the fight of Pont Neuf, looked upon every one that lived out of Paris as a foreigner; and though the utmost extent of his travels was not three miles, he was as much furprised, as he would have been to meet with a colony of Frenchmen on the Terra Incognita.

In your late paper on the amufements of Sunday, you have fet forth in what manner our citizens pafs that day, which most of them devote to the country; but I with you had been more particular in your defcriptions of thofe elegant rural manfions which at once fhew the opulence and the taste of our principal merchants, mechanics, and artificers.

German; and that the frogs in the dykes of | himself. He, who had spent all his life within Holland croak as intelligibly as the natives jabber their Low-Dutch. However this may be, we may confider those whofe tongues hardly feem to be under the influence of reafon, and do not keep up the proper converfation of human creatures, as imitating the language of different animals. Thus, for instance, the affinity between chatterers and monkeys, and praters and parrots, is too obvious not to occur at once: Grunters and growlers may be justly compared to hogs Snarlers are curs, that continually fhew their teeth, but never bite; and the fpitfire paffionate are a fort of wild cats, that will not bear ftroking, but will pur when they are pleafed. Complainers are screech-owls; and ftory-tellers, always repeating the fame dull note, are cuckoos. Poets that prick up their ears at their own hideous braying, are no better than affes: Critics in general are venemous ferpents that delight in hiffing; and fome of them, who have got by heart a few technical terms, without knowing their meaning, are no other than magpies.

Connoiffeur.

31. A Citizen's Country Houfe defcribed. Sir,

I remember to have feen a little French novel, giving an account of a citizen of Paris making an excurfion into the country. He imagines himself about to undertake a long voyage to fome ftrange region, where the natives were as different from the inhabitants of his own city as the moft diftant nations. He accordingly takes boat, and is landed at a village about a league from the capital. When he is fet on fhore, he is amazed to fee the people fpeak the fame language, wear the famy drefs, and ufe the fame cuftons with

I went laft Sunday, in compliance with a moft preffing invitation from a friend, to fpend the whole day with him at one of these little feats, which he had fitted out for his retirement once a week from business. It is pleafantly fituated about three miles from London, on the fide of a public road, from which it is feparated by a dry ditch, over which is a little bridge, confifting of two narrow planks, leading to the house. From the lower part of the house there is no profpect; but from the garrets, indeed, one may fee two men hanging in chains on Kennington-common, with a diftant view of St. Paul's cupola, enveloped in a cloud of fimoke. I fet out in the morning with my friend's bookkeeper, who was my guide. When I came to the houfe, I found my friend in a black velvet cap, fitting at the door fmoking: he welcomed me into the country; and after having made me obferve the turnpike on my left, and the Golden Sheaf on my right, he conducted me into his houfe, where I was received by his lady, who made a thousand apologies for being catched in fuch a difhabille. The hall (for fo I was taught to call it)

had

concluded with a hint that I might retire to it upon occafion.

As the riches of a country are visible in the number of its inhabitants, and the elegance. of their dwellings, we may venture to say that the prefent ftate of England is very flourishing and profperous; and if our tatte for building encreases with our opulence, for the next century, we shall be able to boast of finer countryfeats belonging to our ihopkeepers, artificers, and other plebeians, than the most pompous defcriptions of Italy or Greece have ever recorded. We read, it is true, of country-feats belonging to Pliny, Hortenfius, Lucullus, and other Romans. They were Patricians of great rank and fortune: there can, therefore,

had its white wall almost hid by a curious collection of prints and paintings. On one file was a large map of London, a plan and elevation of the Manfion-Houfe, with feveral laffer views of the public buildings and halls on the other, was the Death of the Stag, finely coloured by Mr. Overton: clofe by the parlour-door there hung a pair of ftag's horns; over which there was laid across a red roccelo, and an amber-headed cane. Over the chimney-piece was my friend's picture, who was drawn bolt upright in a full-bottomed periwig, a laced cravat with the fringed ends appearing through a button-hole, a inuff-coloured velvet coat with goid buttons, a red velvet waistcoat trimmed with gold, one hand fuck in the bofen of his fhirt, and the other hold-be no doubt of the excellence of their villas. ing out a letter with this fuperscription: "To Mr., Common-council-man of Farringdon-ward without." My eyes were then directed to another figure in a fcarlet gown, who, I was informed, was my friend's wife's great great uncle, and had been theriff and knighted in the reign of king James the Fir. Madam herself filled up a pannel on the oppofite fide, in the habit of a thepherdefs, fmelling to a nofegay, and firoking a ram with gilt horns.

