He proceeds in the same letter to amuse his friends with a whimsical account of the costume and manners of the Hollanders; which we also extract for the entertainment of the reader.

« You may expect some account of this country; and though I am not well qualified for such an undertaking, yet I shall endeavour to satisfy some part of your expectations. Nothing surprised me more than the books every day published descriptive of the manners of this country. Any young man who takes it into his head to publish his travels, visits the countries he intends to describe; passes through them with as much inattention as his valet de chambre; and consequently, not having a fund himself to fill a volume, he applies to those who wrote before him, and gives us the manners of a country, not as he must have seen them, but such as they might have been fifty years before. The modern Dutchman is quite a different creature from him of former times: he in every thing imitates a Frenchman, but in his easy disengaged air, which is the result of keeping polite company. The Dutchman is vastly ceremonious, and is perhaps exactly what a Frenchman might have been in the reign of Louis XIV. Such are the better bred. But the downright Hollander is one of the oddest figures in nature. Upon a head of lank hair he wears a half-cocked narrow hat, laced with black riband; no coat, but seven waistcoats, and nine pair of breeches; so that his hips reach almost up to his arm-pits. This well-clothed vegetable is now fit to see company, or make love. But what a pleasing creature is the object of his appetite? Why, she wears a large fur cap, with a deal of Flanders lace; and for every pair of breeches he carries, she puts on two petticoats.

« A Dutch lady burns nothing about her phlegmatic admirer but his tobacco. You must know, sir, every woman carries in her hand a stove with coals in it, which, when she sits, she snugs under her petticoats; and at this chimney dozing Strephon lights his pipe. I take it that this continual smoking is what gives the man the ruddy healthful complexion he generally wears, by draining his superfluous moisture; while the woman,

deprived of this amusement, overflows with such viscidities as tint the complexion, and give that paleness of visage which low fenny grounds and moist air conspire to cause. A Dutch woman and a Scotch will well bear an opposition. The one is pale and fat, the other lean and ruddy. The one walks as if she were straddling after a go-cart, and the other takes too masculine a stride. I shall not endeavour to deprive either country of its share of beauty; but must say, that of all objects on this earth, an English farmer's daughter is most charming. Every woman there is a complete beauty, while the higher class of women want many of the requisites to make them even tolerable. Their pleasures here are very dull, though very various. You may smoke, you may doze, you may go to the Italian comedy, as good an amusement as either of the former. This entertainment always brings in Harlequin, who is generally a magician; and in consequence of his diabolical art, performs a thousand tricks on the rest of the persons of the drama, who are all fools. I have seen the pit in a roar of laughter at this humour, when with his sword he touches the glass from which another was drinking. 'Twas not his face they laughed at, for that was masked: they must have seen something vastly queer in the wooden sword, that neither I, nor you, sir, were you there, could see.

« In winter, when their canals are frozen, every house is forsaken, and all people are on the ice; sleds drawn by horses, and skating, are at that time the reigning amusements. They have boats here that slide on the ice, and are driven by the winds. When they spread all their sails they go more than a mile and a half a-minute, and their motion is so rapid, the eye can scarcely accompany them. Their ordinary manner of travelling is very cheap and very convenient. They sail in covered boats drawn by horses; and in these you are sure to meet people of all nations. Here the Dutch slumber, the French chatter, and the English play at cards. Any man who likes company, may have them to his taste. For my part, I generally detached myself from all society, and was wholly taken up in observing the face of the country. Nothing can equal its beauty. Where

B.

ever I turn my eyes, fine houses, elegant gardens, statues, grottos, vistas, presented themselves; but when you enter their towns you are charmed beyond description. No misery is to be seen here; every one is usefully employed.

<< Scotland and this country bear the highest contrast. There, hills and rocks intercept every prospect; here, 'tis all a continued plain. There you might see a well-dressed duchess issuing from a dirty close; and here a dirty Dutchman inhabiting a palace. The Scotch may be compared to a tulip planted in dung; but I never see a Dutchman in his own house, but I think of a magnificent Egyptian temple dedicated to an ox.

Physic is by no means taught here so well as in Edinburgh; and in all Leyden there are but four British students, owing to all necessaries being so extremely dear, and the professors so very lazy (the chemical professor excepted), that we don't much care to come hither. I am not certain how long my stay here may be; however, I expect to have the happiness of seeing you at Kilmore, if I can, next March.»

