plant yourself at the corner of any street, I will engage it will not be long before you fee him. I have already touched upon this subject in a fpeculation which fhews how cruelly the country are led aftray in following the town; and equipped in a ridiculous habit, when they fancy themselves in the height of the mode. Since that fpeculation I have received a letter, which I there hinted at, from a gentleman who is now in the Western circuit. • Mr. Spectator, B EING a lawyer of the Middle-Temple, a Cornishman by birth, I generally ride the Western circuit for my health, and as I am not interrupted with clients, have leifure to make many obfervations that efcape the notice of my fellow-travellers. One of the most fashionable women I met with in all the circuit was my landlady at Stains, where I chanced to be at on a holiday. Her commode was not half a foot high, and her petticoat within fome yards of a modish ⚫ circumference. In the fame place I obferved * a young fellow with a tolerable periwig, had it not been covered with a hat that was shaped in the Ramilie cock. As I proceeded in my journey I observed the petticoat grew scantier, and about threefcore miles from London was fo very unfashionable, that a woman might walk in it without any manner of inconvenience. 'Not far from Salisbury I took notice of a juftice of peace's lady, who was at least ten years behind-hand in her drefs, but at the fame time as fine as hands could make her. She was flounced and furbelowed from head to foot; every ribbon was wrinkled, and every part of her garments in curl, fo that he looked like one of those animals which in the country we call Friezland hens. 'Not many miles beyond this place I was in• formed that one of the last year's little muffs had by some means or other ftraggled into thofe parts, and that all the women of fashion were cutting their old muffs in two, or retrenching ◄ them, according to the little model which was got among them. I cannot believe the report they have there, that it was fent down franked by a parliament-man in a little packet, but probably by next winter this fashion will be at the height in the country, when it is quite out at London. The greatest beau at our next county feffions We From this place, during our progress through the most western parts of the kingdom, we fan'cied ourselves in king Charles the fecond's reign, 'the people having made very little variations in their drefs fince that time. The smarteft of 'the country fquires appear ftill in the Mon'mouth-cock, and when they go a wooing, whether they have any poft in the militia or not, they generally put on a red coat. were, indeed, very much furprised, at the place we lay at last night, to meet with a gentleman that had accoutered himself in a night-cap wig, a coat with long pockets, and flit fleeves, and a 'pair of fhoes with high fcollop tops; but we foon found by his converfation that he was a 'perfon who laughed at the ignorance and rufticity of the country people, and was refolved to live and die in the mode. 'Sir, if you think this account of my travels ' may be of any advantage to the public, I will 'next year trouble you with fuch occurrences as I fhall meet with in other parts of England. For I am informed there are greater curiofities in the northern circuit than in the western; and that a fashion makes its progrefs much flower ' into Cumberland than into Cornwall. heard in particular, that the Steenkirk arrived but two months ago at Newcaftle, and that there are feveral commodes in those parts which ' are worth taking a journey thither to fee.' No 130. MONDAY, JULY 30, Convectare juvat prædas, & vivere rapto. Semperque recentes I have C VIRG. Æn. 7. v. 748. Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade. < was A wig, that was made in king William's reign. The wearer of it goes, it feems, in his own hair, when he is at home, and lets his wig lie in buckle for a whole half year, that he may < put it on upon occafion to meet the Judges in ❝ it. I must not here omit an adventure which happened to us in a country church upon the frontiers of Cornwall. As we were in the midst of the service, a lady who is the chief woman of the place, and had paffed the winter at London with her husband, entered the congregation in a little head-dress, and a hooped petticoat. The people, who were wonderfully ftartled at fuch a fight, all of them rose up. Some stared at the prodigious bottom, and fome at the little top of this ftrange drefs. In the mean time the lady of the manor filled the area 5 of the church, and walked up to her pew with DRYDEN. S I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir Roger, we faw a little diftance from us a troop of Gipfies: upon the first discovery of them, my friend was in fome doubt whether he should not exert the Juftice of the Peace upon fuch a band of lawless vagrants, but not having his clerk with him, who is a neceffary counsellor on thefe occafions, and fearing that his poultry might fare