saucy; upon which I ratified the knight's commands with a peremptory look."

We now conclude this series of papers. The account of the death of Sır Roger is in Addison's best style. It is said that he killed his good knight to prevent others misrepresenting his actions and character. It certainly was not easy to preserve the true balance between our amusement at the eccentricities of his hero and our love for his goodness, as Addison alone has preserved it: Steele vulgarised Sir Roger.

"We last night received a piece of ill news at our club, which very sensibly afflicted every one of us. I question not but my readers themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it. To keep them no longer in suspense, Sir Roger de Coverley is dead! He departed this life at his house in the country, after a few weeks' sickness. Sir Andrew Freeport has a letter from one of his cor. respondents in those parts, that informs him that the old man caught a cold at the county sessions, as he was very warmly promoting an address of his own penning, in which he succeeded according to his wishes. But this particular comes from a Whig justice of peace, who was always Sir Roger's enemy and antago nist. I have letters both from the chaplain and Captain Sentry which mention nothing of it, but are filled with many particulars to the honour of the good old man. I have likewise a letter from the butler, who took so much care of me last summer when I was at the knight's house. As my friend the butler mentions, in the simplicity of his heart, several circumstances the others have passed over in silence, I shall give my readers a copy of his letter, without any alteration or diminution,

"HONOURED SIR,-Knowing that you was my old master's good friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death, which has afflicted the whole country, as well as his poor servants, who loved him, I may say, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death the last county sessions, where he would go to see justice done to a poor widow woman and her fatherless children, that had been wronged by a neighbouring gentleman: for you know, Sir, my good master was always

the poor man's friend. man's friend. Upon his coming home, the first complaint he made was, that he had lost his roast-beef stomach, not being able to touch a sirloin, which was served up according to custom; and you know he used to take great delight in it. From that time forward he grew worse and worse, but still kept a good heart to the last. Indeed we were once in great hopes of his re covery, upon a kind message that was sent him from the widow lady whom he had made love to the last forty years of his life; but this only proved a lightning before death. He has bequeathed to this lady, as a token of his love, a great pearl necklace and a couple of silver bracelets set with jewels, which belonged to my good old lady his mother. He has bequeathed the fine white gelding that he used to ride a hunting upon to his chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him; and has left you all his books. He has, moreover, bequeathed to the chaplain a very pretty tenement with good lands about it. It being a very cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning to every man in the parish a great frieze coat, and to every woman a black riding-hood. It was a most moving sight to see him take leave of his poor servants, commending us all for our fidelity, whilst we were not able to speak a word for weeping. As we most of us are grown grayheaded in our dear master's service, he has left us pensions and legacies, which we may live very comfortably upon the remaining part of our days. He has bequeathed a great deal more in charity, which is not yet come to my knowledge; and it is peremptorily said in the parish, that he has left money to build a steeple to the church; for he was heard to say some time ago, that if he lived two years longer, Coverley church should have a steeple to it. The chaplain tells everybody that he made a very good end, and never speaks of him without tears. He was buried, according to his own directions, among the family of the Coverleys, on the left hand of his father, Sir Arthur. The coffin was carried by six of his tenants, and the pall held up by six of the quorum. The whole parish followed the corpse with heavy hearts, and in their mourning suits; the men in frieze, and the women in riding hoods. Captain Sentry, my master's nephew, has taken posses

sion of the Hall-house and the whole estate. When my old mas ter saw him a little before his death, he shook him by the hand, and wished him joy of the estate which was falling to him, desiring him only to make a good use of it, and to pay the several legacies and the gifts of charity, which he told him he had left as quitrents upon the estate. The Captain truly seems a courteous man, though he says but little. He makes much of those whom my master loved, and shows great kindness to the old house-dog that you know my poor master was so fond of. It would have gone to your heart to have heard the moans the dumb creature made on the day of my master's death. He has never enjoyed himself since; no more has any of us. It was the melancholiest day for the poor people that ever happened in Worcestershire. This being all from, honoured Sir, your most sorrowful servant, ""EDWARD BISCUIT.

"P.S.—My master desired some weeks before he died, that a book, which comes up to you by the carrier, should be given to Sir Andrew Freeport in his name.'

