undue vehemence of expression, that he would kill Sir Roger, being of opinion that they were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong. (Johnson's Lives, by Cunningham, ii., 134.) Johnson's statement is based upon a passage in Budgell's Bee, 1733, No. 1. There is also a tradition that Addison was displeased by certain liberties taken with his favorite character in No. 410 of the Spectator, supposed to be by Tickell. If this be so, his resentment was somewhat tardily exhibited, for there is an interval of four months between the paper referred to, and the present essay. The true ground for Sir Roger's death is probably to be found in the fact that Steele was preparing to wind up vol. vii. (See Introduction, p. 11.)

No. 22, page 145. The Tory Fox-Hunter. - The reader is referred to Mr. Caldecott's humorous frontispiece. The huge overfed horseman, with his jolting seat and noisy laugh, is surely a creation worthy of Addison's text. Will not Mr. Caldecott some day give us a series of studies from the Essayists? He seems to seize the very spirit of the age: other men draw its dress.

66

Dyer's Letter" (p. 147) was a news-letter, having a blank page for correspondence. In No. 127 of the Spectator, Sir Roger is represented as reading it aloud each morning to his guests. There was another issued by Ichabod Dawks (Tatler, No. 178). That elegant Latinist, Mr. Smith, of Phædra and Hippolitus fame (see note to No. 28), put them both into verse:

"Scribe securus, quid agit Senatus,

Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum,
Quid Comes Guildford, quid habent novorum
Dawksque Dyerque."

No. 23, page 152.. A Modern Conversation. Lord Chesterfield's sketch of his academic friend may be compared with Thomas Warton's Journal of a Senior Fellow (also of Cambridge) in No. 33 of The Idler, a paper that would have found a place

in this collection but for its evident relationship to Addison's earlier Journals (Nos. 16 and 17). Warton had already satirized the easy, inglorious life of the average college don of the period in his "Progress of Discontent," the first version of which appeared in the Student of June 30, 1750: —

"Return, ye days, when endless pleasure
I found in reading, or in leisure!
When calm around the common room
I puff'd my daily pipe's perfume!
Rode for a stomach, and inspected,
At annual bottlings, corks selected:
And din'd untax'd, untroubled, under
The portrait of our pious Founder!"

(Poetical Works, ii., 1802, p. 197.)

"The late Dr. [George] Cheyne" (p. 158) died in April, 1743. His English Malady (i. e., Hypochondria), published in 1733, is more than once referred to in Boswell's Johnson, and he was the friend of Richardson. His last book was dedicated to Chesterfield. In Gillray's well-known Temperance enjoying a Frugal Meal, 1792, which represents King George III. and Queen Charlotte at breakfast on eggs and salad, "Dr. Cheyne on the Benefits of a Spare Diet" is a prominent object in the foreground.

No. 24, page 160. A Modern Conversation (continued).- By" Chaos wine" (p. 162), Colonel Culverin is explained to have meant "Cahors." The "Bottle Act" (p. 164) referred to was, in all probability, the Act of 1753 for preventing wines from being brought into the port of London without paying the London duty. Next to London, Bristol was the largest importer of wines, and a centre of the glass bottle trade, which may account for its connection with the toast; but the allusion is obscure. The "Jew Bill" (p. 164) was the unpopular measure for naturalizing the Jews which was passed and repealed in 1753. Lord Chesterfield approved it, and regarded its repeal as a concession to the mob. - (Letters, Nov. 26, 1753.) There are many satiri

cal prints relating to this subject in the British Museum; and in Hogarth's Election Entertainment, 1755, a hook-nosed effigy, with a placard round its neck inscribed "No Jews," is conspicuous among the objects seen through the open window.

No. 25, page 168. The Squire in Orders. To be "japanned" (p. 169) is "Eighteenth-Century" for being ordained. When Sir William Trelawney found he could only assist his protégé and medical adviser, John Wolcot (afterwards "Peter Pindar"), by giving him a living, he sent him from Jamaica to England to " 'get himself japanned." Wolcot's brief clerical career was of a piece with this beginning. His congregation, chiefly negroes, frequently failed to attend, and on these occasions, he used to while away the service-time on the shore by shooting ring-tailed pigeons with his clerk.

