Melvil; one of case hardened iron for Lord C-y, this was surmounted with the cap and bells, appropriately inscribed Your fools and knaves may strut about their hour, On the 12th of August, his stick was a sapling oak, crowned with a plume of white feathers; and on the day of Lord Camden's elevation, he wore a crab mounted with lead; and on the day of Mr. Percival's first coming into office, one, imitating the rods of oppression; he honoured Mr. Fox with the laurel; Mr. Windham with a staff of changeable stuff, which sometimes exhibited the appearance of oak, but lastly of blackthorn; and Sir Francis Burdett with a baculum wrought of ivy, that never forsakes its friend. To euumerate the rest, would be a sacrifice to time, but one thing must not be forgotten: on the day that the princess Amelia left the world, our eccentric was always seen bending over his stick of weeping willow. The Poterium Hobby, Or, a collection of pans, pots, and pipkins, from the potteries of antiquity, a pursuit that has less to recommend it than all the hobbies in the universe, because only made up of such materials, as cannot be made useful, but to such as scour the erugo from better substances. To arrange and preserve the works of a Wedgwood indeed might be laudable, for his productions are beautiful beyond comparison. It was Wedgwood who made the Porcelaine of England to rival all other nations, and to open new channels for Commerce! Ingenuity! and Industry! Insomuch as to intitle him to a peerage from the hand of his sovereign, before nine-tenths of those who succeeded to that honour, within the same circle of existence. P To wrinkle the cheeks of risibility, I was once shewn a useful vessel, said by the professor to have been a favourite with Queen Elizabeth, it was cracked in two places, with this laconic label tied to the handle, At Kennelworth, by Leicester; At Greenwhich, by Rawleigh; Away then with the rubbish of Saxon antiquity, and if we must be collectors and copyists, let it be like Wedg wood, from the best Greek and Roman models, to the ho. nour of the Arts, and the profit of our Country. Thus have I driven my team of Hobbies to their journey's end, and shall conclude this paper with a word to the wise. Let not my efforts wound the honest breast, T. N. THE PEDESTRIAN. Ar what distance from the focus of fashion the truly estimable Mrs. Clavering's abode is, can be of very little consequence to my readers, yet I think it necessary to say, that it is sufficient to compel me to sleep two nights upon the road. As frequent association made the path a beaten one, I took up my quarters at a house of entertainment, where the eccentricities of my character were perfectly known; and the window of the bar being open, I heard my landlady exclaim to her daughter, "As I live, here comes the silent gentleman! Run directly, Lucy, and dust out the brown koom," Though completely aware of the singularity of my disposition, yet, at the moment, I felt provoked at the appellation, and resolved to convince my hostess I could talk as rapidly as the most voluble of her sex. With this deter mination, I walked into the Three Kings, and instead of immediately desiring to be shewn into a quiet apartment, entered into conversation with my landlady respecting the variable state of the weather. This was touching a string which, of all others, was calculated to set the organ of speech afloat, as I had previously understood that her husband rented about two hundred acres. "Weather, sir!" she exclaimed, why we shall all be ru ined! God only knows what could induce my husband to take a farm; for as you may suppose, a house of this description is enough for one pair of eyes to look arter.' "Well, but a husband has two pair, you know, Mrs. Maurice," I replied, smiling," and whilst be is in the field, you are looking after the domestic concerns; and I should conceive, on a road where there is so much posting, it is an admirable plan for an innkeeper to have a farm." "Posting, indeed!" rejoined my landlady; "yes, sir, but they are all posting the contrary road; and instead of the gentlefolks spending the summer at their country seats, as they used, to do, they must all forsooth go to France! God forgive me for saying so, but I wish Boney would come back, and make them all prisoners." "That wish does not seem likely to benefit the trade of posting, Mrs. Maurice."-" At any rate, sir, it would put a stop to it," rejoined Mrs. Maurice, "and prevent folks from spending all their ready money in foreign countries, whilst honest tradesmen in their own are starving, and the labouring poor destitute of employment.' For the sake of argument, I observed, that the poor seldom derived occupation from gentlemen of landed property, but manufacturers or agriculturists. "Why, lord bless ye, sir! to my certain knowledge there used to be twelve or fourteen hands employed at Sir George Huntley's, only in keeping up the gardens, and weeding and trimming the shrubberies; and for the last two summers, Sir George has only allowed his gardener two men under him. Then, when my lady was down, she used to do a world of kindness. There was not a cottager's family for three or four miles round, that she did not visit. And as for skim-milk and vegetables, the poor might have