what a sparkle my eyes had; but I did not let any body know how they came by it.

Indeed if there is any fin in't, I am fure it is not worth the while here, for there is no body to fee one needs care how one looks for. I used to be joked about our neighbour young Broadcast, who is reckoned one of the best matches in our neighbourhood, and my Father brought him to see me the very day after my arrival. But he is grown fo fat and fo coarfe fince I left this, and talks and laughs fo loud, and speaks of nothing but the value of land, and the laying out of farms! I received him very coldly, and he has not come back fince: For my own part, I don't care if he should never come back.

There is, however, fome pleasure in dreffing one's felf, to have the amufement of making the people ftare and wonder as they do. It is very diverting to me to hear the obfervations of fome of the good Ladies, our neighbours, when I put on fome of my town-things, on purpose to provoke them. La! what a head!-Good graci ous! what a neck!-and mercy upon us! what a bunch behind !-Sunday last, being the first opportunity for my appearing in public, I refolved to make a figure; and fo I went to church with my head as well curled as my maid and I could make it, my newest fashioned hat, and a

round

round hoop Mrs Mushroom had juft fent me from London. Would you think it, Mr Lounger, I had like to have been mobb'd in the coming out? and the people followed the carriage till it came to the church-way ford in our way home.

But this will only do now and then; and, on the whole, I find my time hang very heavy on my hands; though I try all I can to coax away a great part of the day too. As I am a perfon of fome confequence fince my late journey to town, they indulge me a good deal in the difpofal of my time, even though it fometimes runs a little cross to the regularity of theirs ; only my father growls now and then; but we don't mind that much. 1 feldom rife till near eleven, and generally breakfaft in bed. I read the newspapers my brother fends down, all except the politics. I ftroll out, as I told you before, between one and three; then, if I drefs, or perhaps alter the fit of my cap, or change my feathers before the glass, I am feldom ready till long paft dinner-time; they put it back an hour ever fince my brother came first home. In the evening I play the new minuets, teach my fifters cards, or we guess the riddles in the Lady's Magazine; and I think of the Promenade in Prince's Street, and of Dunn's rooms, and of being in Edinburgh next winter if I can.

I am told there is to be a ball in our county town, when the Judges come this way on their circuit, in about a fortnight hence, which the Homefpuns talk of with great glee. And they tell me there is a fet of players who are to perform there at that time, and the German Tumbler with his bear and dogs. But, for my part, I have very little inclination to go. After feeing Lamash, and Wilson, and Kippling, not to mention Woods and Mrs Crawford.-But above all, to think of the German Tumbler after Richer and Dubois ; and his dogs forfooth, after the dear little dogs at the Black Bull !-Oh! Mr Lounger, as Macbeth fays,

What a falling off is there!

It will be really compaffionate in you to give as a paper now and then about what is going on in town. And do, Mr Lounger, let there be plenty of characters in it. I have told the Homefpuns, the owners of all the characters in your paper from the very beginning, without miffing one. For, believe me, I am, dear Mr Lounger, whether in town or country, your constant reader and admirer,

MARJORY MUSHROOM.

Z.

N° 63. SATURDAY, April 15. 1786.

An is mihi liber cui mulier imperat? cui leges imponit, praefcribit, vetat quod videtur?

CICERO.

To the LoUNGER.

I

SIR,

AM a middle-aged gentleman, poffeffed of a moderate income, arifing chiefly from the profits of an office, of which the emolument is more than fufficient to compenfate the degree of labour with which the discharge of its duties is attended. About my forty-fifth year, I became tired of the bachelor-state; and, taking the hint from fome little twinges of the gout, I began to think it was full time for me to look out for an agreeable help-mate. The laft of the juvenile taftes that forfakes a man, is his admiration of youth and beauty; and I own I was fo far from being infenfible to thefe attractions, that I felt myself fometimes tempted to play the fool, and marry

for

for love. I had fense enough, however, to refift this inclination, and, in my choice of a wife, to facrifice rapture and romance to the prospect of ease and comfort. I wedded the daughter of a country-gentleman of fmall fortune, a lady much about my own time of life, who bore the character of a difcreet prudent woman, who was a ftranger to fashionable folly and diffipation of every kind, and whofe highest merit was that of an excellent house-wife.

When I begin by telling you, that I repent of my choice, you will naturally suppose, Mr Lounger, (a very common cafe), that I have been deceived in the idea I had formed of my wife's character. Not at all, Sir; I found it true to a tittle. She is a perfect paragon of prudence and difcretion. Her moderation is exemplary in the highest degree; and as to oeconomy, fhe is all that I expected, and a great deal more too. You will afk, then, of what it is that I complain? I fhall lay my grievances before you without referve.

A man, Sir, who, with no bad difpofitions, and with fome pretenfions to common sense, has arrived at the age of five and forty, may be prefumed to have formed for himself a plan of life, which he will not care haftily to relinquish, merely to gratify the caprices of another. I entered

the