Pleasure of feeing the huge Jack, he had caught, ferved up for the first Dish in a moft sumptuous 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 firft Courfe. A Difh of Wild-fowl that came afterwards furnished Converfation for the reft 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 himself. The fame Temper of Mind and Application to Affairs might have recommended him to the publick Efteem, 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 fuch useful tho' ordinary Qualifications?

WILL. WIMBLE's is the Cafe 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 Happinefs of a trading Nation,like ours, that the youngerSons, tho' uncapable of any liberal Art or Profeffion, may be placed in fuch a Way of Life, as may perhaps enable them to vie with the beft 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 Phyfick; 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 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 writ

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Thursday, July 5.

N° 109.

Abnormis fapiens.

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Hor.

Was this Morning walking in the Gallery, when Sir ROGER entered at the End oppofite to me, and advancing towards me, faid he was glad to meet me among his Relations the DE COVERLEYS, and hoped I liked the Converfation of fo much good Company, who were as filent as my self. 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 fome Account of them. arrived at the upper End of the Gallery, when the Knight faced towards one of the Pictures, and as we ftood before it, he entered into the Matter, after his blunt way of say. ing Things, as they occur to his Imagination, without regular Introduction, or Care to preferve the Appearance of Chain of Thought.

We were now

IT is, faid he, worth while to confider the Force of Drefs; and how the Perfons of one Age differ from thofe of another, meerly by that only. One may obferve alfo that the general Fashion of one Age has been followed by one particular Set of People in another, and by them preferved from one Generation to another. Thus the vast jetting Coat and fmall 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 po'litick View, because they look a Foot taller, and a Foot and an half broader: Befides that, the Cap leaves the Face expanded, and confequently more Terrible, and "fitter to ftand at the Entrance of Palaces.

THIS Predeceffor of ours, you fee, is dreffed after this manner, and his Cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a Hatas I am. He was the laft Man ⚫ that won a Prize in the Tilt-Yard (which is now a ⚫ Common

⚫ Common Street before Whitehall) You fee 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 be 'fore him on the Pummel of his Saddle, he in that manner rid the Turnament 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 Miftrefs fat (for they were Rivals) and let him down with laudable Courtefy and pardonable Infolence. 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 alfo for the Arts of Peace, for 'he play'd on the Bafe-Viol as well as any Gentleman at Court; you fee 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 fhe ftands the next Picture. You fee, Sir, my Great Great Great • Grandmother has on the new-fashioned Petticoat, except that the Modern is gathered at the Wafte; my Grandmother appears as if the ftood in a large Drum, whereas the Ladies now walk as if they were in a Go-Cart. For all this Lady was bred at Ceurt, fhe became an Excellent Country-Wife, fhe 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 best Receipt now in England both for an Hafty-Pud⚫ding and a White-pot.

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IF you please to fall back a little, because 'tis neceffary to look at the three next Pictures at one View; these are three Sifters. She on the right Hand, who is fo very beautiful, died a Maid; the next to her, still handfomer, had the fame Fate, against her Will; this homely thing in the middle had both their Portions ad'ded to her own, and was ftolen by a neighbouring Gentleman, a Man of Stratagem' and Refolution, for he poifoned three Mastiffs to come at her, and knocked

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down two Deer-ftealers in carrying her off. Misfor tunes happen in all Families: The Theft of this Romp and fo much Mony, was no great matter to our Estate. But the next Heir that poffeffed it was this foft Gentleman, whom you fee there: Obferve the fmall Buttons, the little Boots, the Laces, the Slashes about his Cloaths, and above all the Pofture he is drawn in, (which to be fure was his own chufing;) you fee he fits with one ¿ Hand on a Desk writing, and looking as it were another way, like an eafy Writer, or a Sonneteer: He was one of thofe that had too much Wit to know how to live in the World; he was a Man of no Juftice, 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 paffed away half his Eftte 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 Estate with ten thoufand 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 Houfe for one Generation, but it was retrieved by a Gift from that honeft Man you fee there, a Citizen of our Name, but nothing at. all a-kin 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 Honour I fhewed you above; but it was never made out. We winked at the thing indeed, becaufe Money was wanting at that time.

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Here I faw 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 look'd at) I take to be the Honour of our Houfe, Sir HUMPHREY DE COVERLEY; he was in his Dealings as punctual as a Tradefman, 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 ferved his Country as Knight of this Shire to his dying Day. He found it no eafy mat

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ter to maintain an Integrity in his Words and Actions, even in things that regarded the Offices which were in'cumbent upon him, in the Care of his own Affairs and Relations of Life, and therefore dreaded (tho' he had great Talents) to go into Employments of State, where he must be expofed to the Snares of Ambition. cence of Life and great Ability were the diftinguishing Parts of his Character; the latter, he had often obferved, ' had led to the Deftruction of the former, and ufed frequently to lament that Great and Good had not the fame Signification. He was an excellent Husbandman, but had ' refolved not to exceed such a Degree of Wealth; 'bove it he bestowed in fecret Bounties many Years after the Sum he aimed at for his own Ufe was attained. Yet ⚫ he did not flacken his Industry, but to a decent old Age spent 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 Servant, 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 Battel of Worcester. The Whim of narrowly escaping, by having been within a Day of Danger, with other Matters above-mentioned, mixed with good Senfe, left me at a Lofs whether I was more delighted with my Friend's Wisdom or Simplicity.

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N° 110.

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Friday, July 6.

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Horror ubique animos, fimul ipfa filentia terrent. Virg, Ta little Distance from Sir ROGER's Houfe a mong the Ruins of an old Abby, 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 reft upon the Tops of them feem to be Cawing in another Region. I am very much delighted with this Sort of Noife, which I confider as a kind of natural Prayer to that Being who fupplies the Wants of his whole Creation,