breaking one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell the ground it enclosed to defray the charges of the prosecution: his father left him fourscore pounds a year; but he has cast and been cast so often, that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is going upon the old business of the willow-tree.' 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; 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 country 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, until I found he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences, with a look of much business and great intrepidity. 6 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; which I cannot forbear relating, because it shews 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 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 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 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. surprise, in the midst of a + Roger was getting up to for him, until I found or three sentences, great intrepidity. Upon his first general whisper were read, 'one' gentleman ancient deNo. 2); an more or less ass funtry squire of the of an English coungenerous, ignorant, and prejudiced' 'Is' ought to be are on the strict principle that the antecedent to was 6 who' is 'those,' not The singular construction sual in the oldest English; but it is now reckan error. Cf. This is the though still oned common, epoch of one of the most singular discoveries that has been made among men' (Hume). 'I resemble one of those animals that has been forced from its forest to gratify human curiosity' (Goldsmith). Will. Wimble 'is younger brother to a baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the Wimbles' (Spect. 108). He, too, is an imaginary character representative of the younger sons of country gentlemen. Assizes, lit. sessions (cf., below, 'a quarter-sessions'); court of justice in England, held twice a year in every county. From Lat. ad, sessum (to sit), through Fr. assises. A couple of plain men, and (below) 'a couple of honest gentlemen.' We should not use 'couple' thus, except in such familiar composition. Rid. We should now use 'rode.' A year; and (below) a week. The 'a' is a degenerate 'on' (prep.). The game-act. The 3d of James I., chap. 13, clause 4, provides that if erson or persons not having manors, lands, tenements, or ereditaments of the clear yearly value of forty pounds, or not worth in goods or chattels the sum of two hundred pounds, shall use any gun, bow, or cross-bow to kill any deer or coneys, or shall keep any buckstall or engine, hays, gate-nets, purse-nets, ferrets, or coney-dogs. Then ... ... every person having lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of one hundred pounds may take from the person or possession of such malefactor or malefactors, and to his own use for ever keep, such guns, bows, cross-bows, buckstalls, or engine, hays, gate-nets, pursenets, ferrets, and coney dogs.' 'This amiable enactment-which permitted a one-hundred-pound freeholder to become in his single person accuser, witness, judge, jury, and executioner; and which made an equally respectable but poorer man who shot a hare malefactor"-was the law of the land even so lately as 1827, for it was only repealed by the 7th and 8th Geo. IV., chap. 27' (Wills). a Shoots flying. A high commendation. The persons composing 'the jury' (Law Lat. jurāta) were called jurati (the sworn men), Fr. les jurés, being sworn to decide facts truly according to the evidence laid before them. 'Petty' small, Fr. petit (small); opposed to 'grand' (see Shak., note to 'grand-jurors,' page 127). A petty-jury consists of twelve freeholders, who are empannelled to try causes at the bar of a court. The widow. 'It is said he [the knight] keeps himself a bachelor, by reason he was crossed in love by a perverse beautiful widow of the next county to him' (Spect. 2). See also Spect. 115 and 118. So long-till looks like a mixture of two uctions; perhaps owing to the his adversary (as in a him money. ation, decision; opinion that ngs the question to a termination, or end. Was sat. Auxiliary verb 'be' used with intrans. verb 'sit.' Cf. am come,' 'was arrived,' &c. The passive form is simulated: cf. the poetic 'I sit me down,' he sat him down,' where the verb is used in the active voice reflexively. Circuit, round; the journey of judges from place to place to try causes. From Lat. circu-itus (around-going). After about an hour's sitting: a very common phrase form in Addison, neatly taking the place of a clause-' after the court had sat about an hour.' Cf. (below) 'upon his first rising,' 'upon Sir Roger's alighting,' &c. Was designed. The subject should be supplied. The gentlemen of the country, or of the Advl. force in- At the charge of it. 'It' occurs twice, The balance may sometimes be improved.-It may be considered whether this paper treats Sir Roger with genial humour or with polite ridicule. ALEXANDER POPE.-1688-1744. ALEXANDER POPE was the son of a London linen-merchant. He was for the most part privately educated, owing to his delicate health, and to his parents being Roman Catholics. Early in his teens he made up his mind to be a poet by profession. In 1716 he settled at Twickenham, where he resided all the rest of his life. Pope tells us that he 'lisped in numbers for the numbers came.' He wrote the Ode on Solitude at twelve, and the Pastorals at sixteen. Meantime he had composed and burnt a comedy, a tragedy, and an epic poem. An Essay on Criticism was written in 1709, and The Rape of the Lock in 1712. The translation of Homer's Iliad, undertaken in 1713, was completed in 1720. An edition of Shakspeare followed in 1721. Homer's Odyssey (1723-5) was divided between Pope and certain assistants, Pope translating twelve books. In 1729, The Dunciad crushed and immortalised his literary enemies. The Essay on Man, written at the suggestion of Bolingbroke, was |