the worfe for it, he let the thought drop; but at the fame time gave me a particular account of the mifchiefs they do in the country, in ftealing people's goods and fpoiling their fervants. If a ftray piece of linen hangs upon a hedge, fays Sir Roger, they are fure to have it; if the hog lofes his way in the fields, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey; our geefe cannot live in peace for them; if a man profecutes them with feverity, his hen-rooft is fure to pay for it; they generally ftraggle into thefe parts about this time of the year; and fet the heads of our fervant-maids fo agog for huf bands, bands, that we do not expect to have any bufinefs, "As the Trekfchuyt, or hackney-boat, which done as it fhould be, whilft they are in the coun- "carries paffengers from Leyden to Amfterdam, try. I have an honest dairy-maid who croffes was putting off, a boy running along the fide their hands with a piece of filver every fummer, "of the canal defired to be taken in; which the and never fails being promifed the handfomest "mafter of the boat refufed, becaufe the lad young fellow in the parish for her pains. Your. " had not quite money encugh to pay the ufual friend the butler has been fool enough to be fe"fare. An eminent merchant being pleafed duced by them; and, though he is fure to lofe a "with the looks of the boy, and fecretly touched knife, a fork, or a fpoon every time his fortune is "with compaffion towards him, paid the money told him, generally fhuts himfelf up in the pantry "for him, and ordered him to be taken on board. with an old gipfy for above half an hour once in. "Upon talking with him afterwards, he found a twelvemonth. Sweet-hearts are the things they "that he could fpeak readily in three or four live upon, which they beftow very plentifully languages, and learned upon farther exami-. upon all thofe that apply themfelves to them. "nation that he had been ftolen away when he You fee now and then fome handfome young. "was a child by a gipfy, and had rambled ever. jades among them: the fluts have very often fince with a gang of ftrollers up and down. white teeth and black eyes. "feveral parts of Europe. It happened that the merchant, whofe heart feems to have inclined "towards the boy by a fecret kind of inftin&, "had himself loft a child fome years before.. "The parents, after a long fearch for him, gave. "him for drowned in one of the canals with which that country abounds; and the mother was fo afflicted at the lofs of a fine boy, who, "was her only fon, that fhe died for grief of it. "Upon laying together all particulars, and ex"amining the feveral moles and marks by which "the mother ufed to defcribe the child when he was first miffing, the boy proved to be the "fon of the merchant whofe heart had fo unac-, "countably melted at the fight of him. The "lad was very well pleafed to find a father who "was fo rich, and likely to leave him a good "eftate; the father on the other hand was not a "little delighted to fee a fon return to him, "whom he had given for loft, with fuch a "ftrength of conftitution, fharpnefs of under-. "ftanding, and fkill in languages." Here the printed story leaves off; but if I may give credit to reports, our linguift having received fuch extraordinary rudiments towards a good education, was afterwards trained up in every thing that becomes a gentleman; wearing off by little and, little all the vicious habits and practices that he, had been used to in the courfe of his peregrinati-. ons: nay, it is faid, that he has fince been employed in foreign courts upon national business with great reputation to himfelf, and honour to thofe who fent him, and that he has vifited feveral countries as a public minifter, in which he formerly wandered as a gipfy. Sir Roger obferving that I liftened with great attention to his account of a people who were fo intirely new to me, told me, that if I would they fhould tell us our fortunes. As I was very well pleafed with the knight's propofal, we rid up and communicated our hands to them. A Catfandra of the crew, after having examined my lines very diligently, told me, that I loved a pretty. maid in a corner, that I was a good woman's man, with fome other particulars which I do not think proper to relate. My friend Sir Roger alighted from his horfe, and exposing his palm to two or three that ftood by him, they crumpled it into all fhapes, and diligently fcanned every wrinkle that could be made in it; when one of them, who was older and more fun-burnt than the reft, 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 fame time fmiled upon me. The gipfy finding he was not difpleafed in his heart, told him, after a farther inquiry into his hand, that his true love was conftant, and that the fhould dream of him to-night: my old friend cried pifh, and bid her go on. The gipfy told him that he was a batchelor, but would not be fo long; and that he was dearer to fome-body than he thought: the knight fill repeated, the