at a guinea each. From his time, till about ten or fifteen years' since, Vauxhall retained its popularity.

Page 157. A great deal of the like Thames ribaldry. The silent highway' was peculiarly favourable for that interchange of wit and repartee, in which the lower orders, and even facetious people of quality, loved to indulge. Taylor, the water poet, Swift, and Dr. Johnson, have bequeathed to us some of these smart sayings; but they are too coarse for repetition..

CHAP. XXV. WILL HONEYCOMB ON WIDOWS.

No. 359. Tuesday, April 22nd, 1712. By Budgell.

CHAP. XXVI. SIR ROGER PASSETH AWAY.

Spectator, No. 517.

son.

Thursday, Oct. 23, 1712. By Addi

6

Page 164. To keep them no longer in suspense, Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY is Dead. Mr. Addison was so fond of this character, that a little before he laid down the Spectator (foreseeing that some nimble gentleman would catch up his pen the moment he quitted it) he said to our intimate friend with a certain warmth in his expression, which he was not often guilty of, "I'll kill Sir ROGER, that nobody else may murder him."' The Bee, p. 26.

On this Chalmers sensibly remarks that, 'the killing of Sir ROGER has been sufficiently accounted for, without supposing that Addison despatched him in a fit of anger; for the work was about to close, and it appeared necessary to

close the club; but whatever difference of opinion there may be concerning this circumstance, it is universally agreed that it produced a paper of transcendent excellence in all the graces of simplicity and pathos. There is not in our language any assumption of character more faithful than that of the honest butler; nor a more irresistible stroke of nature than the circumstance of the book received by Sir Andrew Freeport.'

Budgell's story is another version of the reason Cervantes gave for killing his hero; para mi sola nacio Don Quixote, y yo para el. Shakespere's motive for the early demise of Mercutio in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet has been accounted for by a similar fiction.

Page 167. Captain Sentry, my Master's Nephew, has taken possession of the Hall-House, and the whole Estate. The 544th Number of the Spectator (Nov. 24th, 1712) contains a letter from the new Esquire, in which he says, 'I cannot reflect upon his [Sir ROGER's] character, but I am confirmed in the truth which I have, I think, heard spoken at the club; to wit, That a Man of a warm and well-disposed Heart, with a very small Capacity, is highly superior in human Society to him who, with the greatest Talents, is cold and languid in his Affections. But, alas! why do I make a difficulty in speaking of my worthy Ancestor's Failings? His little Absurdities and Incapacity for the Conversation of the Politest Men are dead with him, and his greater Qualities are even now useful to him. I know not whether by naming those Disabilities, I do not enhance his Merit, since he has left behind him a Reputation in his

Country which would be worth the pains of the wisest Man's whole Life to arrive at.'-'I have continued all Sir ROGER'S servants, except such as it was a relief to dismiss unto little livings within my manour; those who are in a list of the good Knight's own hand, to be taken care of by me, I have quartered upon such as have taken new leases of me, and added so many advantages during the lives of the persons so quartered, that it is the interest of those whom they are joined with, to cherish and befriend them on all occasions.'

THE END.