fatigable man in business of this kind, and
has hung several parts of his house with
the trophies of his former labours. The
walls of his great hall are covered with the
horns of several kinds of deer that he has
killed in the chase, which he thinks the
most valuable furniture of his house, as
they afford him frequent topics of dis-
course, and show that he has not been idle.
At the lower end of the hall is a large
otter's skin stuffed with hay, which his mo-
ther ordered to be hung up in that manner,
and the knight looks upon with great satis-
faction, because it seems he was but nine
years old when his dog killed him. A little
room adjoining to the hall is a kind of ar-
senal, filled with guns of several sizes and
inventions, with which the knight has made
great havoc in the woods, and destroyed
many thousands of pheasants, partridges,
and woodcocks. His stable-doors are patch-
ed with noses that belonged to foxes of the
knight's own hunting down. Sir Roger
showed me one of them that for distinction
sake has a brass nail stuck through it,
which cost him about fifteen hours' riding, No. 116.] Friday, July 13, 1711.
carried him through half a dozen counties,
killed him a brace of geldings, and lost
above half his dogs. This the knight looks
upon as one of the greatest exploits of his
life. The perverse widow, whom I have
given some account of, was the death of
several foxes; for Sir Roger has told me
that in the course of his amours he patched
the western door of his stable. Whenever
the widow was cruel, the foxes were sure
to pay for it. In proportion as his passion
for the widow abated and old age came
on, he left off fox-hunting; but a hare is
not yet safe that sits within ten miles of his
house.

written with a great deal of erudition: it
is there called the xx, or the fighting
with a man's own shadow, and consists in
the brandishing of two short sticks grasped
in each hand, and loaded with plugs of lead
at either end. This opens the chest, exer-
cises the limbs, and gives a man all the
pleasure of boxing, without the blows. I
could wish that several learned men would
lay out that time which they employ in
controversies and disputes about nothing,
in this method of fighting with their own
shadows. It might conduce very much to
evaporate the spleen, which makes them
uneasy to the public as well as to them-
selves.

To conclude,-As I am a compound of
soul and body, I consider myself as obliged
to a double scheme of duties; and think I
have not fulfilled the business of the day
when I do not thus employ the one in la-
bour and exercise, as well as the other in
study and contemplation.

-Vocat ingenti clamore Cithæron,
Taygetique canes-

L.

Virg. Georg.iil. The echoing hills and chiding hounds invite. THOSE Who have searched into human nature observe, that nothing so much shows the nobleness of the soul, as that its felicity consists in action. Every man has such an active principle in him, that he will find out something to employ himself upon, in whatever place or state of life he is posted. I have heard of a gentleman who was under close confinement in the Bastile seven years; during which time he amused himself in scattering a few small pins about his chamber, gathering them up again, and placing them in different figures on the arm of a great chair. He often told his friends afterwards, that unless he had found out this piece of exercise, he verily believed he should have lost his senses.

There is no kind of exercise which I would so recommend to my readers of both sexes as this of riding, as there is none which so much conduces to health, and is every way accommodated to the body, according to the idea which I have given of t. Doctor Sydenham is very lavish in its After what has been said, I need not inpraises; and if the English reader will see form my readers, that Sir Roger, with the mechanical effects of it described at whose character I hope they are at present ength, he may find them in a book pub-pretty well acquainted, has in his youth lished not many years since under the title gone through the whole course of those of Medicina Gymnastica. For my own rural diversions which the country abounds part, when I am in town, for want of these in; and which seem to be extremely well Opportunities, I exercise myself an hour every morning upon a dumb-bell that is placed in a corner of my room, and it pleases me the more because it does every hing I require of it in the most profound silence. My landlady and her daughters are so well acquainted with my hours of exercise, that they never come into my oom to disturb me whilst I am ringing. When I was some years younger than am at present, I used to employ myself in more laborious diversion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises that is

By Francis Fuller, M. A.

