which it would inevitably sour upon a thou- | time, the said bailiff shall take with him sand occasions. When greatness of mind is twain of the freeholders of the lordship of joined with this amiable quality it attracts Whichenovre, and they three shall go to the admiration and esteem of all who behold it. Thus Cæsar, not more remarkable for his fortune and valour than for. his humanity, stole into the hearts of the Roman people, when, breaking through the custom, he pronounced an oration at the funeral of his first and best-beloved wife.

the manor of Rudlow, belonging to Robert Knightleye, and there shall summon the aforesaid Knightleye, or his bailiff, commanding him to be ready at Whichevovre the day appointed, at prime of day, with his carriage, that is to say, a horse and a saddle, a sack and a pryke, for to convey 'Good-nature is insufficient, unless it be the said bacon and corn a journey out of the steady and uniform, and accompanied with county of Stafford, at his costages. And an evenness of temper, which is above all then the said bailiff shall, with the said things to be preserved in this friendship freeholders, summon all the tenants of the contracted for life. A man must be easy said manor, to be ready at the day appointed within himself before he can be so to his at Whichenovre, for to do and perform the other self. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius services which they owe to the bacon. And are instances of men, who, by the strength at the day assigned, all such as owe services of philosophy, having entirely composed to the bacon shall be ready at the gate of their minds, and subdued their passions, the manor of Whichenovre, from the sunare celebrated for good husbands, notwith-rising to noon, attending and awaiting for standing the first was yoked with Xantippe, the coming of him who fetcheth the bacon. and the other with Faustina. If the wedded pair would but habituate themselves for the first year to bear with one another's faults, the difficulty would be pretty well conquered. This mutual sweetness of temper and complacency was finely recommended in the nuptial ceremonies among the heathens, who, when they sacrificed to Juno at that solemnity, always tore out the gall from the entrails of the victim, and cast it behind the altar.

'I shall conclude this letter with a passage out of Dr. Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, not only as it will serve to fill up your present paper, but, if I find myself in the humour, may give rise to another; I having by me an old register belonging to the place here under-mentioned.

And when he is come, there shall be delivered to him and his fellows, chapelets, and to all those which shall be there to do their services due to the bacon. And they shall lead the said demandant with trumps and tabors, and other manner of minstrelsy, to the hall door, where he shall find the lord of Whichenovre, or his steward, ready to deliver the bacon in this manner:

"He shall inquire of him which demandeth the bacon, if he have brought twain of his neighbours with him: which must answer, they be here ready.' And then the steward shall cause these two neighbours to swear, if the said demandant be a wedded man, or have been a man wedded; and if since his marriage one year and a day be past; and if he be a freeman 'Sir Philip de Somervile held the manors or a villain. † And if his said neighbours of Whichenovre, Scirescot, Ridware, Ne- make oath that he hath for him all these therton, and Cowlee, all in the county of three points rehearsed, then shall the bacon Stafford, of the earls of Lancaster, by this be taken down and brought to the hall door, memorable service. The said Sir Philip and shall there be laid upon one half-quarshall find, maintain, and sustain, one bacon-ter of wheat, and upon one other of rye. flitch, hanging in his hall at Whichenovre, ready arrayed all times of the year but in Lent, to be given to every man or woman married, after the day and the year of their marriage be past, in form following.*

"Whensoever that any one such before named will come to inquire for the bacon, in their own person, they shall come to the bailiff, or to the porter of the lordship of Whichenovre, and shall say to them in the manner as ensueth:

'Bailiff, or porter, I do you to know, that I am come for myself to demand one baconflvke hanging in the hall of the lord of Whichenovre, after the form thereunto belonging.'

"After which relation, the bailiff or porter shall assign a day to him, upon promise by his faith to return, and with him to bring twain of his neighbours. And in the mean

*There was a similar institution at Dunmow in Essex, for an account of which see Leland's Itinerary.

And he that demandeth the bacon shall kneel upon his knee, and shall hold his right hand upon a book, which book shall be laid upon the bacon and the corn, and shall make oath in this manner:

'Hear ye, Sir Philip de Somervile, lord of Whichenovre, mayntener and gyver of this baconne; that I A sithe I wedded B my wife, and sithe I had hyr in my kepying, and at my wylle, by a year and a day after our marriage, I would not have chaunged for none other; farer ne fowler; richer ne pourer; ne for none other descended of greater lynage; slepying ne waking, at noo tyme.-And if the seyd B were sole, and I sole, I would take her to be my wife before all the wymen of the world, of what condiciones soever they be, good or evylle; as help me God and his seyntes, and this flesh and all fleshes.

↑ Villain, in the language of the time, signified a servant or bondman.

