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
inany 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:t it is there called the x, 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, exercises 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 themselves.

By Francis Fuller, M. A.

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 labour and exercise, as well as the other in study and contemplation. L.

-Vocat ingenti clamore Citharon,
Taygetique canes-

Virg. Georg. fii. 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

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, ac-found out this piece of exercise, he verily cording to the idea which I have given of believed he should have lost his senses. it. Doctor Sydenham is very lavish in its praises; and if the English reader will see the mechanical effects of it described at length, he may find them in a book published not many years since under the title of Medicina Gymnastica. For my own part, when I am in town, for want of these 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 thing 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 room to disturb me whilst I am ringing.

After what has been said, I need not inform my readers, that Sir Roger, with whose character I hope they are at present pretty well acquainted, has in his youth gone through the whole course of those rural diversions which the country abounds in; and which seem to be extremely well 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 partridges 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 account of his remarkable enmity towards foxes; having destroyed more of those ver

When I was some years younger than I am at present, I used to employ myself in a more laborious diversion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises that is

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

min in one year, than it was thought the
whole county could have produced. In-
deed the knight does not scruple to own
among his most intimate friends, that in
order to establish his reputation this way,
he has secretly sent for great numbers of
them out of other counties, which he used
to turn loose about the country by night,
that he might the better signalize himself
in their destruction the next day. His hunt-man's crying, Stole away.'

ing horses were the finest and best managed
in all these parts. His tenants are still full
of the praises of a gray stone-horse that un-
happily staked himself several years since,
and was buried with great solemnity in the
orchard.

Sir Roger, being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in action, has disposed of his beagles and got a pack of stop-hounds. What these want in speed, he endeavours to make amends for by the deepness of their mouths and the variety of their notes, which are suited in such a manner to each other, that the whole cry makes up a complete concert. He is so nice in this particular, that a gentleman having made him 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 ears 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.'*

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, encompassed by his tenants and servants, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety 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, because the old dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, now headed the pack. The fellow 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 of the weather, the cheerfulness of every thing around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a double echo from After we had rid about a mile from home, of the sportsmen, and the sounding of the two neighbouring hills, with the hallooing we came upon a large heath, and the sports- horn, lifted my spirits into a most lively men began to beat. They had done so some time, when, as I was at a little dis-pleasure, which I freely indulged because tance 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 the way she took, which I endeavoured to make the company sensible of by extending my arm; but to no purpose, till Sir Roger,

for

it was 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

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.

who knows that none of my extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me and asked me if puss was gone that way? Upon my answering yes, he immediately called in the dogs, and put them upon the scent. As they were going off, I heard one of the country-fellows muttering to his companion, That 'twas a wonder they had not lost all their sport, for want of the silent gentle

*Act iv. Sc. 1.

This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a rising ground, from whence I could have the pleasure of the whole chase, without the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds. The hare immediately threw them above a mile behind her; but I was pleased to find, that instead of running straight forwards, or, in hunter's language, flying the country,' as I was afraid she might have done, she wheeled about, and described a sort of circle round the hill, where I had taken my station, in such a manner as gave me a very distinct view of the sport. I could see her first pass by, and the dogs some time afterwards, unravelling the whole track she had made, and following 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 immediately 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.

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.

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

It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft. When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West Indies, but from every particular nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there is such an intercourse and commerce with evil spirits, as that which we express by the name of witchcraft. But when I consider that the ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound most in these relations, and that the persons among us who are supposed to engage in such an infernal commerce, are people of a weak under

As we were returning home, I remembered that Monsieur Paschal, in his most excellent discourse on the Misery of Man, tells us, that all our endeavours after greatness proceed from nothing but a desire of being surrounded by a multitude of persons and affairs that may hinder us from looking into ourselves, which is a view we cannot bear. He afterwards goes on to show that our love of sports comes from the same reason, and is particularly severe upon hunting. What,' says he, unless it be to drown thought, can make them throw away so much time and pains upon a silly animal, 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 imposjust, when a man suffers his whole mind to tures and delusions of this nature that have be drawn into his sports, and altogether been detected in all ages, I endeavour to loses himself in the woods; but does not suspend my belief till I hear more certain affect those who propose a far more lauda- accounts than any which have yet come to ble end from this exercise, I mean the pre-my knowledge. In short, when I consider servation of health, and keeping all the the question, whether there are such perorgans of the soul in a condition to execute sons in the world as those we call witches, her orders. Had that incomparable person, my mind is divided between the two opposite whom I last quoted, been a little more in- opinions, or rather (to speak my thoughts dulgent to himself in this point, the world freely) I believe in general that there is, might probably have enjoyed him much and has been, such a thing as witchcraft; longer; whereas through too great an ap-but at the same time can give no credit to plication to his studies in his youth, he con- any particular instance of it. tracted that ill habit of body, which, after a tedious sickness, carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole history 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.