I

While resident in Leyden, he attended the lectures of Gaubius on chemistry, and those of Albinus on anatomy. In the letters of Goldsmith to his uncle, Gaubius is the only professor of whose talents he gives a favourable opinion. Of all the other professors he seems to have formed rather a contemptuous estimate; and with regard to the inhabitants in general, his remarks are by no means of a laudatory description. But to appreciate the characters of men, and describe the manners of a people with accuracy, require the nicest discrimination, and much knowledge of the world. On such subjects, therefore, the opinions of our poet, at this early period of his life, are to be the less regarded. His Dutch characteristics can only be deemed good-humoured caricatures, and probably were drawn as such, merely for the amusement of his friends in Ireland.

It happened, unfortunately for Goldsmith, that one of his most dangerous propensities met with too much encouragement dur

Gaubius died in 1780, at the age of 75, leaving a splendid reputation. He was the favourite pupil of Boerhaave, and wrote several learned and ingenious works.

I

ing his stay in Holland. The people of that country are much addicted to games of chance. Gaming-tables are to be met with in every tavern, and at every place of amusement. Goldsmith, unable to resist the contagion of example, with his usual facility sailed with the stream; and fortune, according to custom, alternately greeted him with smiles and frowns. His friend, Dr Ellis, ' who was then also studying at Leyden, used to relate, that on one occasion he came to him with much exultation, and counted out a considerable sum which he had won the preceding evening. « Perceiving that this temporary success," said Ellis, « was only fanning the flame of a ruinous passion, I was at some pains to point out to him the destructive consequences of indulging so dangerous a propensity. I exhorted him, since fortune had for once been unusually kind, to rest satisfied with his present gains, and showed, that if he set apart the money now in his hands, he would be able to complete his studies without further assistance from his friends. Goldsmith, who could perceive, though he could not always pursue the right path, admitted all the truth of my observations, seemed grateful for my advice, and promised for the future strictly to adhere to it." The votary of play, however, is never to be so easily cured. Reason and ridicule are equally impotent against that unhappy passion. To those infected with it, the charms of the gaming-table may be said to be omnipotent. Soon after this, he once more gave himself up to it without control, and not only lost all he had lately won, but was stripped of every shilling he had in the world. In this emergency he was obliged to have recourse to Dr Ellis for advice. His friend perceived that admonition was useless, and that so long as he remained within reach of the vortex of play, his gambling propensities could never be restrained. It was therefore determined that he ought to quit Holland; and with a view to his further improvement, it was suggested that he should visit some of the neighbouring countries before returning to his own. He readily acceded to this proposal, and notwithstanding the paucity of his means, resolved to pursue

Afterwards clerk of the Irish House of Commons.

it without delay. Ellis, however, kindly took his wants into consideration, and agreed to accommodate him with a sum of money to carry his plan into execution; but in this, as in other instances, his heedless improvidence interfered to render his friend's generosity abortive. When about to set out on his journey, accident or curiosity led him into a garden at Leyden, where the choicest flowers were reared for sale. In consequence of an unaccountable mania for flowers having at one time spread itself over Holland, an extensive trade in flower-roots became universally prevalent in that country, and at this period the Dutch florists were the most celebrated in Europe.1 Fortunes and law-suits innumerable had been lost and won in this singular traffic; and though the rage had now greatly subsided, flower-roots still bore a considerable value. Unluckily, while rambling through the garden at Leyden, Goldsmith recollected that his uncle was an amateur of such rarities. With his usual inconsiderateness he immediately concluded a bargain for a parcel of the roots, never reflecting on his own limited means, or the purpose for which his money had been furnished. This absurd and extravagant purchase nearly exhausted the fund he had already received from his friend Ellis, and it is not unlikely that the gaming-table gleaned the little that remained; for it has been often asserted, that after his magnificent speculation in tulip-roots he actually set out upon his travels with only one clean shirt, and without a shilling in his pocket.

When this expedition was projected, it is most likely that nothing more was intended than a short excursion into Belgium and France. The passion for travel, however, which had so long lain dormant in his mind was now thoroughly awakened. Blessed with a good constitution, an adventurous spirit, and with that thoughtless, or perhaps happy disposition, which

It was the celebrated tulip mania. For a tulip-root, known by the name of Semper Augustus, 55ol. sterling was given; and for other tulip-roots less rare, various prices were given, from one hundred to four hundred guineas. This madness raged in Holland for many years, till at length the State interfered, and a law was enacted which put a stop to the trade.