chaife. I have already made very creditable correxions in this here place, where, to be fure, we have the very fquintafence of fatiety-Mrs Patcher, my Lady Kilmacullock's woman, and I, are fworn fifters. She has fhewn me all her fecrets, and learned me to wash gaze, and refrash rusty filks and bumbefeens, by boiling them with winegar, chamberlye, and ftale beer. My fhort fack and apron luck as good as new from the shop, and my pumpydoor as fresh as a rose, by the help of turtle-water-But this is all Greek and Latten to you, Molly.If we should come to Aberga'nny, you'll be within a day's ride of us; and then we fhall fee wan another, please God. If not, remember me in your prayers, as I fhall do by you in mine; and take care of my kitten, and give my kind farvice to Saul; and this is all at prefent, from your beloved friend and farvent,

Bath, April 26.

WINIFRED JENKINS,

I

To Mrs GWYLLIM, houfe-keeper at Brambletonball.

AM aftonished that Dr Lewis fhould take upon him

to give away, Alderney, without my privity and concurrants. What fignifies my brother's order?-My brother is little better than noncompufh. He would give away the fhirt off his back, and the teeth out of his head; nay, as for that matter, he would have ruinated the family with his ridiculous charities, if it had not been for my four quarters.-What between his wilfulness and his waste, his trumps, and his frenzy, I lead the life of an indented flave. Alderney gave four gallons a-day ever fince the calf was fent to market. There is fo much milk out of my dairy, and the prefs muft ftand still:But I won't loofe a cheefe-paring; and the milk fhall be made good, if the farvants should go without butter. If they muft needs have butter, let them make it of fheeps milk; but then my wool will fuffer for want of grace; fo that I must be a lofer on all fides.-Well, patience is like a stout Welsh poney; it bears a great deal, and trots a great way, but it will tire at the long-run.

Before its long, perhaps I may fhew Matt, that I was not born to be the household drudge to my dying day.Gwyn rites from Crickhowel, that the price of flannel is fallen three farthings an ell; and that's another good penny out of my pocket.-When I go to market to fell, my commodity stinks; but when I want to buy the commoneft thing, the owner pricks it up under my nofe, and it can't be had for love nor money-I think every thing runs cross at Brambletonhall.-You fay the gander has broke the eggs, which is a phinumenon I don't understand; for, when the fox carried off the old goose last year, he took her place, and hatched the eggs, and partected the goflings like a tender parent.-Then you tell me the thunder has foured two barrels of bear in the feller. But how the thunder fhould get there, when the feller was double locked, I can't comprehend. Howfomever, I won't have the bear thrown out, till I fee it with mine own eyes. Perhaps it will recover-at least it will ferve for vinegar to the farvants.-You may leave off the fires in my brother's chamber and mine, as it is unfartain when we return.-I hope, Gwyllim, you'll take care there is no wafte; and have an eye to the, maids, and keep them to their spinning.-I think they may go very well without bear in hot weather-it ferves only to inflame the blood, and fet them agog after the menwater will make them fair, and keep them cool and tamperit. Don't forget to put up in the portmantle, that cums with Williams, along with my riding habit, hat, and feather, the vial of purl-water, and the tincktur for my ftomach; being as how I am much troubled with flutterencies. This is all at prefent, from

Bath, April 26.

Yours,

TABITHA BRAMBLE.

I

DEAR DICK,

To Dr LEWIS.

HAVE done with the waters; therefore your advice comes a day too late.-I grant that phyfic is no mystery of your making. I know it is a mystery in its own nature, and, like other myfteries, requires a ftrong gulp of faith to make it go down.-Two days ago, I went into the King's Bath, by the advice of our friend Ch—, in order to clear the strainer of the skin, for the benefit of a free perfpiration; and the first object that faluted my eye was a child, full of scrophulous ulcers, carried in the arms of one of the guides, under the very nofes of the bathers. I was fo fhocked at the fight, that I retired immediately with indignation and difguft-Suppose the matter of those ulcers, floating on the water, comes in contact with my fkin, when the pores are all open, I would ask you what must be the confequence?-Good Heavens, the very thought makes

my

blood run cold! We know not what fores may be running into the water while we are bathing, and what fort of matter we may thus imbibe; the king's evil, the fcurvy, the cancer, and the pox; and, no doubt, the heat will render the virus the more volatile and penetrating. To purify myself from all fuch contamination, I went to the Duke of Kingston's private bath, and there I was almost fuffocated for want of free air, the place was fo fmall, and the fteam fo ftifling.