I was then invited by my friend to fee what he has pleafed to call his garden, which was nothing more than a yard about thirty feet in length, and contained about a dozen little pots ranged on each fide with lilies and coxcombs, fupported by fome old laths painted green, with bowls of tobacco-pipes on their tops. At the end of this garden he bade me take notice of a little fquare building furrounded with filleroy, which, he told me, an alderman of great talte had turned into a temple, by erecting fome battlements and fpires of painted wood on the front of it; but

But who has ever read of a Chinese-bridge belonging to an Attic tallow-chandler, or 1 Roman paftry-cook? Or could any of their thoc-makers or taylors boast a villa with his tin cafcades, paper ftatues, and Gothic roothoufes? Upon the above principles, we may expect, that pofterity will perhaps fee a chcefemonger's apiarium at Brentford, a poulterer's theriotrophium at Chifwick, and an ornithon in a fishmonger's garden at Putney.

Connoiffeur.

32. The Truo Bees.

On a fine morning in May, two bees fet forward in queft of honey; the one wife and temperate, the other carelefs and extravagant. They foon arrived at a garden enriched with aromatic herbs, the most fragrant flowers, and the most delicious fruits. They regaled themselves for a time on the various dainties that were spread before them: the one loading his thigh at intervals with provifions for the hive against the distant winter; the other revelling in fweets without regard to any thing

but

temper, and fo extremely apt to think himself he began to speak without thinking; at preaffronted, that it was reckoned dangerous fent never fays a good thing, and is a very even to look at him. I tweaked him by the agreeable companion. nofe, and administered the proper application behind; and he is now fo good humoured, that he will take the groffeft affront imaginable without thewing the leaft refent

ment.

. The reverend Mr. Puff, a methodist preacher, was fo extravagantly zealous and laborious in his calling, that his friends were afraid he would bawl himself into a confumption. By my intereft with a noble lord, I procured him a living with a reasonable income; and he now behaves himself like a regular divine of the established church, and never gets into a pulpit.

Mrs. Diana Bridle, a maiden lady, about forty years of age, had a conceit that the was with child. I advifed her to convert her imaginary pregnancy into a real one, by taking a huband; and the has never been troubled with any fancies of that kind fince.

Mr. William Moody, an elderly gentleman, who lived in a folitary part of Kent, was apt to be very low fpirited in an easterly wind. I nailed his weather-cock to a wefterly point; and, at prefent, whichfoever way the wind blows, he is equally cheerful.

I likewife cured a lady of a longing for ortolans, by a dozen of Dunstable larks; and could fend you many other remarkable inftances of the efficacy of my prescriptions; but thefe are fufficient for a fpecimen. 1 am, &c.

Bonnel Thornton.

$37. Character of a Choice Spirit. Sir,

That a tradefman has no business with humour, unlets perhaps in the way of his dealing; or with writing, unless in his shop-book, is a truth, which I believe no body will dispute with me. I am fo unfortunate however as to have a nephew, who, not contented with being a grocer, is in danger of abfolute ruin by his ambition of being a wit; and having forfaken his counter for Comus's court, and dignified himfelf with the appellation of a Choice Spirit, is upon the point of becoming a bankrupt. Instead of diftributing his fhop-bills as he ought, he waftes a dozen in a morning, by fcribbling threds of his nonfenfe upon the back of them; and a few days fince affronted Alexander Stingo, Efq. was fo ftrongly an alderman, his best customer, by fending poffeffed by the fpirit of witticifm, that he him a pound of prunes wrapt up in a ballad would not condefcend to open his lips for any he had juft written, called, The Citizen outthing less than an epigram. Under the in-witted, or a Lob for the Manfion-Houfe. fluence of this malady he has been fo deplorably dull, that he has often been filent a whole week together. I took him into my own houfe: inftead of laughing at his jefts, I either pronounced them to be puns, or paid no attention to them at all. In a month I perceived a wonderful alteration in him for the better; from thinking without speaking,

He is likewife a regular frequenter of the playhoufes, and being acquainted with every underling of each theatre, is at an annual expence of ten pounds in tickets for their refpective benefits. They generally adjourn together from the play to the tavern; and there is hardly a watchinan, within a mile of Covent-garden, but has had his head or his

lantern