Square, where the hoped for the honour of our company at her first rout, which was to be held the 5th of Jan. next. They told us the town was quite empty at the season when we were there; but I am fure there was noise and bustle enough of all confcience; carts rumbling, coaches rattling, criers bawling, and bells ringing, from morning to night, and sometimes, as my poor head felt, all night too. My wife, however, luckily found it very dull, otherwise we should not probably have left it fo foon as we did, though not before it had coft us fome hundred of guineas to find out that there was nothing in it worth feeing. Colonel O'Shannon carried us to fome fights fuch as they were; he fhewed us the Tower, St Paul's, Bedlam, and the three Bridges; took us to the city Pantheon, the Dog and Duck, and the Swearing-house at High-gate. As for genteel company, he regretted exceedingly that almost all his acquaintance were in the country; but promised that when we came again he would introduce us to a Director of the Bank, a Lord of the Treasury, and the Master-general of the Ordnance, which laft, he affured us, had a very particular friendship for him; but, in his abfence, he made us acquainted with a young gentleman, who, he faid, was one of that great man's first favourites, and a fecretary in his office; an appointment

which the Colonel had procured for him. My wife was very folicitous to cultivate Mr M'Phelim's acquaintance, on account of two nephews of hers who are in the army, to whom the Colonel and he have promised their intereft; and we have the greater reason to rely on their friendship, as the Colonel and his friend did us the honour of accepting a loan of L. 200 from me, (which Mr M Phelim wanted to make up a fum in the absence of the Mafter-general of the Ordnance) on their joint security.

Not long after this tranfaction, we left London, and I found it some comfort, after all my diftreffes and disturbances, to find myfelf again fafe and found in my native country. Not that I am free of the difquiet of my journey; it rings in my ears still in the narration of my wife, who has fuch talents for defcription, that, if I had not witneffed the circumftances, I fhould have fuppofed Sir D. Dumplin to be a Knight of the Garter, Colonel O-Shannon a Lieutenant-general, and his friend Mr M Phelim a Privycounsellor. She makes all our acquaintance take notice how much better I am for Harrowgate, though, in fact, I never drank a drop of the water, and, except the company of Mrs Rafp, took no fort of drug whatever. I must

confefs,

confefs, however, that I am no worfe on the whole, and am not near so much afraid of dying as before I was married. I am, &c.

JEREMIAH DY-SOON.

N° 46. SATURDAY, Dec. 17. 1785.

Μ'

Y Readers will have obferved that the office of the Lounger has of late been almost a finecure, his correfpondents having faved him the trouble of compofition. The paper of to-day is alfo a communication, which, from the sex and accomplishments of the author, as well as the flattering manner in which fshe expreffes herself, gratifies my vanity as much as my indolence.

To the AUTHOR of the LOUNGER.

SIR,

THE genteel but pointed irony with which you mention the follies of our sex, and the pains you take, in your admired Effays, for our instruction and improvement, will, I make no doubt, have fome influence on the minds of those who are thoughtless, but not diffipated; and who, though hurried down the ftream of pleasure, are not yet enough hardened to difregard the admonitions of virtue.

Among

Among young people of this defcription, many ladies may be led to the attainment of mental accomplishments, in hopes of recommending themselves to the notice of the other fex; who, from their fuperior education, and more folid judgement, would, one might prefume, be more guided by the dictates of good sense, than led by the blind caprices of Fashion. But methinks, Sir, it would not be altogether fair to mislead your inexperienced female readers with fuch fallacious hopes. Tell them as much as you please of the internal rewards that belong to virtue: That to embellish, in early life, their minds with tafte, and to enlighten their understandings with fome degree of knowledge, will prove to them an inexhaustible source of delight in the lonely hours of folitude, and procure veneration and respect to their declining years. But let them know, that, on the fine fellows who, in our days, deign to mingle in the female world, fuch accomplishments will have as much influence, as the harmoious compofition of Handel on the deaf pupils of Mr Braidwood.

To be distinguished by your fex, is more or less the wifh of every female heart. To folicit that diftinction, Fancy is put to the torture to dress out the votaries of Fashion; and, to deferve it, the more judicious endeavour to adorn their minds with knowledge, tafte, and fentiment. Which

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