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themselves interested in the Works of a Poet, who not only was born and refided in Scotland, but whofe pencil was particularly employed in delineating the eminent characters of both fexes in our native country at the time in which he lived. It will not, methinks, require the enthusiasm of a" laudator temporis acti," like Colonel Cauftic, to receive a peculiar fatisfaction in tracing the virtues and the beauty of a former age, in the verfes of one who appears to have fo warmly caught the spirit of the first, to have fo warmly felt the power of the latter. Nor may it be altogether without a moral use, to fee, in the poetical record of a former period, the manners of our own country in times of less luxury, but not perhaps of lefs refinement; when Fashion feems to have conferred fuperiorities fully as intrinsic as any fhe can boaft at prefent; to have added dignity of fentiment to pride of birth, and to have invested superior beauty with superior grace and higher accomplishments.

N

F. 35

No 43. SATURDAY, Nov. 26. 1785.

To the AUTHOR of the LOUNGER.

SIR,

A

-shire, Oct. 1785.

T the age of thirty-five I fucceeded, by the death of a near relation, to a confiderable land eftate. Upon this event I refolved to fix my refidence at the family manfion-house. I was. very little acquainted with that part of the country where it was fituated; but I was told it was in an uncommonly good neighbourhood; and that I fhould be particularly fortunate in having it in. my power to enjoy an excellent fociety. I found a tolerable library of old books, to which I added a pretty extenfive collection of modern ones : From the perufal of them, from the attention which I propofed to give to the culture of a part: of my estate which I meant to farm myself, and from the enjoyment which I expected to reap from the company and converfation of my good neighbours, I was in hopes that my life would lide on in a very agreeable manner.

Being naturally of an eafy temper, and defirous of being on good terms with every one around me, as foon as I came to fix my abode, I made it a principal object to get acquainted with my neighbours, and to establish a familiar intercourse between us. Our first vifits were rather formal and diftant; but this gradually wore off, and our correspondence became frequent and repeated. Their invitations to me were numerous; and I did not fail to ask them in return. I endeavoured to make my welcome as warm as theirs, and to treat them with the fame marks of hofpitality which I received.

But, Sir, I now find that what I expected would have been one of the bleflings of my fituation, has become one of its greatest misfortunes. My neighbours having once found the way to

my

house, are now scarce ever out of it. When they are idle in the mornings, which is almost always the cafe, they direct their ride or their walk my way, and pay a friendly visit to their neighbour Dalton. I am by this means interrupted in my attention to my farm, and have not time left to give the neceffary orders. It is vain to think of making use of my library: When I fit down to read, I am disturbed before I get the length of a few pages, and am obliged to break off in the midst of an interesting story, or an inftructive

ftructive piece of reasoning. I cannot deny myfelf, or order my fervants to tell I am not at home. This is one of your privileges in town ; but, in the country, if one's horses are in the ftable, or one's chaife in the coach-houfe, one is of neceffity bound to receive all intruders. In this manner are my mornings conftantly loft, and I am not allowed to have a fingle half-hour to myfelf.

This, however, is one of the flightest of mydiftreffes; the morning intrufions are nothing to the more formal vifitations of the afternoons. Hardly a day paffes without my being obliged to have a great dinner for the reception of my neighbours; and when they are not with me, good neighbourhood, I am told, requires I should be with them, and give them my visitations in return. Even of the very beft company, where the very best converfation takes place, a man is apt, at least I have felt this in myfelf, fometimes to tire, and to wish for the indulgence of that Tiftleffness, that fort of dreaming indolence, which you, Sir, are fo well acquainted with, and which can only be had alone. But to be conftantly expofed to be in a crowd, a crowd felected from no other circumstance than from their refiding within ten miles of you ;-the keeper of an inn is not, in point of company, in a worse situation!

But

But the merely being obliged to spend my mornings in the way I have described, and my afternoons in a conftant crowd of promiscuous company, is not the only evil I have to complain of. The manner in which I am obliged to spend it in that company is ftill more disagreeable. Hospitality in this part of the country does not confift folely in keeping an open house, and receiving all your neighbours for many miles round; but one must fill them drunk, and get drunk with them one's felf. Having no fund of converfation with which they can entertain their landlord or each other, they are obliged to have recourse to their glafs to make up for every other want, and deficiency of matter is supplied by repeated bumpers. It is a favourite maxim here, that Conversation fpoils good company; and this maxim is moft invariably followed in practice, unless noise and vociferation, after the fwallowing of more than one bottle, can be called converfation. Without injustice it may be said of most of my neighbours, that when fober they are filent, and when not fober, it were better they remained filent. I have frequently made efforts to check the riot and intemperance of my guests, and to with-hold the bottle from them, when I have thought they have drunk fully as much as was good for them; but I have always found myfelf

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