve the appearance of chain of thought.

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'It is,' faid he, worth while to con'fider the force of drefs; and how the perfons of one age differ from those of another, merely by that only. One may obferve alfo, that the general fa'fhion of one age has been followed by one particular fet of people in another, and by them preferved from one ge neration to another. Thus the vast jetting coat and finall 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 fost taller, and a foot and an half broader; befides, that the cap leaves the face expanded, and confequently more terrible, and fitter to stand at the entrance ⚫ of palaces.

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This predeceffor of our's, you fee, is dreffed after this manner, and his cheeks

cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a hat as I am. He was the laft man that won a prize in the tilt-yard, which is now a common ftreet before Whitehall. You see the

broken lance that lies there by his right foot; he fhivered that lance of his adverfary all to pieces; and bearing himfelf, look you, Sir, in this manner, at the fame time he came within the target of the gentleman who rode against him, and taking him with incredible force before him in the pommel of his faddle, he in 'that manner rid the tournament over, with an air that fhewed he did it rather to perform the rule of the lifts, than expofe 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 fat, for they were rivals, and let him down with laudable courtesy and pardonable infolence. I do not know but it might 'be exactly where the coffee-house is

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'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 bafs-viol as well as any gentleman at court; you fee where his viol hangs by his bafket-hilt fword. The action at the tilt-yard you may be fure won the fair lady, who was a ⚫ maid of honour,and the greatest beauty

of her time; here fhe ftands the next picture. You fee, Sir, my great great great grandinother has on the new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gathered at the waist; my grandmother appears as if he stood in a large drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if they were in a go'cart. For all this lady was bed at court, fhe became an excellent country-wife, he brought ten children, and when I fhew you the library, you 'fhall fee in her, own hand, allowing for the difference of the language, the beft receipt now in England both for an hafty-pudding and a white-pot.

If you pleafe to fall back a little, 'because it is neceffary to look at the 'three next pictures at one view, thefe are three filters. She on the righthand, who is fo very beautiful, died a maid; the next to her, till handfomer, had the fame fate, against her will; 'this homely thing in the middle had both their portions added to her own,

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and was ftolen by a neighbouring gentleman, a man of ftratagem and • refolution, for he poifoned three maftiff's to come at her, and knocked down two deer-ftealers in carrying her off. Misfortunes happen in all families: the theft of this romp and fo much money, was no great matter to our eftate. But the next heir that poffeffed it was this foft gentleman, whom you fee there: obferve the finall buttons, the little boots, the laces, the flashes about his cloaths, and above all the posture he is drawn in, which to be fure was his own chufing; you fee he fits with one hand on a defk writing, and looking as it were another way, like an eafy writer, or a fonneteer: he was one of thofe 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 every body that had any thing to do with him, but never faid a rude thing in his life; the most indolent perfon in the world, he would fign a deed that pafled away half his eltate with his gloves on, but would not put on his hat before a lady if it were to fave his country. He is faid to be the first that made love by fqueezing the hand. He left the eftate 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 Jay heavy on our houfe for one generation, but it was retrieved by a gift from that honett man you fee there, a citizen of our name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir Andrew Freeport has faid behind my back, that this man was defcended from one of the ten children of the maid of ho• nour I shewed you abeve; but it was never made out. We winked at the thing indeed, because money was wanting at that time.'

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Here I faw my friend a little embarraffed, 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 puntual as a tradefman, and as generous as a gen⚫tleman. He would have thought himfelf as much undone by breaking

his word, as if it were to be followed by bankruptcy. He ferved his country as knight of the fhire to his dying day. He found it no eafy 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 ftate, where he mutt be expofed to the fnares of ambition. Innocence of life and great ability were the diftinguishing parts of his character; the latter, he had often ob⚫ ferved, had led to the deftruction of the former, and ufed frequently to lament that great and good had not the fame fignification. He was an excellent husbandman, but had re⚫ folved not to exceed fuch a degree of wealth; all above_it he bestowed in

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fecret bounties many years after the fum he aimed at for his own ufe was attained. Yet he did not flacken his industry, but to a decent old age fpent the life and fortune which was fuperfluous to himself, in the service of his friends and neighbours.'

Here we were called to dinner, and Sir Roger ended the difcourfe of this gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the fervant, that this his ancestor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped being killed in the civil wars; For,' faid he, he was fent out of the field upon a private meffage, the day before the battle of Worcester. The whim of narrowly escaping by having been within a day of danger, with other matters above-mentioned, mixed with good fenfe, left me at a lofs whether I was more delighted with my friend's wifdom, or fimplicity.

N° CX. FRIDAY, JULY 6.

HORROR UBIQUE ANIMOS, SIMUL IPSA SILENTIA TERRENT.

VIRG. EN. II. V. 755

ALL THINGS ARE FULL OF HORROR AND AFFRIGHT, / AND DREADFUL EV'N THE SILENCE OF THE NIGHT.

Ta little distance from Sir Roger's houfe, among the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms; which are fhot up fo very high, that when one paffes under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the tops of them feem to be cawing in another region. I am very much delighted with this fort of noife, which I confider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who fupplies the wants of his whole creation, and who, in the beautiful language of the Pfalms, 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 befides the chaplain. My good friend the butler defired me with a very grave face not to venture myself in it after fun-fet, for that one of the footmen had been almoft frighted out of his wits by a fpirit that appeared to him in the fhape of a black horse without an head; to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids coming

DRYDEN.

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home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard fuch a rustling among the bushes that the 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 moft proper fcenes in the world for a ghoft to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are fcattered up and down on every fide, and half covered with ivy and elder bushes, the harbours of leveral folitary birds which feldom make their appearance until the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a church-yard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is fuch an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you ftamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the found repeated. At the fame 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 folemn and venerable. Thefe objects naturally raise seriousness and attention; and when night heightens the awfulness of the place, and pours

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