dow abated, and old age came on, he left off fox-hunting; but a hare is not vet fafe that fits within ten miles of his houfe.

There is no kind of exercise which I would fo recommend to my readers of both fexes as this of riding, as there is none which fo much conduces to health, and is every way accommodated to the body, according to the idea which I have given of it. Doctor Sydenham is very lavish in it's praifes; and if the English reader will fee the mechanical effects of it defcribed at length, he may find them in a book published not many years fince, under the title of Medicina Gymnaftica. For my own part, when I am in town, for want of thefe opportunities, I exercife myself an hour every morning upon a dumb bell that is placed in a corner of my room, and pleafes me the more because it does every thing I require of it in the most profound filence. My landlady and her daughters are fo well acquainted with my hours of exercise, that they never come into my room to disturb me whilft I am ringing.

TH

When I was fome years younger than I am at prefent, I ufed to employ myfelf in a more laborious diverfion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exer cifes, that is written with great erudition: it is there called the squaxía, or the fighting with a man's own shadow, and confifts in the brandishing of two fhort fticks grafped in each hand, and loaden with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the cheft, exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing without the blows. I could with that feveral learned men would lay out that time which they employ in controverfies and difputes about nothing, in this method of fighting with their own fhadows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the fpleen, which makes them uneafy to the public as well as to themselves.

To conclude, as I am a compound of foul and body, I confider myself as ob liged to a double fcheme of duties; and think I have not fulfilled the business of the day when I do not thus employ the one in labour and exercife, as well as the other in ftudy and contemplation.

VIRG. GEORG. III. V. 43.

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youth gone through the whole courfe of thofe rural diverfions which the country abounds in; and which feem to be extremely well fuited to that laborious industry a man may obferve here in a far greater degree than in towns and cities. I have before hinted at fome of my friend's exploits: he has in his youthful days taken forty coveys of partridges in a feafon; and tired many a falmon with a line confifting but of a fingle hair. The conftant thanks and good wishes of the neighbourhood always attended him, on account of his remarkable enmity towards foxes; having deftroyed more of thofe vermin in one year, than it was thought the whole country could have produced. Indeed the knight does not fcruple to own among his molt intimate friends, that in order to establish his reputation this way, he has fecretly fent for great numbers of them out of other counties, which he

2 F2

afed

eaufe the old dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, now headed the pack. The fellow was in the right. Our hare took a large field juft under us, followed by the full cry in view. I must confefs the brightness of the weather, the chearfulness of every thing around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a double echo from two neighbouring hills, with the hollowing of the fportfman, and the founding of the horn, lifted my fpirits into a molt lively pleasure, which I freely indulged, becaufe I was fure it was innocent. If I was under any concern, it was on the account of the poor hare, that was now quite fpent, and almost within the reach of her enemies; when the huntsman get ting forward, threw down his pole before the dogs. They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been pursuing for almost as many hours; yet on the fignal before-mentioned they all made a fudden stand, and though they continued opening as much as before, durft not once attempt to pafs beyond the pole. At the fame time Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting, took up the hare in his arms; which he foon delivered up to one of his fervants, with an order, if she could be kept alive, to let her go in his great orchard; where it feems he has feveral of these prifoners of war, who live together in a very comfortable captivity. I was highly pleafed to fee the difcipline of the pack, and the good-nature of the knight, who could not find in his heart to murder a crea

ture that had given him fo much diverlion,

As we were returning home, I remembered that Monfieur Pafchal, in his moft excellent difcourfe on the Mifery of Man, tells us, that all our ' endeavours after greatness, proceed 'from nothing but a defire of being furrounded by a multitude of perfons and affairs that may hinder us from looking into ourselves, which is a view we cannot bear.' He afterwards goes on to shew that our love of sports comes

from the same reason, and is particularly fevere upon Hunting. What,' says he, unless it be to drown thought, can make them throw away fo much time and pains upon a filly animal, which they might buy cheaper in the market?' The foregoing reflection is certainly juft, when a man fuffers his whole mind to be drawn into his fports, and altogether lofes himself in the woods but does not affect those who propofe a far more laudable end for this exercife, I mean the prefervation of health, and keeping all the organs of the foul in a condition to execute her orders. Had that incomparable person, whom I laft quoted, been a little more indulgent to himself in this point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much longer; whereas through too great an application to his ftudies in his youth, he contracted that ill habit of body, which, after a tedious fickness, carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole history we have of his life until that time, is but one continued account of the behaviour of a noble soul struggling under innumerable pains and diftempers.

