propose to brace up my fibres by sea bathing, which, I know, is one of your favourite specifics. There is, however, one disease, for which you have found as yet no specific, and that is old age, of which this tedious unconnected epistle is an infallible symptom. What, therefore, cannot be cured, must be endured, by you, as well as by yours,

MATT. BRAMBLE.

HARROWGATE, JUNE 26.

TO SIR WATKIN PHILLIPS, BART.

OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXON.

Dear Knight,-The manner of living at Harrowgate was so agreeable to my disposition, that I left the place with some regret. Our aunt Tabby would have probably made some objection to our departing so soon, had not an accident embroiled her with Mr Micklewhimmen, the Scotch advocate, on whose heart she had been practising, from the second day after our arrival. That original, though seemingly precluded from the use of his limbs, had turned his genius to good account. In short, by dint of groaning and whining, he had excited the compassion of the company so effectually, that an old lady, who occupied the very best apartment in the house, gave it up for his ease and convenience. When his man led him into the long room, all the females were immediately in commotion. One set an elbow-chair; another

shook up the cushion; a third brought a stool; and a fourth a pillow, for the accommodation of his feet. Two ladies (of whom Tabby was always one) supported him into the dining-room, and placed him properly at the table; and his taste was indulged with a succession of delicacies, culled by their fair hands. All this attention he repaid with a profusion of compliments and benedictions, which were not the less agreeable for being delivered in the Scottish dialect. As for Mrs Tabitha, his respects were particularly addressed to her, and he did not fail to mingle them with religious reflections, touching free grace, knowing her bias to methodism, which he also professed upon a Calvinistical model.

For my part, I could not help thinking this lawyer was not such an invalid as he pretended to be. I observed he eat very heartily three times a-day; and though his bottle was marked stomachic tincture, he had recourse to it so often, and seemed to swallow it with such peculiar relish, that I suspected it was not compounded in the apothecary's shop, or the chemist's laboratory. One day, while he was earnest in discourse with Mrs Tabitha, and his servant had gone out on some occasion or other, I dexterously exchanged the labels and situation of his bottle and mine; and, having tasted his tincture, found it was excellent claret. I forthwith handed it about to some of my neighbours, and it was quite emptied before Mr Micklewhimmen had occasion to repeat his draught.

At length, turning about, he took hold of my bottle instead of his own, and, filling a large glass, drank to the health of Mrs Tabitha. It had scarce touched his lips, when he perceived the change which had been put upon him, and was at first a little out of countenance. He seemed to retire within himself, in order to deliberate, and in half a minute his resolution was taken; addressing himself to our quarter, "I give the gentleman credit for his wit," said he, "it was a gude practical joke; but sometimes hi joci in seria ducunt mala-I hope, for his own sake, he has na drank all the liccor; for it was a vara poorful infusion of jallap in Bourdeaux wine; and its possible he may ha ta'en sic a dose as will produce a terrible catastrophe in his ain booels."

By far the greater part of the contents had fallen to the share of a young clothier from Leeds, who had come to make a figure at Harrowgate, and was, in effect, a great coxcomb in his way. It was with a view to laugh at his fellow-guests, as well as to mortify the lawyer, that he had emptied the bottle, when it came to his turn, and he had laughed accordingly: But now his mirth gave way to his apprehension. He began to spit, to make wry faces, and writhe himself into various contortions. "Damn the stuff!" cried he, "I thought it had a villainous twang-pah! He that would cozen a Scot, mun get oop betimes, and take Old Scratch for his counsellor." "In troth, Mester what d'ye ca'um," replied the

lawyer, "your wit has run you into a filthy puddleI'm truly consarned for your waeful case-The best advice I can give you in sic a delemma, is to send an express to Rippon for Dr Waugh without delay; and, in the mean time, swallow all the oil and butter you can find in the hoose, to defend your poor stomach and intastines from the villication of the particles of the jallap, which is vara violent, even when taken in moderation."

The poor clothier's torments had already begun : He retired, roaring with pain, to his own chamber; the oil was swallowed, and the doctor sent for; but before he arrived, the miserable patient had made such discharges upwards and downwards, that nothing remained to give him farther offence: And this double evacuation was produced by imagination alone; for what he had drank was genuine wine of Bourdeaux, which the lawyer had brought from Scotland for his own private use. The clothier, finding the joke turn out so expensive and disagreeable, quitted the house next morning, leaving the triumph to Micklewhimmen, who enjoyed it internally, without any outward signs of exultation; on the contrary, he affected to pity the young man for what he had suffered, and acquired fresh credit from this show of moderation.

It was about the middle of the night which succeeded this adventure, that the vent of the kitchen chimney being foul, the soot took fire, and the alarm

was given in a dreadful manner. Every body leaped naked out of bed, and in a minute the whole house was filled with cries and confusion. There were two stairs in the house, and to these we naturally ran; but they were both so blocked up by the people pressing one upon another, that it seemed impossible to pass without throwing down and trampling upon the women. In the midst of this anarchy, Mr Micklewhimmen, with a leathern portmanteau on his back, came running as nimbly as a buck along the passage; and Tabby, in her under petticoat, endeavouring to hook him under the arm, that she might escape through his protection, he very fairly pushed her down, crying, "Na, na, gude faith, charity begins at hame!" Without paying the least respect to the shrieks and entreaties of his female friends, he charged through the midst of the crowd, overturning every thing that opposed him, and actually fought his way to the bottom of the stair-case. By this time Clinker had found a ladder, by which he entered the window of my uncle's chamber, where our family were assembled, and proposed that we should make our exit successively by that conveyance. The Squire exhorted his sister to begin the descent; but, before she could resolve, her woman, Mrs Winifred Jenkins, in a transport of terror, threw herself out at the window upon the ladder, while Humphry dropped upon the ground, that he might receive her in her descent. This maiden was just as she had started out of bed, the moon shone very