I

suited to that laborious industry a man may
observe here in a far greater degree than in
towns and cities. I have before hinted at
some of my friend's exploits; he has in his
youthful days taken forty coveys of par-
tridges in a season; and tired many a salmon
with a line consisting but of a single hair.
The constant thanks and good wishes of the
neighbourhood always attended him, on ac-
count of his remarkable enmity towards
foxes; having destroyed more of those ver-

† Hieronymus Mercurialis's celebrated book, Artis Gymnastica apud Antiquos, &c. Libri sex. Venet. 1569 quarto.

min in one year, than it was thought the who knows that none of my extraordinary whole county could have produced. In- motions are insignificant, rode up to me and deed the knight does not scruple to own asked me if puss was gone that way? Upon among his most intimate friends, that in my answering yes, he immediately called order to establish his reputation this way, in the dogs, and put them upon the scent. he has secretly sent for great numbers of As they were going off, I heard one of the them out of other counties, which he used country-fellows muttering to his companion, to turn loose about the country by night, That 'twas a wonder they had not lost all that he might the better signalize himself their sport, for want of the silent gentlein their destruction the next day. His hunt-man's crying, Stole away.' ing horses were the finest and best managed This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, in all these parts. His tenants are still full made me withdraw to a rising ground, from of the praises of a gray stone-horse that un- whence I could have the pleasure of the happily staked himself several years since, whole chase, without the fatigue of keeping and was buried with great solemnity in the in with the hounds. The hare immediately orchard. threw them above a mile behind her; but I Sir Roger, being at present too old for was pleased to find, that instead of running fox-hunting, to keep himself in action, has straight forwards, or, in hunter's language, disposed of his beagles and got a pack of flying the country,' as I was afraid she stop-hounds. What these want in speed, might have done, she wheeled about, and he endeavours to make amends for by the described a sort of circle round the hill, deepness of their mouths and the variety of where I had taken my station, in such a their notes, which are suited in such a man- manner as gave me a very distinct view of ner to each other, that the whole cry makes the sport. I could see her first pass by, and up a complete concert. He is so nice in this the dogs some time afterwards, unravelling particular, that a gentleman having made the whole track she had made, and followhim a present of a very fine hound the other day, the knight returned it by the servant with a great many expressions of civility; but desired him to tell his master, that the dog he had sent was indeed a most excellent bass, but that at present he only wanted a counter-tenor. Could I believe my friend had ever read Shakspeare, I should certainly conclude he had taken the hint from Theseus in the Midsummer Night's Dream:

'My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flu'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With cars that sweep away the morning dew.
Crook-knee'd and dew-lapt like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouths like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tunable

Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn."*

Sir Roger is so keen at this sport that he has been out almost every day since I came down; and upon the chaplain's offering to lend me his easy pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of the company. I was extremely pleased as we rid along, to observe the general benevolence of all the neighbourhood towards my friend. The farmers' sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the good old knight as he passed by; which he generally requited with a nod or a smile, and a kind inquiry after their fathers or uncles. d

After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath, and the sportsmen began to beat. They had done so for some time, when, as I was at a little distance from the rest of the company, I saw a hare pop out from a small furze-brake almost under my horse's feet. I marked way she took, which I endeavoured to make the company sensible of by extending my arm; but to no purpose, till Sir Roger,

the

Act iv. Sc. 1.

ing her through all her doubles. I was at the same time delighted in observing that deference which the rest of the pack paid to each particular hound, according to the character he had acquired among them. If they were at a fault, and an old hound of reputation opened but once, he was imme diately followed by the whole cry; while a raw dog, or one who was a noted liar, might have yelped his heart out without being taken notice of.

of

The hare now, after having squatted two or three times, and been put up again as often, came still nearer to the place where she was at first started. The dogs pursued her, and these were followed by the jolly knight, who rode upon a white gelding, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety encompassed by his tenants and servants, of five-and-twenty. One of the sportsmen rode up to me, and told me that he was sure the chase was almost at an end, be behind, now headed the pack. The fellow cause the old dogs, which had hitherto lain was in the right. Our hare took a large field just under us, followed by the full cry in view. I must confess the brightness the weather, the cheerfulness of every thing around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a double echo from of the sportsmen, and the sounding of the two neighbouring hills, with the hallooing horn, lifted my spirits into a most lively pleasure, which I freely indulged because I was sure it was innocent. If I was under any concern, it was on the account of the almost within the reach of her enemies; poor hare, that was now quite spent, and when the huntsman getting forward, threw down his pole before the dogs. They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been pursuing for almost as many hours; yet on the signal before-mentioned

