of human skulls, and was preparing the other materials, when the scheme was prevented by the overscrupulous conscience of the sexton's wife. The schemist was extremely mortified, yet remained pertinacious in the execution of his design, and, as I am told, set out the next morning for Cornwall to obtain a seat in parliament, in order to bring in a bill for the erecting a pyramid in every county, with niches for the reception of the heads of all criminals hereafter to be executed. He is in no pain for the success of his motion; for though the legislature has found objections to every scheme for making malefactors of use, he doubts not of their ready concur→ rence in a proposal for making them an ornament to their country.

In former times the Great House was the object to which the stranger's admiration was particularly invited. For this purpose lines of trees were planted to direct, and walls built to confine your approach, in such a manner that the eye must be constantly employed in the contemplation of the principal front. Now it is thought necessary to change all this; you are therefore led by round-about serpentine walks, and find your progress to be often intercepted by invisible and unexpected lines and intrenchments, and the mansion purposely obscured by new plantations, while the noblest trees of the old grove are tumbled down to give you a peep now and then, at an out-building of about ten feet square of plaster and canvas. So different from this was the practice of our ancestors, that whenever they erected such little edifices (which they did only from necessity) they constantly planted before them yews, laurels, or aquatics, according as the soil was moist or dry: and I could venture to promise any modern improver, who delights in laying all things open, that he might in one morning fall down the popu

lous part of the Thames, and with his single hatchet among the willows, lay open as many masked edifices of the true modern size and figure, as, properly disposed and fancifully variegated with fresh paint, might make Hounslow-heath a rival to many an admired garden of this age.

A philosopher would not suppose that the master of the place assumed any merit to himself from such trifles: he would hardly imagine that even the most elegant of palaces could add any degree of worth to the possessor, whose character must be raised and sustained by his own dignity, wisdom, and hospitality; remembering the maxim of Tully, "Non domo dominus, sed domino domus honestanda est.' But to judge with the common observer, and to reason with the general race of Improvers, if it be absolutely necessary for every man to shew his taste in these matters, let him endeavour to compass solidity, duration, and convenience, in the mansion he inhabits; and not attempt to display his magnificence in a number of edifices, which, whatever they may seem to imitate, are unnecessaryhouses.

N° 66. THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1754.

" To Mr. FITZ-ADAM.

'SIR, 'To confess an unfashionable kind of truth, I am a woman who now and then think a little; and when I do, I sometimes turn my reflections on my own sex. Man, you know, is said to be" a creature formed for society;" and I do not deny it to be in general true; but then pray what is Woman? To

say that she too is" a creature formed for society," is saying nothing at all; she is a great deal more than all that. Shall I tell you what she is? Woman is a creature formed for crowding, and for being crowded."

66

Mr. Pope, who you know thought it worth his while to write a whole epistle about us, declares, after he thinks he has analyzed us to the bottom, that the love of pleasure and the love of sway, are the general ruling passions of the whole sex. In direct contradiction to which I assert, that the love of crowding and of being crowded, is a passion infinitely more general and predominant. It will be alleged, probably, that this passion is included in one of the former; but I answer, no; it is absolutely distinct from either of them: for as to the love of pleasure, ask a woman of fashion in the midst of a crowded assembly (and thanks to the taste of the age we live in, you may make the experiment in this dear town any evening you please), ask her, I say, if she takes any pleasure in being crowded?"No," she will tell you, 66 she hates and detests it; it breaks her hoop, tears her ruffles, puts her in a horrid fluster, makes her a fright in short, and she wonders what could persuade her to come there." A plain proof this, that it does not result from her love of pleasure: and that it is not a consequence of our love of sway, is still more obvious; for the very idea of a crowd excludes all notion of superiority and distinction. But if you want an experimental proof of this too, go to the same assembly, and observe the lady of the house herself: she is distinguished indeed, but in a manner quite opposite to what you would expect; for it is only by bustling through the crowd she has herself raised, with all the hurry and vulgar obsequiousness of a coffee-girl.

possibly disconcert her: yet this o game in a crowd is the thing; game so, she is willing either to noked, either to lose her money

I think to my satisfaction, and I that even the love of play is a to the love of crowding, I will r love of dress. That this

is

it also, is evident to any person
ontemplate that most important
he hoop; a piece of apparel, or,
erly, a piece of machinery, which
and existence to this passion :
tion, a lady is enabled to make
rself; and thirty women can now
apletely as a hundred would do,
ecessary an auxiliary. On this
ay account for that seeming pa-
op, contrary to the fleeting and
of all other parts of dress, holds
alms of fashion so much longer
de was ever known to do; and

from the size of a china plate,
he breadth of a half-crown, and
ed, our hoops, on the contrary,
e their circumference gradually,
our ruling passion. So that I
ert, that this part of our dress
r so long as women are women,
ear large hoops.

r love of music; ask any woman
era sounds as well on a Tuesday
she will stare at your question,
No; she does not think it does."
or this short reason, that Satur-
night.