SIR, MR. ΤΟ METHUEN. T is with very great pleafure I take an opportunity of publishing the gratitude I owe to you, for the place you allow me in your friendship and familiarity. I will not acknowledge to you that I have often had you in my thoughts, when I have endeavoured to draw, in fome parts of thefe difcourfes, the character of a good-natured, honeft, and accomplished gentleman. But fuch reprefentations give my reader an idea of a perfon blameless only, or only laudable for fuch perfections as extend no farther than to his own private advantage and reputation. But when I fpeak of you, I celebrate one who has had the happiness of poffeffing alfo thofe qualities which make a man ufeful to fociety, and of having had opportunities of exerting them in the most confpicuous manner. The great part you had, as British ambaffador, in procuring and cultivating the advantageous commerce between the courts of England and Portugal, has purchafed you the lafting efteem of all who underftand the intereft of either nation. Thofe perfonal excellencies which are over-rated by the ordinary world, and too much neglected by wife men, you have applied with the jufteft fkill and judgment. The most graceful addrefs in horfemanship, in the ufe of the fword, and in dancing, has been employed by you as lower arts, and as they have occafionally ferved to cover, or introduce the talents of a fkilful minifter. But your abilities have not appeared only in one nation. When it was your province to act as her Majefty's minifter at the court of Savoy, at that time encamped, you accompanied that gallant prince through all the viciffitudes of his fortune, and fhared, by his fide, the dangers of that glorious day in which he recovered his capital. As far as it regards perfonal qualities, you attained, in that one hour, the highest military reputation. The behaviour of our minifter in the action, and the good offices done the vanquished in the name of the Queen of England, gave both the conqueror and the captive the most lively examples of the courage and generofity of the nation he repre fented. Your friends and companions in your abfence frequently talk thefe things of you, and you cannot hide from us, (by the most difcreet filence in any thing which regards yourself) that the frank entertainment we have at your table, your eafy condefcenfion in little incidents of mirth and diverfion, and general complacency of manners, are far from being the greatest obligations we have to you. I do affure you there is not one of your friends has a greater fenfe of your merit in general, and of the favours you every day do us, than, SIR, Your most obedient, And most humble fervant, RICHARD STEELE. THE SPECTAT O R. VOLUME THE SEVENT H. N° CCCCLXXIV. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1712. ASPERITAS AGRESTIS ET INCONCINNA HOR. EP. XVIII. L. 1. VER.6. A CLOWNISH ROUGHNESS, AND UNKINDLY CLOSE, MR. SPECTATOR, BEL OEING of the number of thofe that have lately retired from the centre of bufinefs and pleasure, my uneafinefs in the country where I am, arifes rather from the fociety than the folitude of it. To be obliged to receive and return vifits from and to a circle of neighbours, who through diverfity of age or inclinations can neither be entertaining or ferviceable to us, is a vile lofs of time, and a flavery from which a man should deliver himself, if poffible: for why muft I love the remaining part of my life, becaufe they have thrown away the former part of theirs? It is to me an infupport able affliction, to be tormented with the rarrations of a fet of people, who are warm in their expreffions of the quick relith of that pleasure which their dogs and horfes have a more delicate tafte of. I do alfo in my heart deteft and abhor that damnable doctrine and position of the neceffity of a bumper, though to Cne's own toaft; for though it is pretended that these deep potations are used only to infpire gaiety, they certainly drown that chearfulness which would furvive a moderate circulation. If at thefe meetings it were left to every tranger either to fill his glass according to his own inclination, or to make his retreat when he finds he has been in fficiently obedient to that of others, CREECH. thefe entertainments would be governed with more good fenfe, and confequently with more good-breeding, than at prefent they are. Indeed where any of the guests are known to measure their fame or pleasure, by their glafs, proper exhortations might be ufed to thefe to pufh their fortunes in this fort of reputation; but where it is unfeasonably infifted on to a modeft ftranger, this drench may be faid to be swallowed with the fame neceffity, as if it had been tendered in the horn for that purpose, with this aggravating circumftance, that it diftreffes the entertainer's guest in the fame degree as it relieves his horfes. To attend without impatience an account of five-barred gates, double ditches, and precipices, and to furvey the orator with defiring eyes, is to me extremely difficult, but abfolutely neceffary, to be upon tolerable terms with him: but then the occafional bursting. out into laughter, is of all other accomplishments the most requifite. I confefs at prefent I have not the command of these convulfions, as is necessary to be good company; therefore I beg you would publish this letter, and let me be known all at once for a queer fellow, and avoided. It is monftrous to me, that we who are given to reading and calm converfation fhould ever be vifited by thefe roarers: but they think they themselves, them felves, as neighbours, may come into our rooms with the fame right, that they and their dogs hunt in our grounds. Your inftitution of clubs I have always admired, in which you conftantly endeavoured the union of the metaphorically defunct, that is, fuch as are neither ferviceable to the bufy and enterprising part of mankind, nor entertaining to the retired and fpeculative. There fhould certainly therefore in each county be established a club of the perions whole converfations I have defcribed, who for their own private, as alfo the public emolument, fhould exclude, and be excluded all other fociety. Their attire fhould be the fame with their huntfmen's, and none fhould be admitted into this green converfation-piece, except he had broke his collar-bone thrice. A broken rib or two might alfo admit a man without the leaft oppofition. The prefident must neceffarily have broken his neck, and have been taken up dead once or twice; for the more maims this brotherhood thali have met with, the enfier will their converfation flow and keep up; and when any one of thefe vigorous invalids had finifhed his murration of the collar-bone, this naturally