was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. Ah mafter, fays the gipfy, that roguish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's heart ach; you have not that fimper about the mouth for nothing. The uncouth gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us the more at tentive to it. To be fhort, the knight left the money with her that he had croffed her hand with, and got up again on his horfe. me, VIRG. Once more, ye woods, adieu. Eccl. 10. v. 63. As we were riding away, Sir Roger told N° 131. TUESDAY, JULY 31. that he knew feveral fenfible people who believed-Ipfæ rurfum concedite fylva. thefe gipfies now and then fortetold very ftrange 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 palmiftry at which this race of vermin are very dextrous. I might here entertain my reader with hiftorical remarks on this idle profligate people, who infeft all the countrics of Europe, and live in the midft of governments in a kind of commonwealth by themselves. But instead of entering into obfervations of this nature, I thall fill the remaining part of my paper with a ftory which is fill freth in Holland, and was printed in one of our monthly accounts about twenty years ago, 2 I IT is ufual for a man who loves country sports to preferve the game in his own grounds, and divert himfelf upon thofe that belong to his neighbour. My friend Sir Roger generally goes two or three miles from his houfe, and gets into the frontiers of his eftate, before he beats about in fearch of a hare or partridge, on purpose to fpare his own fields, where he is always fure of finding diverfion, when the worst comes to the worst. By this means the breed about his house has time to increafe and multiply, bendes that the fport is the more agreeable where the game is the harder to come at, and where it does not lie fo thick as to produce any perplexity or con fufion in the purfuit. For thefe reafons the country gentleman, like the fox, feldom preys near his own home. In the fame manner I have made a month's excurfion out of the town, which is the great field of game for sportsmen of my fpecies, to try my fortune in the country, where I have ftarted feveral fubjects, and hunted them down, with fome pleasure to myfelf, and I hope to others. I am here forced to use a great deal of diligence before I canfpring any thing to my mind, whereas in town, whilft I am following one character, it is ten to one but I am croffed in my way by another, and put up fuch a variety of odd creatures in both fexes, that they foil the fcent of one another, and puzzle the chafe. My greatest difficulty in the country is to find fport, and in town to choose it. In the mean time, as I have given a whole month's reft 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, fince I find the whole neighbourhood begin to grow very inquifitive after my name and character: my love of folitude, taciturnity, and particular way of life, having raised a great curiofity in all these parts. The notions which have been framed of me are various; fome look upon me as very proud, fome as very melancholy. Will Wimble, as my friend the butler tells me, obferving me very much alone, and extremely filent when I am in company, is afraid I have killed a man. The country people feem to fufpect me for a con. jurer; and fome of them hearing of the visit which I made to Moll White, will needs have it that Sir Roger has brought down a cunningman with him, to cure the old woman, and free the country from her charms. So that the charatter which I go under in part of the neighbourhood, is what they here call a White Witch. A juftice of peace, who lives about five miles off, and is not of Sir Roger's party, has it feems faid twice or thrice at his table, that he wishes Sir Roger does not harbour a Jefuit in his houfe, and that he thinks the gentlemen of the country would do very well to make me give fome ac count of myself. On the other fide, fome of Sir Roger's friends are afraid the old knight' is impofed upon by a designing fellow, and as they have heard that he converfes very promifcuously when he is in town, do not know but he has brought down with him fome difcarded Whig, that is fullen, and fays nothing because he is out of place. Such is the variety of opinions which are here entertained of me, fo that I pafs among fome for a difaffected perfon, and among others for a popish priest; among fome for a wizard, and among others for a murderer; and all this for no other reafon, that I can imagine, but becaufe I do not hoot and halloo and make a noife. It is true my friend Sir Roger tells them, that it is my way, and that I am only a philofopher; but this will not fatisfy them. They think there is more in me than the difcovers, and that I do not hold my tongue for nothing. For thefe and other reafons I fhall fet out for London to-morrow, having found by experience that the country is not a place for a perfon of, my temper, who does not love jollity, and what they call good neighbourhood. A man that