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 House altogether useless; 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 Servant to enter it after eight o' Clock at Night; that the Door of one of his Chambers was nailed up, because there went a Story in the Family that a Butler had formerly hang'd himself in it; and that his Mother, who lived to a great Age, had shut up half the Rooms in the House, in which either her Husband, a Son, or Daughter had died. The Knight feeing his Habitation reduced to fo fmall a Compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his own House, upon the Death of his Mother ordered all the Apartments to be flung open and exorcifed 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 should not have been thus particular upon thefe ridiculous Horrors, did not I find them fo very much prevail in all Parts of the Country. At the fame time I think a Perfon who is thus terrify'd with the Imagination of Ghofts and Spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to

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the Report of all Hiftorians facred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless: Could not I give myself up to this general Teftimony of Mankind, I should to the Relations of particular Perfons who are now living, and whom I cannot diftruft in other Matters of Fact. I might here add, that not only the Hiftorians, to whom we may join the Poets, but likewise the Philofophers of Antiquity have favoured this Opinion.

People would foon degenerate into a kind of Savages and Barbarians, were there not fuch frequent Returns of a stated Time, in which the whole Village meet together with their best Faces, and in their cleanlieft Habits to converfe with one another upon indifferent Subjects, hear their Duties explained to them, and join together in Adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the Ruft of the whole Week, not only as it refreshes in their Minds the Notions of Religion, but as it puts both the Sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable Forms, and exerting all fuch Qualities as are apt to give them a Figure in the Eye of the Village. A Country Fellow diftinguishes himself as much in the Church-yard, as a Citizen does upon the Change, the whole ParishPoliticks being generally difcuffed in that Place either after Sermon or before the Bell rings.

MY Friend Sir ROGER, being a good Churchman, has beautified the Infide of his Church with feveral Texts of his own choofing: He has likewife given a handfom Pulpit-Cloth, and railed in the Communion-Table at his own Expence. He has often told me, that at his coming to his Eftate he found his Parishioners very irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the Responses, he gave every one of them a Haffock

and a Common-prayer Book: and at the fame time employed an itinerant Singing Master, who goes about the Country for that purpose, to inftruct them rightly in the Tunes of the Pfalms; upon which they now very much value themselves, and indeed out-do most of the Country Churches that I have ever heard.

As Sir ROGER is Landlord to the whole Congregation, he keeps them in very good Order, and will fuffer no body to sleep in it befides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short Nap at Sermon, upon recovering out of it he ftands up and looks about him, and if he sees any Body else nodding, either wakes them himself, or fends his Servants to them. Several other of the old Knight's Particularities break out upon these Occafions: Sometimes he will be lengthening out a Verse in the Singing-Pfalms, half a Minute after the rest of the Congregation have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the Matter of his Devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the fame Prayer; and fometimes ftands up when every Body elfe is upon their Knees, to count the Congregation, or see if any of his Tenants are miffing.

I was yesterday very much furprised to hear my old Friend, in the midst of the Service, call

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