Boar's

for a retreat to tories. Some years ago it was At the in high vogue, but at present it seems declining. Head This only may be remarked, in general, that whenever taverns flourish most, the times are then most extravagant and luxurious.”.

"Lord! Mrs Quickly!" interrupted I, "you have really deceived me; I expected a romance, and here you have been this half hour giving me only a description of the spirit of the times if you have nothing but tedious remarks to communicate, seek some other A hearer; I am determined to hearken only to stories."

I had scarce concluded, when my eyes and ears seemed opened to my landlord, who had been all this while giving me an account of the repairs he had made in the house, and was now got into the story of the cracked glass in the dining-room.

ar bod

A I AM fond of amusement, in whatever com→ Strolling pany it is to be found; and wit, though Player dressed in rags, is ever pleasing to me. I went

some days ago to take a walk in St James's Park, about the hour in which company leave it to go to dinner. There were but few in the walks, and those who stayed seemed, by their looks, rather more willing to forget that they had an appetite, than gain one. I sat down on one of the benches, at the other end of which was seated a man in very shabby clothes.

We continued to groan, to hem, and to cough, as usual upon such occasions; and at last ventured upon conversation. "I beg pardon, Sir," cried I, "but I think I have seen you before; your face is familiar to me."

"Yes, Sir," replied he, "I have a good familiar face, as my friends tell me. I am as well known in every town in England, as the dromedary or live crocodile. You must understand, Sir, that I have been these sixteen years Merry Andrew to a puppet-show: last Bartholomew Fair my master and I quarrelled,

beat each other, and parted; he to sell his A puppets to the pincushion-makers in Rosemary Strolling Lane, and I to starve in St James's Park." Player "I am sorry, Sir, that a person of your appearance should labour under any difficulties." "Oh, Sir," returned he, "my appearance is very much at your service; but, though I cannot boasts of eating much, yet there are few that are merrier: if I had twenty thousand ayear I should be very merry; and, thank the fates! though not worth a groat, I am very merry still. If I have threepence in my pocket, I never refuse to be my three-halfpence; and if I have no money, I never scorn to be treated by any that are kind enough to pay my reckoning. What think you, Sir, of a steak and a tankard? You shall treat me now; and I will treat you again, when I find you in the Park in love with eating, and without money to pay for a dinner.'

L

As I never refuse a small expense for the sake of a merry companion, we instantly adjourned to a neighbouring alehouse, and in a few moments had a frothing tankard and a smoking steak spread on the table before us. It is impossible to express how much the sight of such good cheer improved my companion's vivacity. "I like this dinner, Sir," says he, "for three reasons: first, because I am naturally fond of beef; secondly, because I am hungry; and, thirdly and lastly, because I get it for nothing no meat eats so sweet as that for which we do not pay.".

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A He therefore now fell-to, and his appetite Strolling seemed to correspond with his inclination. Player After dinner was over, he observed that the

steak was tough: "and yet, Sir," returns he, "bad as it was, it seemed a rump-steak to me. O, the delights of poverty and a good appetite! We beggars are the very fondlings of Nature; the rich she treats like an arrant step-mother; they are pleased with nothing cut a steak from what part, you will, and it is insupportably tough; dress it up with pickles,—even pickles cannot procure them an appetite. But the whole creation is filled with good things for the beggar; Calvert's butt out-tastes Champagne, and Sedgeley's home-brewed excels Tokay, Joy, joy, my blood! though our estates lie nowhere, we have fortunes wherever we go. If an inundation sweeps away half the grounds of Cornwall, I am content-I have no lands there; if the stocks sink, that gives me no uneasiness I am no Jew." The fellow's vivacity, joined to his poverty, I own, raised my curiosity to know something of his life and circumstances; and I entreated that he would indulge my desire. "That I will, Sir," said he, "and welcome; only let us drink to prevent our sleeping: let us have another tankard while we are awake let us have another tankard; for ah, how charming a tankard looks when full!

1

"You must know, then, that I am very well descended: my ancestors have made some noise in the world; for my mother cried oysters, and

my father beat a drum: I am told we have A even had some trumpeters in our family. Many Strolling a nobleman cannot show so respectful a gene- Player alogy; but that is neither here nor there. As I was their only child, my father designed to breed me up to his own employment, which was that of drummer to a puppet-show. Thus the whole employment of my younger years was that of interpreter to Punch and King Solomon in all his glory. But though my father was very fond of instructing me in beating all the marches and points of war, I made no very great progress, because I naturally had no ear for music; so at the age of fifteen, I went and listed for a soldier. As I had ever hated beating a drum, so I soon found that I disliked carrying a musket also; neither the one trade nor the other were to my taste, for I was by nature fond of being a gentleman: besides, I was obliged to obey my captain: he has his will, I have mine, and you have yours; now I very reasonably concluded, that it was much more comfortable for a man to obey his own will than another's.

"The life of a soldier soon, therefore, gave me the spleen. I asked leave to quit the ser vice; but as I was tall and strong, my captain' thanked me for my kind intention, and said, because he had a regard for me, we should not part. I wrote to my father a very dismal peni~ tent letter, and desired that he would raise money to pay for my discharge; but the good man was! as fond of drinking as I was (Sir, my service to you), and those who are fond of drinking never