་

they all made a sudden stand, and though | No. 117.] Saturday, July 14, 1711.
they continued opening as much as before,
durst not once attempt to pass beyond the
pole. At the same time Sir Roger rode for-
ward, and alighting, took up the hare in
his arms; which he soon after delivered up
to one of his servants with an order, if she
could be kept alive, to let her go in his great
orchard; where it seems he has several of
these prisoners of war, who live together in
a very comfortable captivity. I was highly
pleased to see the discipline of the pack,
and the good-nature of the knight, who
could not find in his heart to murder a crea-
ture that had given him so much diversion. It is with this temper of mind that I con-
As we were returning home, I remem- sider the subject of witchcraft. When I
bered that Monsieur Paschal, in his most hear the relations that are made from all
excellent discourse on the Misery of Man, parts of the world, not only from Norway
tells us, that all our endeavours after great- and Lapland, from the East and West In-
ness proceed from nothing but a desire of dies, but from every particular nation in
being surrounded by a multitude of persons Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that
and affairs that may hinder us from looking there is such an intercourse and commerce
into ourselves, which is a view we cannot with evil spirits, as that which we express
bear. He afterwards goes on to show that by the name of witchcraft. But when I
our love of sports comes from the same rea- consider that the ignorant and credulous
son, and is particularly severe upon hunting. parts of the world abound most in these re-
"What,' says he, unless it be to drown lations, and that the persons among us who
thought, can make them throw away so
much time and pains upon a silly animal, commerce, are people of a weak under-
are supposed to engage in such an infernal
which they might buy cheaper in the mar-standing and crazed imagination, and at the
ket? The foregoing reflection is certainly same time reflect upon the many impos-
just, when a man suffers his whole mind to
be drawn into his sports, and altogether
loses himself in the woods; but does not
affect those who propose a far more lauda-
ble end from this exercise, I mean the pre-
servation of health, and keeping all the
organs of the soul in a condition to execute
her orders. Had that incomparable person,
whom I last quoted, been a little more in-
dulgent to himself in this point, the world
might probably have enjoyed him much
longer; whereas through too great an ap-
plication to his studies in his youth, he con-
tracted that ill habit of body, which, after
a tedious sickness, carried him off in the
fortieth year of his age; and the whole his-
tory we have of his life till that time, is but
one continued account of the behaviour of
a noble soul struggling under innumerable
pains and distempers.

-Ipsi sibi somnia fingunt.-Virg. Ecl. viii. 108.
With voluntary dreams they cheat their minds
THERE are some opinions in which a man
should stand neuter, without engaging his
assent to one side or the other. Such a
hovering faith as this, which refuses to set-
tle upon any determination, is absolutely
necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid
errors and prepossessions. When the argu-
ments press equally on both sides in mat-
ters that are indifferent to us, the safest
method is to give up ourselves to neither.

For my own part, I intend to hunt twice
a week during my stay with Sir Roger; and
shall prescribe the moderate use of this ex-
ercise to all my country friends, as the best
kind of physic for mending a bad constitu-
tion, and preserving a good one.
I cannot do this better, than in the fol-
lowing lines out of Mr. Dryden:

The first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and Sloth sustains the trade.
By chase our
long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food;
Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood;
But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend:
God never made his work for man to mend.'

tures and delusions of this nature that have
been detected in all ages, I endeavour to
suspend my belief till I hear more certain
accounts than any which have yet come to
my knowledge. In short, when I consider
the question, whether there are such per-
sons in the world as those we call witches,
my mind is divided between the two opposite
opinions, or rather (to speak my thoughts
freely) I believe in general that there is,
and has been, such a thing as witchcraft;
but at the same time can give no credit to
any particular instance of it.

I

occurrences that I met with yesterday,
am engaged in this speculation, by some
which I shall give my reader an account of
at large. As I was walking with my friend
Sir Roger by the side of one of his woods,
an old woman applied herself to me for my
charity. Her dress and figure put me in
mind of the following description in Otway:

'In a close lane as I pursued my journey,

spy'd a wrinkled hag, with age grown double,
Her eyes with scalding rheum were gall'd and red;
Cold palsy shook her head; her hands seem'd wither'd;
And on her crooked shoulders had she wrapt

Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.

The tatter'd remnant of an old striped hanging,
Which served to keep her carcase from the cold,
So there was nothing of a piece about her.
Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsely patch'd
With different colour'd rags, black, red, white, yellow,
And seem'd to speak variety of wretchedness.'