is Out of humour when an expected gueft breaks in upon him, and does not care for facrificing an afternoon to every chance-comer; that will be the mafter of his own time, and the purfuer of his own inclinations, makes but a very unfociable figure in this kind of life. I fhall therefore retire into the town, if I may make ufe of that phrafe, and get into the crowd again as fast as I can, in order to be alone. I can there raise what fpeculations I pleafe upon others without being obferved myself, and at the fame time cnjoy all the advantages of company with all the privileges of folitude. In the mean while, to finifh the month and conclude thefe my rural fpeculations, I fhall here infert a letter from my friend Will Honeycomb, who has not lived a month for thefe forty years out of the fmoke of London, and rallies me after his way upon my country life. Dear Spec, I SUPPOSE this letter will find thee picking of daifies, or fmelling to a lock of hay, or paffing away thy time in fome innocent country diverfion of the like nature. I have however orders from the club to fummon thee up to town, being all of us curfedly afraid thou wilt not be able to relifh our company, after thy converfations with Moll White and Will Wimble. Pr'ythee do not fend us any more ftories of a cock and bull, nor frighten the town with fpirits and witches. Thy fpeculations begin to fmell confoundedly of woods and meadows. If thou doft not come up quickly, we fhall conclude that thou art in love with one of Sir Roger's dairy-maids. Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the cock of the club fince he left us, and if he does 'not return quickly will make every mother's fon of us commonwealth's men. Dear Spec, thine eternally, • Will Honeycomb No 132. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1. -Qui, aut tempus quid poftulet non videt, aut plura loquitur, aut fe oftentat, aut eorum quibufcum eft ra tionem non habet, is ineptus effe dicitur. TULL That man is guilty of impertinence, who confiders not the circumftances of time, or engroffes the converfation, or makes himself the fubject of his difcourfe, or pays no regard to the company he is in, AVING notified to my good friend Sir next day, his horfes were ready at the appointed hour in the evening; and attended by one of his grooms, I arrived at the county town at twilight, in order to be ready for the ftage-coach the day following. As foon as we arrived at the inn, the fervant, who waited upon me, inquir'd of the chamberlain in my hearing what company he had for the coach? The fellow anfwered, Mrs. Betty Arable the great fortune, and the the widow her mother; a recruiting officer, who took a place because they were to go; young Squire Quickfet her coufin, that her mother wifhed her to be married to; Ephraim the quaker, her guardian; and a gentleman that had ftudied himself dumb from Sir Roger de Coverley's. I obferved by what he had faid of myself, that acY 2 cording cording to his office he dealt much in intelligence; and doubted not but there was fome foundation for his reports of the rest of the company, as well as for the whimsical account he gave of me. The next morning at day-break we were all called; and I, who know my own natural fhynefs, and endeavour to be as little liable to be difputed with as poffible, dressed immediately, that I might make no one wait. The first preparation for our fetting-out was, that the captain's half-pike was placed near the coachman, and a drum behind the coach. In the mean time the drummer, the captain's equipage, was very loud, that none of the captain's things fhould be placed fo as to be fpoiled; upon which the cloke-bag was fixed in the feat of the coach: and the captain himself, according to a frequent, though invidious behaviour of military men, ordered his man to look fharp, that none but one of the ladies would have the place he had taken fronting the coach-box. "faid nothing; but how doft thou know what "he containeth? If thou fpeakest improper "things in the hearing of this virtuous young "virgin, confider it is an outrage against a "diftreffed person that cannot get from thee: "to speak indifcreetly what we are obliged to "hear, by being hafped up with thee in this "public vehicle, is in fome degree affaulting on "the high road." We were in fome little time fixed in our feat, and fat with that diflike which people not too good-natured ufually conceive of each other at first fight. The coach jumbled us infenfibly into fome fort of familiarity: and we had not moved above two miles, when the widow afked the captain what fuccefs he had in his recruiting? The officer, with a frankness he believed very graceful, told her, " that indeed he had but very little luck, and had fuffered much by defertion, therefore fhould be glad to end his warfare in the fervice of her or her fair daughter. In a word, continued he, I am a "foldier, and to be plain is my character: you fee me, Madam, young, found, and impu"dent; take me yourself, widow, or