"This letter, notwithstanding the poor butler's manner of writ ing it, gave us such an idea of our good old friend, that upon the reading of it there was not a dry eye in the club. Sir Andrew, opening the book, found it to be a collection of acts of parliament. There was in particular the Act of Uniformity, with some passages in it marked by Sir Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew found that they related to two or three points which he had disputed with Sir Roger, the last time he appeared at the club. Sir Andrew, who would have been merry at such an incident on another occasion, at the sight of the old man's handwriting burst into tears, and put the book into his pocket. Captain Sentry informs me that the knight had left rings and mourning for every one in the club."

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

*** The name of the author of each extract is printed in italic.

Beggars in the Metropolis, A Complaint of Day, A Good Man's, Bishop Hall, 1.

the Decay of, C. Lamb, 117.

Best English People, The, Thackeray, 504
Birds, Selections on, from Logan, Anacreon,
Drummond, Milton, Coleridge, Drayton,
Wordsworth, and Shelley, 451.

Books, Days before, Aubrey, 260.

Days before Books, Aubrey, 260.
Death of Cæsar, Plutarch, 360.

Death of Cardinal Wolsey, Cavendish, 511.
Death, The Piteous, of the Son of Gaston de
Foix, Froissart, 12.

Decision of Character, John Foster, 202.

British Hirundines, The, Gilbert White, 177. Dejection: an Ode, Coleridge, 51.
Bunyan, T. B. Macaulay, 420.

Burning of Wickliffe's Body by Order of the
Council of Constance, Fuller, 64.

C.

CÆSAR, Death of, Plutarch, 360.

Calling, Keep to Your, Aubrey, 262.

De Montfort, Extract from the Tragedy of,
Joanna Baillie, 320.

Desolation of Tyranny, The, Lane, 61.
Despatch, Parliamentary, Bacon, 65.
Dirge for the Old Year, Shelley, 40.
Don Quixote, Criticism on, Hallam, 287.
Dramatic Poets, The Modern. See Poets

Candid Man, The, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, 66. Dramatic Poets, Old, Massinger, 20.
Candlemas Day, Song for, Herrick, 40.
Candour, Seward, 266.

Canning and the Ambassador, Coleridge, 59.
Celandine, Lines to the, Wordsworth, 351.
Century Ago, Authors of a, Smollett, 441.
Character, Decision of, John Føster, 202.
Character of James Watt, Jeff rey, 293.
Christ, The Imitation of, Bi hop Beveridge,
384

Civilisation, Guizot, 470.

Civil War, Aubrey, 62.
Classical Education, Arnoll, 153.

Clifford, The Good Lord. Wordsworth, 135.
Clo, Och, Coleridge, 64.

Dream of Eugene Aram, The, Hood, 208.
Duel, The, Dickens, 424.

E.

EARLY Days, Gifford's Account of his, Giffora,

304.

Education, Classical, Arnold, 153.
English People, The Best, Thackeray, 504.

F.

FAITHFUL Minister, The, Thomas Fuller, 338.
Fall of the Marquis of Montrose, The, Claren-
don, 4II.

Field Flowers, Address to, Campbell, 353.

Complaint of the Deray of Beggars in the Me- Fire of London, Account of the Great, Evelyn,

tropolis, C. Lamb, 117.

Conscience, Tenderness of, Fuller, 261.

Conscience, Coleridge, 262.

218.

First Man, The, Buffon, 126.
Fisherman, The Red, Praed, 224.

Contrarieties Discoverable in Human Nature, Flowers, Selections on, from Milton, Shak

The Strange, Pascal, 211.

Council of Constance, Burning of Wickliffe's

Body by Order of the, Fuller, 64.

Count Julian, Extract from the Tragedy of,

Landor, 323.

Courage, Real, Fuller, 381.

spere, Chaucer, Burns, Herrick, Raleigh,
Drayton, Herbert, Longfellow, Words
worth, Shelley, Campbell, and Waller,
345.

Fool, Begging a, L'Estrange, 265-
Forest, Adventures in a, Smollett, 494.

Courtier, The Old and the Young, Anonymous, Friendship, The Measures and Offices of

317.

Jeremy Taylor, 168.