would introduce the hiftory of the ribs. Beides, the different circumstances of their tails and fractures would help to prolong and diverfify their relations. There should alfo be another club of fuch men, who have not fucceeded fo well in maiming themfelves, but are how ever in the conftant purfuit of thefe accomplishments. I would by no means be fufpected by what I have faid to traduce in general the body of fox hunters; for whilit I look upon a reasonable creature full fpeed after a pack of dogs, by way of pleasure and not of bufiefs, I fhall always make honourable mention of it. But the moft irkfoine converfation of all others I have met with in the neighbourhood, has been among two or three of your travellers, who have overlooked men and manners, and have paffed through France and Italy with the fame obfervation that the carriers and stagecoachmen do through Great Britain; that is, their ftops and tages have been regulated according to the liquor ty have met with in their paffage. They indeed remember the names of abundance of places, with the particular fine ries of certain churches: but their dif tinguishing mark is certain prettineffes of foreign languages, the meaning of which they could have better expreffed in their own. The entertainment of these fine obfervers, Shakespeare has described to confift In talking of the Alps and Apennines, The Pyrenean, and the river Po: and then concludes with a sigh, Now this is worshipful fociety! I would not be thought in all this to hate fuch honeft creatures as dogs; I am only unhappy that I cannot partake in their diverfions. But I love them fo well, as dogs, that I often go with my pockets ftuffed with bread to difpenfe my favours, or make my way through them at neighbours houfes. There is in particular a young hound of great expectation, vivacity, and enterprize, that attends my flights wherever he fpies me. This creature obferves my countenance, and behaves himtelf accordingly. His mirth, his frolic, and joy upon the fight of me, has been obferved, and I have been gravely defired not to encourage him fo much, for it fpoils his parts; but I think he fhews them fufficiently in the feveral boundings, frifkings, and scourings, when he makes his court to me: but I forefee in a little time he and I mult keep company with one another only, for we are fit for no other in these parts. Having informed you how I do pafs my time in the country where I am, 1 muft proceed to tell you how I would país it, had I fuch a fortune as would put me above the obfervance of ceremony and cultom. My fcheme of a country life then fhould be as follows. As I am happy in three or four very agreeable friends, thele I would conftantly have with me; and the freedom we took with one ano. ther at fchool and the univerfity, we would maintain and exert upon all occafions with great courage. There should be certain hours of the day to be employed in reading, during which time it fhould be impoffible for any one of us to enter the other's chamber, unless by ftorm. After this we would communicate the trash or treasure we had met with, with our own reflections upon the matter; the juftnefs of which we would controvert with good-humoured warmth, and never fpare one another out of that complaifant complaifant spirit of conversation, which makes others affirm and deny the fame matter in a quarter of an hour, If any of the neighbouring gentlemen, not of our turn, thould take it in their heads to vifit me, I should look upon these perfons in the fame degree enemies to my particular state of happiness, as ever the French were to that of the public, and I would be at an annual expence in fpies to obferve their motions. Whenever I fhould be furprised with a vifit, as I hate drinking, I would be brifk in fwilling bumpers, upon this maxim, that it is better to trouble others with my impertinence, than to be troubled myself with. theirs. The neceffity of an infirmary makes me refolve to fall into that project; and as we should be but five, the terrors of an involuntary feparation, which our number cannot fo well admit of, would make us exert ourselves, in oppofition to all the particulars mentioned in your inftitution of that equitable confinement. This my way of life I know would subject me to the imputation of a morofe, covetous, and fingular fellow. Thefe and all other hard words, with all manner of infipid jefts, and all other reproach, would be matter of mirth to me and my friends: befides, I would deftroy the application of the epithets Morofe and Covetous, by a yearly relief of my undefervedly neceffitous neighbours, and by treating my friends and domeftics with an humanity that should exprefs the obligation to lie rather on my fide; and as for the word Singular, I was always of opinion every man muft be fo, to be what one would defire him. Your very humble fervant, MR. SPECTATOR, J. R. BOUT two years ago, I was callA ed upon by the younger part of a country family, by my mother's fide related to me, to vifit Mr. Campbell, the dumb man, for they told me that that was chiefly what brought them to town, having heard wonders of him in Effex. I, who always wanted faith in matters of that kind, was not eafily prevailed on to go; but left they should take it ill, I went with them; when to my furprize, Mr. Campbell related all their past life; in fhort, had he not been prevented, fuch a difcovery would have come out, as would have ruined the next defign of their coming to town, Our viz. buying wedding cloaths. names-though he never heard of us before-and we endeavoured to conceal -were as familiar to him as to ourselves. To be fure, Mr. Spectator, he is a very learned and wife man. Being impatient to know my fortune, having paid my respects in a family-Jacobus, he told me, after his manner, among feveral other things, that in a year and nine months I hould fall ill of a fever, be given over by my phyficians, but should with much difficulty recover; that the first time I took the air afterwards, I should be addreffed to by a young gentleman of a plentiful fortune, good fenfe, and a generous fpirit. Mr. Spectator, he is the pureft man in the world, for all he faid is come to pafs, and I am the happieft fhe in Kent. I have been in quest of Mr. Campbell these three months, and cannot find him out. Now hearing you are a dumb man too, I thought you might correfpond, and be able to tell me fomething; for I think myself highly obliged to make his fortune, as he has mine. It is very poffible your worship, who has fpies all over this town, can inform me how to fend to him: if you can, I beseech you be as fpeedy as poffible, and you will highly oblige your conftant reader and admirer, DULCIBELLA THANKLEY. |