live

Twelvemonth. Sweet-hearts are the things they upon, which they bestow very plentifully upon all thofe that apply themselves to them. You fee now and then fome handfom young Jades among them: The Sluts have very often white Teeth and black Eyes.

SIR ROGER obferving that I liftned with great Attention to his Account of a People who were fo intirely new to me, told me, That if I would they fhould tell us our Fortunes. As I was very well pleased with the Knight's Proposal, we rid up and communicated our Hands to them. A Caffandra of the Crew, after having examined my Lines very diligently, told me, That I loved a pretty Maid in a Corner, that I was a good Woman's Man, with fome other Particulars which I do not think proper to relate. My Friend Sir ROGER alighted from his Horse, and expofing his Palm to two or three that stood by him, they crumpled it into all Shapes, and diligently scanned every Wrinkle that could be made in it; when one of them, who was older and more Sun-burnt than the rest, told him, That he had a Widow in his Line of Life: Upon which the Knight cried, Go, go, you are an idle Baggage; and at the fame time smiled upon me. The Gipfey finding he was not displeased in his Heart, told him, after a farther Inquiry into his

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Hand, that his True-love was conftant, and that she should dream of him to-night: My old Friend cried Pish, and bid her go on. The Gipfey told him that he was a Bachelor, but would not be fo long; and that he was dearer to somebody than he thought: The Knight ftill repeated She was an idle Baggage, and bid her go on. Ah Mafter, fays the Gipfey, that roguish Leer of yours makes a pretty Woman's Heart ake; you han't that Simper about the Mouth for nothing The uncouth Gibberish with which all this was uttered like the Darkness of an Oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be fhort, the Knight left the Money with her that he had croffed her Hand with, and got up again on his Horse.

AS we were riding away, Sir ROGER told me, that he knew several sensible People who believed these Gipseys now and then foretold very strange things; and for half an Hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary. In the Height of his Good-humour, meeting a common Beggar upon the Road who was no Conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his Pocket was picked: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which this Race of Vermin are very dexterous.

CHAP. XIX.

A SUMMONS TO LONDON.

Ipfæ rurfum concedite Sylva. VIRG.

T is ufual for a Man who loves Country
Sports to preserve the Game in his own

Grounds, and divert himself upon thofe

that belong to his Neighbour. My Friend Sir ROGER generally goes two or three Miles from his House, and gets into the Frontiers of his Eftate, before he beats about in search of a Hare or Partridge, on purpose to spare his own Fields, where he is always fure of finding Diversion when the worst comes to the worst. By this Means the Breed about his House has time to increase and multiply, befides that the Sport is the more agreeable where the Game is the harder to come at, and where it does not lie fo thick as to produce any Perplexity or Confufion in the Pursuit. For these Reasons the Country Gentleman like the Fox, feldom preys near his own Home.

IN the fame manner I have made a Month's Excurfion out of the Town, which is the great Field of Game for Sportsmen of my Species, to try my Fortune in the Country, where I have started several Subjects, and hunted them down, with fome Pleasure to myself, and I hope to others. I am here forced to use a great deal of Diligence before I can fpring anything to my Mind, whereas in Town, whilft I am following one Character, it is ten to one but I am croffed in my Way by another, and put up fuch a Variety of odd Creatures in both Sexes, that they foil the Scent of one another, and puzzle the Chace. My greatest Difficulty in the Country is to find Sport, and in Town to choose it. In the mean time, as I have given a whole Month's Reft to the Cities of London and Westminster, I promise myself abundance of new Game upon my return thither.

IT is indeed high time for me to leave the Country, fince I find the whole Neighbourhood begin to grow very inquifitive after my Name and Character My Love of Solitude, Taciturnity, and particular way of Life, having raised a great Curiofity in all these Parts.

THE Notions which have been framed of me are various; fome look upon me as very proud, some as very modest, and some as very melancholy.

Will Wimble, as my Friend the Butler tells me, obferving me very much alone, and extremely filent when I am in Company, is afraid I have killed a Man. The Country People seem to suspect me for a Conjurer; and fome of them hearing of the Vifit which I made to Moll White, will needs have it that Sir ROGER has brought down a Cunning Man with him, to cure the old Woman, and free the Country from her Charms. So that the Character which I go under in part of the Neighbourhood, is what they here call a White Witch.

A Juftice of Peace, who lives about five Miles off, and is not of Sir ROGER's Party has it seems said twice or thrice at his Table, that he wishes Sir RoGER does not harbour a Jefuit in his House, and that he thinks the Gentlemen of the Country would do very well to make me give some Account of myself.

On the other fide, fome of Sir ROGER's Friends are afraid the old Knight is impofed upon by a defigning Fellow, and as they have heard that he converses very promifcuously, when he is in Town, do not know but he has brought down with him some discarded Whig, that is fullen and fays nothing because he is out of Place.

SUCH is the Variety of Opinions which are here entertained of me, fo that I pafs among fome for a difaffected Perfon, and among others for a

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