the happiest couple of our acquaintance. I am impatient to tell you all I know of them.

The parish of South Green is about feventeen miles from this place, and is in my opinion the most pleasing fpot of ground in all Yorkshire. I thould have first told you, that our friend, by the death of a relation, was enabled to carry his wife from London with a neat two hundred and fifty guineas in his pocket; with which fum he has converted the old parfonage-houfe into a little palace, and fourteen acres of glebe into a farm and garden, that even a Pelham or a Southcote might look upon with pleafure.

The houfe ftands upon an eminence within the bending of a river, with about half an acre of kitchen-garden, fenced in with a good old wall, well planted with fruit-trees. The river that almoft furrounds this little fpot affords them fish at all fealons. They catch 'trout there, and plenty of them, from two to five pounds weight. Before the houfe is a little lawn with trees planted in clumps; and behind it a yard well ftocked with poultry, with a barn, cowhouf, and dairy. At the end of the garden a draw bridge leads you to a fmall piece of ground, where three or four pigs are kept. Here they are fattened for pork or bacon; the latter they cure for themfelves; and in all my life I never eat better.

In the feven years of this retirement they have fo planted their little fpot, that you can hardly conceive any thing more beautiful. The fields lie all together, with patture-ground enough for two horfes and as many cows, and the reft arable. Every thing thrives under their hands. The hedges, all of their own planting, are the thickeft of any in the country; and within every one of them is a fand-walk between a double row of flowering fhrubs, hardly ever out of bloffom. The produce of thefe fields fupplies them abundantly with the means of bread and beer, and with a furplus yearly for the poor, to whom they are the beft benefactors of any in the neighbourhood. The husband brews, and the wife bakes; he manages the farm, and the the dairy; and both with fuch fkill and induftry, that you would think them educated to nothing elfe.

Their houfe conflits of two parlours and a kitchen below, and two bed

chambers and a fervant's room above. Their maid is a poor woman's daughter in the parifh, whom they took at eleven years old, and have made the handiest girl imaginable. She is extremely pretty, and might marry herself to advantage; but he loves her miftrefs fo fin-. cerely, that no temptation is strong enough to prevail upon her to leave her.

In this sweet retirement they have a boy and a girl; the boy fix years old, and the girl four; both of them the prettieft little things that ever were born. The girl is the very picture of her mother, with the fame foftnefs of heart and temper. The boy is a jolly dog, and loves mifchief; but if you tell him an interesting story, he will cry for an hour together. The hufband and wife conftantly go to bed at ten, and rise at fix. The bufinefs of the day is commonly finished by dinner-time; and all after is amufement and pleature, without any fet forms. They are almost worshipped by the parishioners, to whom the doctor is not only the fpiritual director, but the phyfician, the furgeon, the apothecary, the lawyer, the steward, the friend, and the chearful companior. The best people in the country are fond of vifiting them; they call it going to fee the wonders of Yorkshire, and fay that they never eat fo heartily as of the parfon's bacon and greens.

I told you at the beginning of this letter that they were the happiest couple of our acquaintance; and now I will tell you why they are fo. In the firft place, they love and are delighted with each other. A feven years marriage, inftead of leffening their affections, has encreased them. They wish for nothing more than what their little income affords them; and even of that little they lay up. Our friend fhewed me his account of expences, or rather his wife's account; by which it appears that they have faved yearly from fitteen fillings to a guinea, exclufive of about the fame fum which they diftribute among the poor, befides barley, wheat, and twenty other things. The only article of luxury is tea; but the doctor fays he would forbid that, if his wife could forget her London education. However, they feldom offer it but to their helt company; and lefs than a pound will last them a twelvemonth. Wine they have none, nor will they receive it as a prefent.

Their conftant drink is fmall-beer and ale, both of which they brew in the highest perfection. Exercife and temperance keep them in perpetual health and good-humour. All the ftrife between them is who fhall please and oblige moft. Their favourite amusement is reading: now and then, indeed, our friend fcribbles a little; but his performances reach no farther than a short fermon, or a paper of verfes in praife of his wife. Every birth-day of the lady is conftantly celebrated in this manner; and though you do not read a Swift to his Stella, yet there is fomething fo fincere and tender in thefe little pieces, that I could never read any of them without tears. In the fine afternoons and evenings, they are walking arm in arm, with their boy and girl, about their grounds; but how chearful, how happy! is not to be told you. Their children are hardly fo much children as themselves. But though they love one another even to dotage, their fondness never appears before company. I never faw either of them so much as playing with the other's hand-I mean only when they have known I was within fight of them: I have ftolen upon them unawares indeed, and have been witness to fuch words and looks as have quite melted me.、

With this couple, and in this retirement, I have paffed my time fince you heard from me. How happily I need not fay: come and be a judge yourself; they invite you most heartily.

you of

One thing I had forgot to tell them. It makes no part of their happinefs that they can compare themselves with the rest of the world, who want minds to enjoy themselves as they do. It rather leffens than encreases it. Their own happiness is from their own hearts. They have every thing they wish for in this fifty pounds a year and one another. They make no boast of themfelves, nor find fault with any body. They are forry I am not as happy as they; but are far from advifing me to retire as they have done. I left a banknote of twenty pounds behind me in my room, inclofed in a letter of thanks for their civilities to me; but it was returned me this morning to York, in a manner that pleated me more than all the reft of their behaviour. Our friend than ed me for the favour I intended him; but told me I could bestow it better among the poor: that his wife and he had been looking over the family accounts of laft month, and that they found me only a few fhillings in their debt; that if I did not think they were a thousand times over-paid by the pleafure 1 had given them, they would be obliged to me for a pound of tea, and a little of Hardham's fnuff, when I got to Lon

don.