-Forgiving with a smile The perjuries that easy maids beguile.-Dryden. 'The next couple enrolled had like to 'MR. SPECTATOR,-According to my have carried it, if one of the witnesses had promise I herewith transmit to you a list of not deposed, that, dining on a Sunday with several persons, who from time to time de- the demandant, whose wife had sat below manded the flitch of bacon of Sir Philip de the squire's lady at church, she, the said Somervile, and his descendants; as it is pre- wife, dropped some expressions, as if she served in an ancient manuscript, under the thought her husband deserved to be knighttitle of "The Register of Whichenovre-ed; to which he returned a passionate pish! hall, and of the bacon-flitch there main

"Alison, the wife of Stephen Freckle, Without enumerating other particular brought her said husband along with her, persons, I shall content myself with observand set forth the good conditions and be-ing that the sentence pronounced against

one Gervase Poacher is, that "he might | pendence, I do not know, but he was so have had bacon to his eggs, if he had not kind as to leave my wearing of it to my own hitherto scolded his wife when they were discretion; and, not having any just title to overboiled." And the deposition against Dorothy Dolittle runs in these words, "that she had so far usurped the dominion of the coal fire (the stirring whereof her husband claimed to himself,) that by her good-will she never would suffer the poker out of her hand."

'I find but two couples in this first century that were successful; the first was a sea-captain and his wife, who since the day of their marriage had not seen one another until the day of the claim. The second was an honest pair in the neighbourhood; the husband was a man of plain good sense, and a peaceable temper; the woman was dumb.'

it from my degrees, I am content to be
without the ornament. The privileges of
our nobility to keep a certain number of
chaplains are undisputed, though perhaps
not one in ten of those reverend gentlemen
have any relation to the noble families their
scarfs belong to; the right generally of
creating all chaplains, except the domestic
(where there is one,) being nothing more
than the perquisite of a steward's place,
who, if he happens to outlive any consi-
derable number of his noble masters, shall
probably, at one and the same time, have
fifty chaplains, all in their proper accoutre-
ments, of his own creation; though perhaps
there hath been neither grace nor prayer
said in the family since the introduction of
the first coronet.
I am,
&c.'

No. 609.] Wednesday, October 20, 1714. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I wish you would -Farrago libelli.-Juv. Sat. i. 86. write a philosophical paper about natural The miscellaneous subjects of my book. antipathies, with a word or two concerning 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I have for some time the strength of imagination. I can give you desired to appear in your paper, and have a list upon the first notice, of a rational therefore chosen a day* to steal into the china cup, of an egg that walks upon two Spectator, when I take it for granted you legs, and a quart-pot that sings like a nightwill not have many spare minutes for specu-ingale. There is in my neighbourhood a lations of your own. As I was the other day walking with an honest country gentleman, he very often was expressing his astonishment to see the town so mightily crowded with doctors of divinity; upon which I told him he was very much mistaken if he took all those gentlemen he saw in scarfs to be persons of that dignity; for that a young divine, after his first degree in the university, usually comes hither only to show himself; and, on that occasion, is apt to think he is but half equipped with a gown and cassock for his public appearance, if he hath not the additional ornament of a scarf of the first magnitude to entitle him to the appellation of Doctor from his landlady, and the boy at Child's. Now, since I know that this piece of garniture is looked upon as a mark of vanity or affectation, as it is made use of among some of the little spruce adventurers of the town, I should be glad if you would give it a place among those extravagances you have justly exposed in several of your papers: being very well assured that the main body of the clergy, both in the country and the universities, who are almost to a man untainted with it, would be very well pleased to see this venerable foppery well exposed. When my patron did me the honour to take me into his family (for I must own myself of this order,) he was pleased to say he took me as a friend and companion; and whether he looked upon the scarf like the lace and shoulder-knot of a footman, as a badge of servitude and de

very pretty prattling shoulder of veal, that squalls out at the sight of a knife. Then, as for natural antipathies, I know a general officer who was never conquered but by a smothered rabbit; and a wife that domineers over her husband by the help of a breast of mutton. A story that relates to myself on this subject may be thought not unentertaining, especially when I assure you that it is literally true. I had long, made love to a lady, in the possession of whom I am now the happiest of mankind, whose hand I should have gained with much difficulty without the assistance of a cat. You must know then that my most dangerous rival had so strong an aversion to this species, that he infallibly swooned away at the sight of that harmless creature. My friend, Mrs. Lucy, her maid, having a greater respect for me and my purse than she had for my rival, always took care to pin the tail of a cat under the gown of her mistress, whenever she knew of his coming; which had such an effect, that every time he entered the room, he looked more like one of the figures in Mrs. Salmon's wax-work, than a desirable lover. In short, he grew sick of her company; which the young lady taking notice of (who no more knew why than he did,) she sent me a challenge to meet her in Lincoln's-inn chapel, which I joyfully accepted; and have, amongst other pleasures, the satisfaction of being praised by her for my stratagem. I am, &c.