For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my ftay with Sir Roger; and fhall prefcribe the moderate ufe of this exercife to all my country friends, as the best kind of phyfic for mending a bad conftitution, and preferving a good one.

I cannot do this better than in the following lines out of Mr. Dryden.

The first physicians by debauch were made; Excefs began, and floth fuftains the trade. By chace our long liv'd fathers earn'd their

food;

THE

VIRG. ECL. VIII. v. 108.

drefs and figure put me in mind of the following defcription of Otway.

In a clofe lane as I purfu'd my journey, Ify'da wrinkled hag, with age grown double, Picking dry flicks, and mumbling to herself. Her eyes with fcalding rheum were gall'd and red;

wither'd;

It is with this temper of mind that I confider the fubject of witchcraft. When 1 hear the relations that are made from all parts of the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the Eaft and West Indies, but from every particular nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there is fuch an intercourfe and commerce with evil spirits, as that which we exprefs by the name of witchcraft. But when I confider that the ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound moft in thefe relations, and that the perfons among us, who are fuppofed to engage in fuch an infernal commerce, are people of a weak underftanding and crazed imagination, and at the fame time reflect upon the many impottures and delufions of this nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavour to fufpend my belief until I hear more certain accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge. In short, when I confider the queftion, whether there are fuch perfons in the world as thofe we call witches, my mind is divided between the two oppofite opinions; or rather, to speak my thoughts freely, I believe in general that there is, and has been fuch a thing as witchcraft; but at the fame time can give no credit to any particular inftance of it.

I am engaged in this fpeculation, by fome occurrences that I met with yefterday, which I fhall give my reader an account of at large. As I was walking with my friend Sir Roger by the fide of one of his woods, an old woman applied herself to me for my charity. Her

And on her crooked shoulders had the wrapp'd The tatter'd remnants of an old ftrip'd hang

As I was mufing on this defcription, and comparing it with the object before me, the knight told me, that this very old woman had the reputation of a witch all over the country, that her lips were obferved to be always in motion, and that there was not a fwitch about her houfe which her neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of miles. If the chanced to ftumble, they always found fticks or straws that lay in the figure of a crofs before her. If the made any mistake at church, and cried Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that he was faying her prayers backwards. There was not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though the should offer a bag of money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the country ring with feveral imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her butter come so foon as she should have it, Moll White is at the bottom of the churn. If a horfe fweats in the ftable, Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected efcape from the hounds, the huntsman curfes Moll White. Nay,' fays Sir Roger, I have known the mafter of the pack upon fuch an occafion, send

one

one of his fervants to fee if Moll White had been out that morning." This account raifed my curiofity fo far, that I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which flood in a folitary corner under the fide of the wood. Upon our first entering Sir Roger winked to me, and pointed at fomething that stood behind the door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old broomstaff. At the fame time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby cat that fat in the chimney-corner, which, as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White herfelf; for befides that Moll is faid often to accompany her in the fame fhape, the cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity of an ordinary cat.

I was fecretly concerned to fee human nature in fo much wretchedness and difgrace, but at the fame time could not forbear fmiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a juftice of peace to avoid all communication with the devil, and never to hurt any of her neighbour's cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very acceptable.

In our return home Sir Roger told me, that old Moll had been often brought before him for making children fpit pins,

TH

and giving maids the night-mare; and: that the country people would be toffing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his chaplain.

I have fince found upon enquiry, that Sir Roger was feveral times ftaggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county-fellions, had not his chaplain with much adó perfuaded him to the contrary.

I have been the more particular in this account, because I hear there is fcarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to a parifh, he is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole country with extravagant fancies, imaginary diftempers, and terrifying dreams. In the mean time, the poor wretch that is the innocent occafion of fo many evils begins to be frighted at herself, and, fometimes confeffes fecret commerce and familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This frequently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compaffion, and infpires people with a malevolence towards thofe poor decrepid parts of our fpecies, in whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage.

HIS agreeable feat is furrounded with fo many pleafing walks, which are truck out of a wood, in the midft of which the house ftands, that one can hardly ever be weary of rambling from one labyrinth of delight to another. To one ufed to live in a city the charms of the country are fo exquifite, that the mind is loft in a certain tranfport which raites us above ordinary life, and is yet not trong enough to be inconfiftent with tranquillity. This ftate of mind was I in, ravished with the murmur of waters, the whifper of breezes, the finging of birds; and whether I looked up to the

DRYDEN.

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