AFTER all, if the intention is no more than to wash the skin, I am convinced that fimple element is more effectual than any water impregnated with falt and iron; which, being aftringent, will certainly contract the pores, and leave a kind of cruft upon the furface of the body. But I am now as much afraid of drinking as of bathing; for, after a long converfation with the doctor, about the construction of the pump and the ciftern, it is very far from being clear with me, that the patients in the pumproom don't fwallow the scourings of the bathers. I can't help suspecting, that there is, or may be, fome regur

gitation from the bath into the ciftern of the pump. In that cafe, what a delicate beverage is every day quaffed by the drinkers, medicated with the fweat, and dirt, and dandriff, and the abominable discharges of various kinds, from twenty different diseased bodies, parboiling in the kettle below. In order to avoid this filthy compofition, I had recourfe to the spring that fupplies the private baths on the Abbey-green; but I at once perceived fomething extraordinary in the taste and smell; and, upon enqui

ry, I find, that the Roman baths in this quarter were found covered by an old burying ground belonging to the Abbey, through which, in all probability, the water drains in its paffage; fo that, as we drink the decoction of living bodies at the pump-room, we fwallow the ftrainings of rotten bones and carcafes at the private bath I vow to God the very idea turns my stomach !—Determined, as I am, against any farther use of the Bath waters, this confideration would give me little difturbance, if I could find any thing more pure, or lefs pernicious, to quench my thirft; but, although the natural fprings of excellent water are feen gufhing fpontaneous on every fide from the hills that furround us, the inhabitants in general make ufe of well-water, fo impregnated with nitre, or alum, or fome other villainous mineral, that it is equally ungrateful to the tafte, and mifchievous to the conftitution. It must be owned, indeed, that here, in Milfham-ftreet, we have a precarious and fcanty fupply from the hill, which is collected in an open bafon in the Circus, liable to be defiled with dead dogs, cats, rats, and every fpecies of naftinefs, which the rafcally populace may throw into it from mere wantonnefs and brutality.

WELL, there is no nation that drinks fo hoggishly as the English. What paffes for wine among us is not the juice of the grape. It is an adulterous mixture, brewed up of naufeous ingredients, by dunces, who are bunglers in the art of poifon-making; yet we, and our forefathers, are, and have been, poifoned by this curfed drench, with out taste or flavour. The only genuine and wholesome beverage in England is London porter, and Dorchester table-beer; but as for your ale and your gin, your cyder and your perry, and all the trashy family of made VOL. VI.

G.

wines, I deteft them as infernal compofitions, contrived for the deftruction of the human fpecies.-But what have I to do with the human fpecies ? except a very few friends, I care not if the whole was

HARK ye, Lewis, my mifanthropy increases every day. -The longer I live, I find the folly and the fraud of mankind grow more and more intolerable.-I with I had not come from Brambletonhall: After having lived in folitude fo long, I cannot bear the hurry and impertinence of the multitude; befides, every thing is fophifticated in these crouded places. Snares are laid for our lives in every thing we eat or drink; the very air we breathe is loaded with contagion. We cannot even fleep, without risk of infection. I fay infection-This place is the rendezvous of the difeafed-You won't deny that many diseases are infectious; even the consumption itself is highly infectious. When a perfon dies of it in Italy, the bed and bedding are destroyed; the other furniture is expofed to the weather, and the apartment white wafhed, before it is occupied by any other living foul. You'll allow, that nothing receives infection fooner, or retains it longer, than blankets, feather-beds, and mattreffes-'Sdeath! how do I know what miferable objects have been stewing in the bed where I now lie!-I wonder, Dick, you did not put me in mind of fending for my own mattreffes-But, if I had not been an ass, I fhould not have needed a remembrancer.There is always fome plaguy reflection that rifes up in judgment against me, and ruffles my fpirits therefore, let us change the fubject

I HAVE other reafons for abridging my stay at Bath. -You know fifter Tabby's complexion-If Mrs Tabitha Bramble had been of any other race, I fhould certainly have looked upon her as the most- -But, the truth is,

the has found means to intereft my affection; or rather, fhe is beholden to the force of prejudice, commonly called the ties of blood. Well, this amiable maiden has actually commenced a flirting correfpondence with an Irish baronet of fixty-five. His name is Sir Ulic Mackilligut. He is faid to be much out at elbows; and, I believe, has received falfe intelligence with refpect to her fortune. Be that as it may, the connection is exceeding