As I was musing on this description, and
comparing it with the object before me, the
knight told me, that this very old woman
had the reputation of a witch all over the
country, that her lips were observed to be
always in motion, and that there was not a

switch about her house which her neigh-account, because I hear there is scarce a vil bours did not believe had carried her seve- lage in England that has not a Moll White ral hundreds of miles. If she chanced to in it. When an old woman begins to doat, stumble, they always found sticks or straws and grow chargeable to a parish, she is genethat lay in the figure of a cross before her. rally turned into a witch, and fills the whole If she made any mistake at church, and country with extravagant fancies, imagicried Amen in a wrong place, they never nary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In failed to conclude that she was saying her the mean time, the poor wretch that is the prayers backwards. There was not a maid innocent occasion of so many evils, begins in the parish that would take a pin of her, to be frighted at herself, and sometimes though she should offer a bag of money with confesses secret commerces and familiariit. She goes by the name of Moll White, ties that her imagination forms in a delirious and has made the country ring with several old age. This frequently cuts off charity imaginary exploits that are palmed upon from the greatest objects of compassion, her. If the dairy-maid does not make her and inspires people with a malevolence tobutter come so soon as she would have it, wards those poor decrepid parts of our spe Moll White is at the bottom of the churn. cies in whom human nature is defaced by If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White infirmity and dotage. L. has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White. Nay,' says No. 118.] Monday, July 16, 1711. Sir Roger, 'I have known the master of the pack, upon such an occasion, send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning.'

This account raised my curiosity so far that I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a solitary corner under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering, Sir Roger winked to me, and pointed at something that stood behind the door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old broom-staff. At the same time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby cat that sat in the chimney corner, which, as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White herself; for besides that Moll is said often to accompany her in the same shape, the cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity of an ordi

nary cat.

I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so much wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time could not forbear smiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a justice of the peace to avoid all communication with the devil, and never to hurt any of her neighbours' cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very acceptable.

In our return home Sir Roger told me, that old Moll had been often brought before him for making children spit pins, and giving maids the night-mare; and that the country people would be tossing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his chaplain.

I have since found upon inquiry, that Sir Roger was several times staggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county sessions, had not his chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the contrary.

I have been the more particular in this

-Hæret lateri lethalis rundo.

Virg. n. iv. 73.
-The fatal dart
Sticks in his side, and rankles in his heart.

Dryden.

THIS agreeable seat is surrounded with so many pleasing walks, which are struck out of a wood, in the midst of which the house stands, that one can hardly ever be weary of rambling from one labyrinth of delight to another. To one used to live in a city the charms of the country are so exquisite, that the mind is lost in a certain transport which raises us above ordinary life, and yet is not strong enough to be inconsistent with tranquillity. This state of mind was I in, ravished with the murmur of waters, the whisper of breezes, the singing of birds; and whether I looked up to the heavens, down on the earth, or turned to the prospects around me, still struck with new sense of pleasure; when I found by the voice of my friend, who walked by me, that we had insensibly strolled into the grove sacred to the widow. This woman, says he, 'is of all others the most unintelligible; she either designs to marry, or she does not. What is the most perplexing of all is, that she does not either say to her lovers she has any resolution against that condition of life in general, or that she banishes them; but, conscious of her own merit, she permits their addresses, without fear of any ill consequence, or want of re spect, from their rage or despair. She has that in her aspect, against which it is impossible to offend. A man whose thoughts are constantly bent upon so agreeable an object, must be excused if the ordinary occurrences in conversation are below his attention. I call her indeed perverse, but, alas! why do I call her so? Because her superior merit is such, that I cannot ap proach her without awe, that my heart is checked by too much esteem: I am angry that her charms are not more accessible, that I am more inclined to worship than

