'ceipt now in England both for an hafty-pudding and a white-pot. 'If you pleafe to fall back a little, because it is "neceffary to look at the three next pictures at one 'view: These are three fifters. She on the right hand, who is fo beautiful, died a maid; the next 'to her, still handsomer, had the fame fate, against 'her will; this homely thing in the middle had 'both their portions added to her own, and was 'ftollen by a neighbouring gentleman, a man of "ftratagem and refolution, for he poifoned three 'mastiffs to come at her, and knocked down two 'deer-stealers in carrying her off. Misfortunes 'happen in all families: The theft of this romp ❝ and fo much money, was no great matter to our eftate. But the next heir that poffeffed it was 'this foft gentleman, whom you fee there: Obferve the fmall buttons, the little boots, the laces, the 'flashes about his cloths, and above all the pofture he is drawn in, (which to be fure was his own chufing:) You see he fits with one hand on a desk writing and looking as it were another way, like an eafy writer, or a fonneteer: He was one of 'thofe that had too much wit to know how to live in the world; he was a man of no justice, but great good manners; he ruined every body that had any thing to do with him, but never faid a rude thing in his life; the moft indolent perfon in the world, he would fign a deed that passed ' away half his estate with his gloves on, but would not put on his hat before a lady if it were to favė his country. He is faid to be the first that inade love by fqueezing the hand. He left the estate ' with ten thousand pounds debt upon it, but however by all hands I have been informed that he < was every way the finest gentleman in the world. That debt lay heavy on our house for one gene'ration, but it was retrieved by a gift from that ⚫ honeft man you fee there, a citizen of our name, ' but but nothing at all a-kin to us. I know Sir ANDREW FREEPORT has faid behind my back, that this man was defcended from one of the ten chil'dren of the maid of honour I fhewed you above; but it was never made out. We winked at the 'thing indeed, because money was wanting at that time.' Here I faw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned my face to the next portraiture. Sir ROGER went on with his account of the gallery in the following manner. This man (pointing to him I looked at) I take to be the honour of our houfe, Sir HUMPHREY DE COVERLEY; he was in his dealings as punctual as a tradefman, and as generous as a gentleman. He would have thought himself as much undone by breaking his word, as if it were to be followed by bankruptcy. He served his country as knight of this thire to 'his dying day. He found it no eafy matter to 'maintain an integrity in his words and actions, even in things that regarded the offices which were incumbent upon him, in the care of his own affairs and relations of life, and therefore dreaded (though he had great talents) to go into em? ployments of state, where he must be exposed to the fnares of ambition. Innocence of life and great ability were the distinguishing parts of his character; the latter, he had often obferved, had ' led to the destruction of the former, and ufed frequently to lament that great and good had not the fame fignification. He was an excellent hufbandman, but had refolved not to exceed fuch a degree of wealth; all above it he bestowed in fecret bounties many years after the fum he aimed at for his own ufe was attained. Yet he did not ❝ flacken his industry, but to a decent old age spent the life and fortune which was fuperfluous to himfelf, in the fervice of his friends and neighbours.' Here we were called to dinner, and Sir ROGER ended ended the difcourfe of this gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the fervant, that this his anceftor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped being killed in the civil wars: For, faid he, he was fent out of the field upon a private meffage, 'the day before the battle of IV'orcefter. The whim of narrowly escaping by having been within a day of danger, with other matters above-mentioned, mixed with good fenfe, left me at a loss whether I was more delighted with my friend's wisdom or fimplicity. R No. 110. FRIDAY, JULY 6. Horror ubique animos,` fimul ipfa filentia terrent. VIRG. Æn. ii. ver. 755. All things are full of horror and affright, DRYDEN. Ta little diftance from Sir ROGER'S houfe, a mong the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms; which are fhot up fo very high, that when one paffes under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the tops of them feem to be cawing in another region. I am very much delighted with this fort of noife, which I confider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who fupplies the wants of his whole creation, and who, in the beautiful language of the Pfalms, feedeth the young ravens that call upon him. I like this retirement the better, because of an ill report it lies under of being haunted; for which reafon (as I have been told in the family) no living creature ever walks in it befides the chaplain. My good friend the butler defired me with a very grave face not to venture myself in it after fun-fet, for that one of the footmen had been almost frighted out of VOL. II. L. his his wits by a spirit that appeared to him in the fhape of a black horfe without an head; to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids coming home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard fuch a ruftling among the bushes that the let it fall. I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper fcenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and down on every fide, and half-covered with ivy and elder bushes, the harbours of feveral folitary birds, which feldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a church-yard, and has ftill feveral marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is fuch an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you ftamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the found repeated. At the fame time the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens which from time to time are heard from the tops of them, looks exceeding folemn and venerable. These objects naturally raise seriousness and attention; and when night heightens the awfulness of the place, and pours out her fupernumerary horrors upon every thing in it. I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with spectres and apparitions. Mr Locke, in his chapter of the affociation of ideas, has very curious remarks to fhow how, by the prejudice of education one idea often introduces into the mind a whole fet that bear no refemblance to one another in the nature of things. Among feveral examples of this kind, he produces the following instance. The ideas of goblins and fprights have really no more to do with darkness than light: Yet let but a foolish maid inculcate thefe often on the mind of a child, and raife them there together, poffibly he shall never be able to separate them again fo long as he lives; but darkness fhall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one thun the other. As I was walking in this folitude, where the dusk of the evening confpired with fo many other occafions of terror, I observed a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that was apt to fartle might easily have conftrued into a black horfe without an head: And I dare fay the poor footman loft his wits upon fome fuch trivial occafion. My friend Sir ROGER has often told me with a good deal of mirth, that at his first coming to his eftate he found three parts of his houfe altogether ufelefs; that the best room in it had the reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up; that noises had been heard in his long gallery, fo that he could not get a fervant to enter it after eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of the chambers was nailed up, because there went a story in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had fhut up half the rooms in the house, in which either her husband, a fon, or daughter had died. The Knight feeing his habitation reduced to fo finall a compafs, and himself in a man, ner fhut out of his own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung, open, and exercifed by his chaplain, who lay in every room one after another, and by that means diffipated the fears which had fo long reigned in the family. I fhould not have been thus particular upon these ridiculous horrors, did not I find them fo very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the fame time I think a person who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres, much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all hiftorians facred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless: L 2 Could |