give me "to her; I will be wholly at your difpofal. I *am a foldier of fortune, ha!" This was followed by a vain laugh of his own, and a deep filence of all the reft of the company. I had nothing left for it but to fall faft afleep, which I did with all speed. "Come, faid he, refolve upon it, we will make a wedding at next town: we will awake this pleasant companion "who is fallen afleep, to be the bride-man, and, "giving the quaker a clap on the knee, he con"cluded, This fly faint, who, I will warrant, << understands what is what as well as you or I, "widow, fhall give the bride as father." The quaker, who happened to be a man of smartness, anfwered,Friend, I take it in good part that "thou haft given me the authority of a father "over this comely and virtuous child; and I "muft affure thee, that if I have the giving her, "I fhall not beftow her on thee. Thy mirth, "friend, favoureth of folly: thou art a perfon "of a light mind; thy drum is a type of thee, << it foundeth because it is empty. Verily, it "is not from thy fulness, but thy emptiness "that thou haft fpoken this day. Friend, friend, 66 we have hired this coach in partnership with "thee, to carry us to the great city; we can"not go any other way. This worthy mother 46 must hear thee if thou wilt needs utter thy "follies; we cannot help it, friend, I fay; if "thou wilt, we must hear thee; but if thou "wert a man of understanding, thou wouldst not take advantage of thy courageous coun"tenance to abafh us children of peace. Thou "art, thou fayft, a foldier; give quarter to us, who cannot refift thee. Why did thou Aleer " at our friend, who feigned himself asleep? he Here Ephraim paused, and the captain with an unhappy and uncommon impudence, which can be convicted and support itself at the fame time, cries, "Faith, friend, I thank thee; I "fhould have been a little impertinent if thou "hadft not reprimanded me. Come, thou art, "I fee, a fmoky old fellow, and I will be very "orderly the enfuing part of my journey. I was "going to give myself airs, but, ladies, I beg "pardon." The captain was fo little out of humour, and our company was fo far from being foured by this little ruffle, that Ephraim and he took a particular delight in being agreeable to each other for the future; and affumed their different provinces in the conduct of the company. Our reckonings, apartments, and accommodation, fell under Ephraim; and the captain looked to all difputes on the road, as the good behaviour of our coachman, and the right we had of taking place as going to London of all vehicles coming from thence. The occurrences we met with were ordinary, and very little happened which could entertain by the relation of them; but when I confidered the company we were in, I took it for no small good-fortune that the whole journey was not spent in impertinences, which to the one part of us might be an entertainment, to the other a fuffering. What therefore Ephraim faid when we were almost arrived at London, had to me an air not only of good understanding but good breeding. Upon the young's lady's expreffing her fatisfaction in the journey, and declaring how delightful it had been to her, Ephraim delivered himself as follows: "There "is no ordinary part of human life which ex"preffeth fo much a good mind, and a right in"ward man, as his behaviour upon meeting " with ftrangers, especially fuch as may feem "the most unfuitable companions to him: fuch a man, when he falleth in the way with per"fons of fimplicity and innocence, however "knowing he may be in the ways of men, will not vaunt himself thereof; but will the rather hide his fuperiority to them, that he may not "be painful unto them. My good friend, con"tinued he, turning to the officer, thee and "I are to part by and by, and peradventure we 66. may never meet again: but be advised by a plain man; modes and apparel are but trifles "to the real man, therefore do not think fuch a "man as thyfelf terrible for thy garb, nor fuch "a one as me contemptible for mine. When "two fuch as thee and I meet, with affections No 133. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2. HOR. Od. 24. l. I. V. I, -Who can grieve too much, what time shall end Our mourning for fo dear a friend? T HERE is a fort of delight, which is alternately mixed with terror and forrow, in the contemplation of death. The foul has its curiofity more than ordinarily awakened, when it turns its thoughts upon the subject of fuch who have behaved themselves with an equal, a refigned, a chearful, a generous or heroic temper in that exrremity. We are affected with thefe refpective manners of behaviour, as we fecretly believe the part of the dying perfon imitable by ourselves, or fuch as we imagine ourselves more particularly capable of. Men of exalted minds march before us like princes, and are, to the ordinary race of mankind, rather fubjects for their admiration than example. However, there are no ideas strike more forcibly upon our imaginations, than those which