I hope foon to fee you, and to entertain you by the week with the particulars of the parfon and his wife. Till then, I am, &c.

which our nobility, gentry, and others, entertain themselves at Newmarket; and as this is the vernal feafon for the celebration of thofe curious fports and feftivals; and as they are, at this time, likely to be held with the utmoft fplendour and magnificence, I think it may not be improper to amufe my townreaders with one fingle paper upon the fubject.

In this I will endeavour to set forth the usefulness of these anniversary meetings, defcribing the manner and method of exhibiting fuch games; and then thew what benefit may arife to the kingdom by horfe-races in general, on the

other, by their fpreading too widely over the whole kingdom.

I read in one of the news-papers of laft week the following article-Tis faid, that garrets at Newmarket are let at four guineas each for the time of the meeting. What!' faid I to myfelf, are our principal nobility content to lie in garrets, at fuch an exorbitant price, for the fake of fuch ' amusements? Or are, our jockey gentry, and tradesmen, extravagant enough to throw away their loofe corn (as I may properly call it on this occafion) fo idly and ridiculously?' To be fure, there is not a more noble di

verfion

verfion than this. In it's original it was of royal inftitution, and carried on in the beginning with much honour and integrity; but as the bett conftitution will always degenerate, I am fearful this may be grown too much into feience, wherein the adepts may have carried matters to a nicety, not altogether reconcileable to the fricteft notions of integrity; and which may by degrees, by their affecting to become notable in the profeffion, corrupt the morals of our young nobility. The language of the place is generally to be understood by the rule of contraries. If any one fays his horfe is a pretty good one, but as flow as a town-top, (for families are much in ufe) you may conclude him to be an exceeding fpeedy one, but not fo good at hottom. If he mentions his defign of throwing a particular horse foon out of train. ing, you may be affured he has a mind to match that horfe as foon as he can; and fo it is in every thing elfe they throw cut. Foreigners who come here for curiofity, cannot be fhewn a finer fight than thefe races, which are almost peculiar to this country: but I must confels that I have been fometimes put a little to the blufh at incidents that are pretty pregnant in the place. Every body is dreffed fo perfectly alike, that it is extremely difficult to diftinguish be-, tween his Grace and his Groom. I have heard a stranger alk a man of quality, how often he dreffed and watered his horfes? how much corn, and bread, and hay, he gave them? how many miles he thought he could run in fuch a number of minutes? and how long he had lived with his matter? Thole who have been at the place will not be furprized at these mistakes; for a pair of boots, and buckskin breeches, a fuftian frock, with a leather belt about it, and a black velvet cap, is the common covering of the whole town: fo that, if the inide does not differ, the outfide of my lord and his rider are exactly the fame. There is another most remark. able affe&tation, which is this: thofe who are known to have the moft, and perhaps the beft, horfes of the place, always appear theinfelves on the very worth, and go to the turf on fome ordinary fcrub tit, fcarce worth five pounds. From perfons thus mounted and accoutred, what a furprize muft it be to hear a bett offered of an hundred pounds to fifty, and fometimes three hundred

to two, when you would imagine the rider to be fcarce worth a groat! In that circular convention before the race begins, at the Devil's Ditch, all are hail fellows well met; and every one is at liberty, taylor, diftiller, or otherwife, to offer and take fuch betts as he thinks proper; and many thousand pounds are usually laid on a fide. When the horfes are in fight, and come near Choak - Jade, immediately the company all difperfe, as if the devil rofe out of this ditch and drove them, to get to the turning of the lands, the reft-poft, or fome other ftation they chufe, for feeing the push made. Now the contention becomes animating. It is delightful to fee two, or fometimes more, of the most beautiful animals of the creation, ftruggling for fuperiority, ftretching every mufcle and finew to obtain the prize, and rech the goal! to obferve the kill and addrefs of the riders, who are all diftinguished by different colours, of white, blue, green, red, and yellow, fometimes fpurring or whipping, fometimes checking or pulling, to give fresh breath and courage! and it is often obferved that the rice is won, as much by the dexterity of the rider, as by the vigour and fleetnefs of the animal.

When the fport is over, the company faunter away towards the Warren Hill, before the other horfes, left at the feveral tables in the town, are rode out to take their evening excrcife and their water. On this delightful spot you may fee, at once, above a hundred of the most beautiful horfes in the universe, all led out in ftrings, with the grooms and boys upon them, in their feveral liveries, diftinguishing each perfon of rank they belong to. This is indeed a noble fight; it is a piece of grandeur, and an expenfive one roo, which no nation can boaft of but our own. To this the crown contributes, not only by a very handfome allowance for keeping horfes, but alfo by giving plates to be run for by horfes and mares at different ages, in order to encourage the breed, by keeping up the price of them, and to make the breeders extremely careful of their race and genealogy!

The pedigree of these horfes is more ftri&tly regarded and carefully looked into than that of the Knight of Malta. They muft have no blemished quarter in the family on either fide for many ge nerations; their blood must have run

pure