I am engaged in this speculation, by some occurrences that I met with yesterday, 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:

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 exercise to all my country friends, as the best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution, and preserving a good one.

I cannot do this better, than in the following 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.'

X.

In a close lane as I pursued my journey,

spy'd a wrinkled hag, with age grown double,

Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.

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

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 diffrent 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 gene-
that 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, imagi-
cried 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 familiari-
it. 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 to-
butter 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

Sir Roger, I have known the master of the No. 118.] Monday, July 16, 1711.

-Hæret lateri lethalis rundo.

pack, upon such an occasion, send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning.'

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

This account raised my curiosity so far that I begged my friend Sir Roger to go Iwith 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 seve-ing of birds; and whether I looked up to ral pranks above the capacity of an ordinary cat.

Drgden. 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 sing

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.

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 unintelli-
gible; 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 ba-
nishes 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 im-
possible to offend. A man whose thoughts
are constantly bent upon so agreeable an
object, must be excused if the ordinary oc-
currences 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

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

salute her. How often have I wished her unhappy, that I might have an opportunity of serving her? and how often troubled in that very imagination, at giving her the pain of being obliged? Well, I have led a miserable life in secret upon her account; but fancy she would have condescended to have some regard for me, if it had not been for that watchful animal her confidant.

thee; herself, her own dear person, I must never embrace again.-Still do you hear me without one smile-It is too much to bear.'-He had no sooner spoke these words, but he made an offer of throwing himself into the water; at which his mistress started up, and at the next instant he jumped across the fountain, and met her in an embrace. She, half recovering from her fright, said in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, I thought how well you would drown yourself. No, no, you will not drown yourself till you have taken your leave of Susan Holiday.' The huntsman, with a tenderness that spoke the most passionate love, and with his cheek close to hers, whispered the softest vows of fidelity in her ear, and cried, Do not, my dear, believe a word Kate Willow says; she is spiteful, and makes stories, because she loves to hear me talk to herself for your sake.'-'Look you there,' quoth Sir Roger, do you see there, all mischief comes from confidants! But let us not interrupt them; the maid is honest, and the man dares not be otherwise, for he knows I loved her father: I will interpose in this matter, and hasten the wedding. Kate Willow is a witty mischievous wench in the neighbourhood, who was a beauty; and makes me hope I shall see the perverse widow in her condition. She was so flippant with her answers to all the honest fellows that came near her, and so very vain of her beauty, that she has valued herself upon her charms till they are ceased. She therefore now makes it her business to prevent other young women from being more discreet than she was herself: however, the saucy thing said, the other day, well enough, "Sir Roger and I must make a match, for we are both despised by those we loved." The hussy has a great deal of power wherever she comes, and has her share of cunning.

"Of all persons under the sun,' (continued he, calling me by name,) 'be sure to set a mark upon confidants: they are of all people the most impertinent. What is most pleasant to observe in them, is, that they assume to themselves the merit of the persons whom they have in their custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of surprises, therefore full of suspicions of the least indifferent thing, particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar with the old. Themista, her favourite woman, is every whit as careful of whom she speaks to, and what she says. Let the ward be a beauty, her confidant shall treat you with an air of distance; let her be a fortune, and she assumes the suspicious behaviour of her friend and patroness. Thus it is that very many of our unmarried women of distinction are to all intents and purposes married, except the consideration of different sexes. They are directly under the conduct of their whisperer; and think they are in a state of freedom, while they can prate with one of these attendants of all men in general, and still avoid the man they most like. You do not see one heiress in a hundred whose fate does not turn upon this circumstance of choosing a confidant. Thus it is that the lady is addressed to, presented and flattered, only by proxy, in her woman. In my case, how is it possible that.' Sir Roger was proceeding in his harangue, when we heard the voice of one speaking very importunately, and repeating these words, What, 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 I am the worse for having loved her; whenit 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 incalooking 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 relent, ture, if thou couldst remain there in the ab- that I easily forgive, and that many desirasence 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 mostand 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

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