are raised from reflections upon the exits of great and excellent men. Innocent men who have fuffered as criminals, though they were benefactors to human fociety, feem to be perfons of the highest distinction, among the vaftly greater of human race, the dead. When the iniquity of the times brought Socrates to his execution, how great and wonderful is it to behold him, unfupported by any thing but the testimony of his own confcience and conjectures of hereafter, receive the poifon with an air of mirth and good-humour, and as if going on an agreeable journey befpeak fome deity to make it fortu nate. When Phocion's good actions had met with the like reward from this country, and he was led to death with many others of his friends, they bewailing their fate, he walking compofedly towards the place of execution, how gracefully does he support his illuftrious character to the very last instant! One of the rabble fpitting at him as he paffed, with his ufual authority he called to know if no one was ready to teach this fellow how to behave himself. When a poor fpirited creature that died at the fame time for his crimes bemoaned himself unmanfully, he rebuked him with this question, Is it no confolation to fuch a man as thou art to die with Phocion? At the inftant when he was to die, they afked what commands he had for his fon: he anfwered, to forget this injury of the Athenians. Niocles, his friend, under the fame fentence, defired he might drink the potion before him; Phocion faid, because he never had denied him any thing he would not even this, the most difficult request he had ever made. Thefe inftances were very noble and great, and the reflections of thofe fublime fpirits had made death to them what it is really intended to be by the author of nature, a relief from a various being ever fubject to forrows and difficulties. Epaminondas the Theban general, having received in fight a mortal stab with a fword, which was left in his body, lay in that posture until he had intelligence that his troops had obtained the victory, and then permitted it to be drawn out, at which inftant he expreffed himself in this manper, "This is not the end of my life, my fellow "foldiers; it is now your Epaminondas is born, "who dies in fo much glory.' It were an endless labour to collect the accounts with which all ages have filled the world of noble and heroic minds that have refigned this being, as if the termination of life were but an ordinary occurrence of it. This common-place way of thinking I fell into from an aukward endeavour to throw off a real and fresh affliction, by turning over books in a melancholy mood; but it is not eafy to remove griefs which touch the heart, by applying remedies which only entertain the imagination. As therefore this paper is to confift of any thing which concerns human life, I cannot help letting the prefent fubject regard what has been the laft object of my eyes, though an entertainment of forrow." I went this evening to visit a friend, with a defign to rally him, upon a story I had heard of his intending to steal a marriage without the privity of us his intimate friends and acquaintance. I came into his apartment with that intimacy which I have done for very many years, and walked directly into his bed-chamber, where I found my friend in the agonies of death. What could I do? The innocent mirth in my thoughts ftruck upon me like the most flagitious wickednefs: I in vain called upon him; he was fenfe lefs, and too far spent to have the least knowledge of my forrow, or any pain in himself. Give me leave then to tranfcribe my foliloquy, as I stood by his mother, dumb with the weight of grief for a fon who was her honour and her comfort, and never until that hour fince his birth had been an occafion of a moment's forrow to her. 'OW surprising is this change! from the poffeffion of vigorous life and strength, to be reduced in a few hours to this fatal ex"tremity! Thofe lips which look so pale and liv. "id, within thefe few days gave delight to all "who heard their utterance; it was the bufi"nefs, the purpofe of his being, next to obeying "him to whom he is going, to pleafe and in ftruct, and that for no other end but to please "and inftruct. Kindnefs was the motive of his "actions, and with all the capacity requifite for "making a figure in a contentious world, mo"deration, good nature, affability, temperance "and chastity, were the arts of his excellent life. "There as he lies in helplefs agony, no wife man "who knew him fo well as I, but would refign all the world can bestow to be fo near the end "of fuch a life. Why does my heart fo little "obey my reason as to lament thee, thou excel· "lent man- -Heaven receive him, or restore him.. -Thy beloved mother, thy obliged "friends, thy helpless fervants, ftand around "thee without diftinction. How much would' "eft thou, hadft thou thy fenfes, say to each of " us! "But now that good heart burfts, and he is at "reft-with that breath expired a foul who never |