character; talked often without premeditation, and laughed loudly without restraint. It was a laugh ambitious to compete with even Johnson's: which Davies, with an enviable knowledge of natural history, compared to the laugh of a rhinoceros; and which seemed to Boswell, in their midnight walkings, to resound from Temple-bar to Fleetditch. To such explosions of mirth from Goldsmith, it would seem, the Grecian Coffee House now oftenest echoed; for it had become the favourite resort of the Irish and Lancashire Templars, whom he delighted in collecting around him, in entertaining with a cordial and unostentatious hospitality, and in occasionally amusing with his flute or with whist, 'neither of which he played very well.' Of his occupations and dress at the time, Judge Day confirms and further illustrates what is already known to us. He wa composing light and superficial works, he says, memoirs and histories; not for fame, but for the more urgent need of recruiting exhausted finances. To such labours he returned, and shut himself up to provide fresh matter for his bookseller, and fresh supplies for himself, whenever his funds were dissipated; and they fled more rapidly from his being 'the dupe of many artful persons, male and female, who 'practised upon his benevolence.' With a purse replenished by labour of this kind, adds the worthy judge, the season of relaxation and pleasure took its turn, in attending the theatres, Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and other scenes of gaiety and amusement; which he continued to frequent as long as his supply held out, and where he was fond of exhibiting

his muscular little person in the gayest apparel of the day, to which was added a bag-wig and sword. This favourite costume, it appears, involved him one day in a short but comical dialogue with two coxcombs in the Strand, one of whom, pointing to Goldsmith, called to his companion to look at that fly with a long pin stuck through it:' whereupon, says Mr. Day, the sturdy little poet instantly called aloud to the passers-by to caution them against that brace of disguised pickpockets; and, to show that he wore a sword as well for defence from insolence as for ornament, retired from the footpath into the coach-way to give himself more space, and half drawing, beckoned to the witty gentleman armed in 'like manner, to follow him but he and his companion 'thinking prudence the better part of valour, declined the 'invitation, and sneaked away amid the hootings of the 'spectators.' The prudent example was followed not long afterwards by his old friend Kenrick, who, having grossly libelled him in some coarse lines on seeing his name 'in the list of mummers at the late masquerade,' and being, by Goldsmith himself at an accidental meeting in the Chapter Coffee-house, not only charged with the offence but with personal responsibility for it, made a shuffling and lame retreat from his previously avowed satire, and publicly declared his disbelief of the foul imputations contained in it. But an acquaintance of both entered the house soon after Goldsmith had quitted it, and relates that he found Kenrick publicly haranguing the coffee-room against the man to

whom he had just apologised, and showing off both his ignorance of science (a great subject with the 'rule-maker') and his enormous conceit, by an account of how he had on some occasion maintained that the sun was not eight days or so more in the northern than the southern signs, and, being referred to Maupertuis for a better opinion, had answered Maupertuis! I know more of the matter than Maupertuis.'

The masquerade itself was a weakness to be confessed. It was among the temptations of the winter or town Ranelagh which was this year built in the Oxford Road, at an expense of several thousand pounds, and with such dazzling magnificence (it is now the poor faded Pantheon) that 'Balbec in all its glory' was the comparison it suggested to Horace Walpole. Here and at Vauxhall there is little doubt that Goldsmith was often to be seen, and even here his friend Reynolds good-naturedly kept him company. 'Sir Joshua and Doctor Goldsmith at Vauxhall,' is a fact that now frequently meets us in the Garrick correspondence. 'Sir Joshua and Goldsmith,' writes Beauclerc to Lord Charlemont, have got into a round of pleasures.' 'Would you imagine,' he adds in another letter, 'that Sir 'Joshua is extremely anxious to be a member of Almacks? 'You see what noble ambition will make a man attempt.' Whether the same noble ambition animated Goldsmith, whether the friends ever appeared in red-heeled shoes to imitate the leading maccaronis, whether in rivalry of Charles Fox and Lord Carlisle they masqueraded at any time as

exquisitely dressed 'running footmen,' is not recorded; but such were the fashionable follies of the day, indulged now and then by the gravest people. Johnson often went to 'Ranelagh,' says Mr. Maxwell, which he deemed a place ' of innocent recreation.' 'I am a great friend to these 'public amusements, sir,' said he to Boswell; 'they keep 'people from vice.' Poor Goldsmith had often to repent such pleasures, notwithstanding. Sir Joshua found him. one morning, on entering his chambers unannounced, walking quickly about from room to room, making a football of a bundle which he deliberately kicked before him; and on enquiry found it was a masquerade dress, bought when he could ill afford it, and for which he was thus doing penance. He was too poor to have anything in his possession that was not useful to him, he said to Reynolds; and was therefore taking out the value of his extravagance in exercise.

Other allusions to a habit which did not admit of even so much practical repentance, are incidentally made in the letters of the time. Judge Day has mentioned that he was fond of whist, and adds that he played it particularly ill; but in losing his money he never lost his temper. In a run of bad luck and worse play, he would fling his cards upon the floor, and exclaim Byefore George! I ought for 'ever to renounce thee, fickle, faithless Fortune!' I have traced the origin of this card-playing to the idle days of Ballymahon; and that the love of it continued to beset him, there is no ground for questioning. But it may well

be doubted if anything like a grave imputation of gambling could with fairness be raised upon it. Mr. Cradock, who made his acquaintance at the close of this year, tells us that 'his greatest real fault was, that if he had thirty pounds in his pocket, he would go into certain companies in the country, and in hopes of doubling the sum, would gene' rally return to town without any part of it:' and another acquaintance tells us that the certain companies' were supposed to be Beauclerc and men of that stamp. But this only provokes a smile. The class to which Beauclerc belonged, were the men like Charles Fox or Lord Stavordale, Lord March or Lord Carlisle, whose nightly gains and losses at White's or Almacks were now the town talk; and though Goldsmith could as little afford thirty pounds lost in as many nights at loo, as Lord Stavordale fifteen thousand lost by one hand at hazard, the reproach of putting it in risk with as much recklessness does not seem really chargeable to him. When Garrick accused him of it, he was smarting under an attack upon himself, and avowedly retaliating. The extent of the folly is great enough, when merely described as the indulgence among private friends, at an utterly thoughtless cost, of a real love of card-playing. Such it seems to have been: and as such will shortly meet us at the Bunburys', the Chambers's, and other houses he visited; where, poorer than any one he was in the habit of meeting, he invariably played worse than any one, generally lost, and always more than he could afford to lose. Let no reproach really merited be