salute her. How often have I wished her | thee; herself, her own dear person, I must
unhappy, that I might have an opportunity never embrace again.-Still do you hear
of serving her? and how often troubled in me without one smile-It is too much to
that very imagination, at giving her the bear. He had no sooner spoke these
pain of being obliged? Well, I have led a words, but he made an offer of throwing
miserable life in secret upon her account; himself into the water; at which his mis-
but fancy she would have condescended to tress started up, and at the next instant
have some regard for me, if it had not been he jumped across the fountain, and met her
for that watchful animal her confidant. in an embrace. She, half recovering from
"Of all persons under the sun,' (continued her fright, said in the most charming voice
he, calling me by name,) 'be sure to set a imaginable, and with a tone of complaint,
mark upon confidants: they are of all peo- 'I thought how well you would drown
ple the most impertinent. What is most yourself. No, no, you will not drown your-
pleasant to observe in them, is, that they self till you have taken your leave of Susan
assume to themselves the merit of the per- Holiday.' The huntsman, with a tender-
sons whom they have in their custody. ness that spoke the most passionate love,
Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonder- and with his cheek close to hers, whispered
ful danger of surprises, therefore full of the softest vows of fidelity in her ear, and
suspicions of the least indifferent thing, cried, Do not, my dear, believe a word
particularly careful of new acquaintance, Kate Willow says; she is spiteful, and
and of growing too familiar with the old. makes stories, because she loves to hear
Themista, her favourite woman, is every me talk to herself for your sake.'-'Look
whit as careful of whom she speaks to, and you there,' quoth Sir Roger, 'do you see
what she says. Let the ward be a beauty, there, all mischief comes from confidants!
her confidant shall treat you with an air of But let us not interrupt them; the maid is
distance; let her be a fortune, and she as- honest, and the man dares not be otherwise,
sumes the suspicious behaviour of her friend for he knows I loved her father: I will in-
and patroness. Thus it is that very many terpose in this matter, and hasten the wed-
of our unmarried women of distinction are ding. Kate Willow is a witty mischievous
to all intents and purposes married, except wench in the neighbourhood, who was a
the consideration of different sexes. They beauty; and makes me hope I shall see the
are directly under the conduct of their whis- perverse widow in her condition. She was
perer; and think they are in a state of free-so flippant with her answers to all the ho-
dom, while they can prate with one of these nest fellows that came near her, and so very
attendants of all men in general, and still vain of her beauty, that she has valued her-
avoid the man they most like. You do not self upon her charms till they are ceased.
see one heiress in a hundred whose fate She therefore now makes it her business to
does not turn upon this circumstance of prevent other young women from being
choosing a confidant. Thus it is that the more discreet than she was herself: how-
lady is addressed to, presented and flattered, ever, the saucy thing said, the other day,
only by proxy, in her woman. In my case, well enough, Sir Roger and I must make
how is it possible that- 'Sir Roger was a match, for we are both despised by those
proceeding in his harangue, when we heard we loved." The hussy has a great deal of
the voice of one speaking very importu- power wherever she comes, and has her
nately, and repeating these words, What, share of cunning.
not one smile! We followed the sound till 'However, when I reflect upon this
we came close to a thicket, on the other side woman, I do not know whether in the main
of which we saw a young woman sitting as am the worse for having loved her; when-
it were in a personated sullenness just over ever she is recalled to my imagination my
a transparent fountain. Opposite to her youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth
stood Mr. William, Sir Roger's master of in my veins. This affliction in my life has
the game. The knight whispered me, streaked all my conduct with a softness, of
Hist, these are lovers." The huntsman which I should otherwise have been inca-
looking earnestly at the shadow of the young pable. It is owing, perhaps, to this dear
maiden in the stream, Oh thou dear pic- image in my heart that I am apt to telent,
ture, if thou couldst remain there in the ab- that I easily forgive, and that many desira-
sence of that fair creature whom you repre- ble things are grown into my temper, which
sent in the water, how willingly could II should not have arrived at by better mo-
stand here satisfied for ever, without trou- tives than the thought of being one day
bling my dear Betty herself with any men- hers. I am pretty well satisfied such a
tion of her unfortunate William, whom she passion as I have had is never well cured;
is angry with! But, alas! when she pleases and between you and me, I am often apt to
to be gone, thou wilt also vanish- -Yet imagine it has had some whimsical effect
let me talk to thee while thou dost stay. upon my brain; for I frequently find that in
Tell my dearest Betty thou dost not more my most serious discourse I let fall some
depend upon her, than does her William: comical familiarity of speech or odd phrase
her absence will make away with me as that makes the company laugh. However,
well as thee. If she offers to remove thee, I cannot but allow she is a most excellent
I will jump into these waves to lay hold on woman. When she is in the country, I

I