As a pendant to "Mr. Village's " picture, we subjoin Fielding's portrait (Champion, February 26, 1740) of another kind of "country parson," — a portrait which its author affirms to have been taken from the life:

"Sometime since I went with my wife to pay a visit to a country clergyman, who hath a living of somewhat above £100 a year. In his youth he had sacrificed a Fellowship in one of the Universities, to marry a very agreeable woman, who with a small fortune had had a very good education. Soon after his marriage he was presented to the living, of which he is now incumbent. Since his coming hither, he hath improv'd the Parsonage-house and garden, both which are now in the neatest order. At our arrival we were met at the gate by the clergyman and two of his sons. After telling us with the most cheerful voice and countenance that he was extremely glad to see us, he took my wife down in his arms, and committing our two horses to the care of his sons, he conducted us into a little neat parlor, where a table was spread for our entertainment. Here the good woman and her eldest

daughter receiv'd us with many hearty expressions of kindness, and very earnest desires that we would take something to refresh ourselves before dinner. Upon this a bottle of Mead was produc'd, which was of their own making, and very good in its kind. Dinner soon follow'd, being a gammon of bacon and some chickens, with a most excellent apple-pye. My friend excused himself from not treating me with a roasted pig (a dish I am particularly fond of), by telling us that as times were hard, he had relinquish'd those Tithes to his parishioners. Our liquors were the aforesaid mead, elder wine, with strong beer, ale, etc., all perfectly good, and which our friends exprest great pleasure at our drinking and liking. After a meal spent with the utmost cheerfulness, we walked into a little, neat garden, where we passed the afternoon with the gayest and most innocent mirth, the good man and good woman, their sons and daughters, all vying with one another, who should shew us the greatest signs of respect, and of their forwardness to help us to anything they had.

"The economy of these good people may be instructive to some, as well as entertaining to all my readers.

"The clergyman, who is an excellent scholar, is himself the school-master to his boys (which are three in number). As soon as the hours, appointed for their studies, are over, the master and all the scholars employ themselves at work either in the garden, or some other labor about the house, while the little woman is no less industrious in her sphere with her two daughters within. Thus the furniture of their house, their garden, their table, and their cellar, are almost all the work of their own hands; and the sons grow at once robust and learned, while the daughters become housewives, at the same time that they learn of their mother several of the genteeler accomplishments.

"Love and friendship were never in greater purity than between this good couple, and as they both have the utmost tenderness for their children,

so they meet with the greatest returns of gratitude and respect from them. Nay the whole parish is by their example the family of love, of which they daily receive instances from their spiritual guide, and which hath such an effect on them, that I believe · communibus annis - he receives voluntarily from his parishioners more than his due, though not half so much as he deserves. — (Edn. 1741, i. 310.)

It will be noted that, so far from being

"passing rich with forty pounds a year,"

one of these clergymen has £300, and the other has £100 per annum.

No. 26, page 174. Country Congregations. This paper of Cowper's is a little in the vein of Washington Irving's charming studies in the SketchBook. The "Negligée," the "Slammerkin," and the "Trollope," or "Trollopée" (p. 179), as may be guessed from the names, were loose gowns worn by ladies towards the middle of the century. "Mrs. Roundabout," in Goldsmith's Bee (No. ii., Oct. 13, 1759), wears a "lutestring trollopee" with a two-yard train. The "Joan" (p. 179) was a close cap the reverse of a mob.

The "two figures at St. Dunstan's" (i. e., St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street) referred to at p. 175, are described as "2 Figures of Savages or wild Men, well carved in Wood, and painted natural Color, appearing as big as the Life, standing erect, each with a knotty Club in his Hand, whereby they alternately strike the Quarters, not only from their Arms, but even their Heads moving at every Blow." The writer of the above, parish-clerk in 1732, goes on to say "they are more admired by many of the Populace on Sundays, than the most elegant Preacher from the Pulpit within." Cowper refers to them again in his Table-Talk, 1782.