"From the Hoop. TOM NIMBLE.'

*The 20th of October, 1714, was the day of the coro-church, Fleet-Street, but which, about fifteen years ago, An exhibition then to be seen near St. Dunstan's nation of king George I. was moved to the opposite side of the street.

If we suppose that there are spirits, or angels, who look into the ways of men, as it is highly probable there are, both from reason and revelation, how different are the notions which they entertain of us, from those which we are apt to form of one another! Were they to give us in their catalogue of such worthies as are now living, how different would it be from that which any of our own species would draw up!

'MR.SPECTATOR,-The virgins of Great | those who come cut and draw upon themBritain are very much obliged to you for selves the eyes and admiration of mankind. putting them upon such tedious drudgeries Virgil would never have been heard of, had in needle-work as were fit only for the not his domestic misfortunes driven him Hilpas and the Nilpas that lived before the out of his cbscurity, and brought him to flood. Here is a stir indeed, with your his- Rome. tories in embroidery, your groves with shades of silk and streams of mohair! I would have you to know, that I hope to kill a hundred lovers before the best housewife in England can stitch out a battle; and do not fear but to provide boys and girls much faster than your disciples can embroider them. I love birds and beasts as well as you, but am content to fancy them when they are really made. What do you think of gilt leather for furniture? There is your pretty hangings for your chamber!*. We are dazzled with the splendour of and, what is more, our own country is the titles, the ostentation of learning, the noise only place in Europe where work of that of victories: they, on the contrary, see the kind is tolerably done. Without minding philosopher in the cottage, who possesses your musty lessons, I am this minute going his soul in patience and thankfulness, under to St. Paul's church-yard to bespeak a the pressures of what little minds call poscreen and a set of hangings; and am re-verty and distress. They do not look for solved to encourage the manufacture of my country. Yours, CLEORA.'

No. 610.] Friday, October 22, 1714.

Sic, cum transierint mei
Nullo cum strepitu dies,
Plebeius moriar senex,
Illi mors gravis incubat,
Qui, notus nimis omnibus,
Ignotus moritur sibi.-Seneca.

Thus, when my fleeting days at last,
Unheeded, silently are past,
Calmly I shall resign my breath,
In life unknown, forgot in death;
While he, o'ertaken unprepar'd,
Finds death an evil to be fear'd,
Who dies, to others too much known,
A stranger to himself alone.

I HAVE often wondered that the Jews should contrive such worthless greatness for the Deliverer whom they expected, as to dress him up in external pomp and pageantry, and represent him to their imaginations as making havoc among his creatures, and actuated with the poor ambition of a Cæsar or an Alexander. How much more illustricus does he appear in his real character, when considered as the author of universal benevolence among men, as refining our passions, exalting our nature, giving us vast ideas of immortality, and teaching us a contempt of that little showy grandeur wherein the Jews made the glory

of their Messiah to consist!

great men at the head of armies, or among the pomps of a court, but often find them out in shades and solitudes, in the private walks and by-paths of life. The evening's walk of a wise man is more illustrious in their sight than the march of a general at the head of a hundred thousand men. A contemplation of God's works; a voluntary act of justice to cur own detriment: a generous concern for the good of mankind; tears that are shed in silence for the misery of others; a private desire or resentment broken and subdued; in short, an unfeigned exercise of humility, or any other virtue, are such actions as are glorious in their sight, and denominate men great and reputable. The most famous among us are often looked upon with pity, with contempt, or with indignation; whilst those who are most obscure among their own species are regarded with love, with approbation, and

esteem.

The moral of the present speculation amounts to this; that we should not be led away by the censures and applauses of men, but consider the figure that every person will make at that time, when Wisdom shall be justified of her children,' and nothing pass for great or illustrious, which is not an ornament and perfection to human

nature.

monarch, is a memorable instance to our The story of Gyges, the rich Lydian Nothing,' says Longinus, can be great, by Gyges, who was the happiest man, represent purpose. The oracle being asked the contempt of which is great.' The pos-plied, Aglaus. Gyges, who expected to session of wealth and riches cannot give a man a title to greatness, because it is looked upon as a greatness of mind to contemn these gifts of fortune, and to be above the desire of them. I have therefore been inclined to think that there are greater men

who lie concealed among the species, than

*There was about this time a celebrated manufactory of tapestry at Chelsea.

have heard himself named on this occasion, was much surprised, and very curious to know who this Aglaus should be. After much inquiry, he was found to be an obscure countryman, who employed all his time in cultivating a garden, and a few acres of land about his house.

Cowley's agreeable relation of this story shall close this day's speculation.