it for fetching. For my part, I have reason to rue the day that we made peace with the French; for Huntley Hall used to be crowded with company, and their horses and carriages were always sent to the Three Kings; but, Lord bless ye, sir, no one knows where the shoe pinches, but them that wear it." As Mrs. Maurice made this declaration, her husband entered the apartment, and corroborated his wife's assertions, lamenting there was not a heavy fine levied upon every person who went to Paris. "No longer ago, sir," said he, "than last Monday se'nnight, I took a bill of fifteen pounds to a gentleman, which had been two years standing, which I entreated him to settle, as I had some ve ry heavy payments; he desired me to call the next evening, faithfully promising to discharge it; but about two hours before the time appointed, I received a note, informing me, he had been invited to accompany a friend in a tour to Paris, and consequently should want his ready money to defray his travelling expenses." I fear there are too many industrious tradesmen in a simi lar predicament to poor Maurice; and was I at the head of the legislature, I would levy a heavy tax upon every individual who, from idle curiosity crossed the channel. Having said sufficient to convince my landlady I was not totally, destitute of conversational abilities, 1 requested to be shewn into my accustomed room; and after an excellent night's rest, fortified with a good breakfast on the following morning, resumed my peregrination. That distress which Mrs. Maurice asserted to exist amongst the labouring poor in her neighbourhood, I had the mortification of perceiving was actually general; for in cottages where I had been accustomed to behold content and sufficiency, I saw nothing but pictures of poverty and wretchedness! To the unfavourableness of a season which the husbandman annually looks forward to as the means of laying up a little store for sickness or necessity, this appearance may doubtless, in some measure, be attributed; yet the greater evil proceeds from the total want of employment for naval and military men. In one cottager's family alone, who resides about two miles from Mrs. Clavering's, the truth of this observation was strikingly exemplified; for no less than three of the sons, who have for the last eight or nine years been fighting for their country, are now half starving for want of employment. This distress arises not from idleness, but from total want of occupation; the whole family are remarkable for integrity, industry, and regularity of habits, yet a scene of greater poverty and wretchedness, thank God, it has been seldom my fate to witness. In mak ing this declaration, I wish my readers to understand, that I am not alluding to those scenes of extreme wretchedness, where vice combined with poverty, hides its "diminished head;" but I mean to confine my description to the cottage of an industrious peasant, accustomed by his daily labour to supply his family's necessities. This cottage had, for years past, attracted my attention for the peculiar order and utility of the little garden which ran parallel with it; the pigs, in a small inclosure detached from the garden, looked fat and sleeky, and even their sty presented a pattern of cleanliness. To be continued. Dr. JOHNSON and the COUNTRY CLUB. Mr. Murphy relates the following singular story of Dr. Johnson: When first the Rambler came out in separate numbers, as they were the object of attention to multitudes of people, they happened, as it seems, particularly to attract the notice of a society who met every Saturday evening during the summer, at Romford, in Essex, and were known by the name of The Bowling-green Club. These men, seeing one day the character of Leviculus the fortune hunter, or Tetrica the old maid, another day some account of a person who spent his life in hoping for a legacy, or of him who is always prying into other folks' affairs, began sure enough to think they were betrayed; and that some of the coterie sat down to divert himself by giving to the public the portrait of all the rest. Filled with wrath against the traitor of Romford, one of them resolved to write to the printer, and enquire the author's name; Samuel Johnson was the reply. No more was necessary; Samuel Johnson was the name of the curate, and soon did each begin to load him with reproaches for turning his friends into ridicule in a manner so cruel and unprovoked. In vain did the guiltless curate protest his innocence; one was sure that Aligu meant Mr. Twigg, and that Cupidus was but another name for neighbour Baggs; till the poor parson unable to contend any longer, rode to London, and brought them full satisfaction concerning the writer, who, from his own knowledge of general manners, quickened by a vigorous and warm imagination, had happily delineated, though unknown to himself, the members of the Bowling-green Club. . ANECDOTE of GEORGE PEELE. George Peele, a celebrated poet, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, having once eluded the search of some bailiffs by means of a baker's pie-board, the circumstance was introduced in a play called "The Puritan," and a baker's board, on which he carries pies to his oven, was in conse quence, and is to this day, called a peele. |