⚫ leer, I fhall not enter into a very particular account of them; but let me obferve, that oblique vifion, when natural, was anciently the mark of bewitchery and magical fafcination, and to this day it is a malignant ill look; but when it is forced and affected it carries a wanton defign, and in play-houses, and other public places, this ocular intimation is often an affignation for bad practices. But this irregularity in vifion, together with fuch enormities as tipping the wink, the circumfpective roll, the fide-peep through a thin hood or fan, muft be put in the clafs of Heteroptics, as all wrong notions of religion are ranked under the general name of Heterodox. All the pernicious applications of fight are more immediately under the direction of a SPECTATOR; and I hope you will arm your readers against the mischiefs which are daily done by killing Eyes, in which you will highly oblige your wounded unknown friend, T. B. ་ с ་ • Mr. SPECTATOR, You OU profeffed in feveral papers your particular endeavours in the province of SPECTATOR, to ⚫ correct the offences committed by STARERS, who difturb whole affemblies without any regard to time, place or modefty. You complained alfo, that a Starer is not ufually a perfon to be convinced by the reason of the thing, nor fo eafily rebuked, as to amend by admonitions. I thought therefore fit to acquaint you ⚫ with a convenient mechanical way, which may easily prevent or correct ftaring, by an optical contrivance of new perfpective-glaffes, fhort and commodious like opera glaffes, fit for fhort-fighted people as well as others, thefe glaffes making the objects appear, either as they are feen by the naked eye, or more diftin&t, though fomewhat less than life, or bigger and nearer. A perfon may, by the help of this invention, take a ⚫ view of another without the impertinence of Staring; at the fame time it fhall not be poffible to know whom or what he is looking at. One may look towards his This letter is faid to have been written by Mr. GOLDING. See Spacт. Vol. IV. N° 252,, and notes, of this edition. right right or left hand, when he is fuppofed to look forwards. This is fet forth at large in the printed propofals for the fale of these glaffes, to be had at Mr. Dillon's in Long-Acre, next door to the White-Hart. Now, Sir, as your SPECTATOR has occafioned the publishing of this invention for the benefit of modeft SPECTATORS, the inventor defires your admonitions concerning the decent ufe of it; and hopes, by your recommendation, that for the future beauty may be beheld without the torture and confufion which it <suffers from the infolence of Starers. By this means you will relieve the innocent from an infult which there is no law to punish, though it is a greater offence than many which are within the cognifance of juftice *. I am, 6 SIR, your most humble fervant, The optical glafs here mentioned, is very common and very contemptible. N° 250 laas the fignature Q, in the original edition of the SPECT. in folio, and in the octavo of 1712. N° 251 Tuesday, December 18, 1711. Linguæ centum funt, oraque centum, Ferrea Vox. "A hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, "And throats of brafs infpired with iron lungs.' DRYDEN. T HERE is nothing which more astonishes a foreigner, and frights a country fquire, than the CRIES OF LONDON. My good friend Sir Roger often declares that he cannot get them out of his head or go to fleep for them, the firft week that he is in town. On the contrary, Will Honeycomb calls them the Ramage de la Ville, and prefers them to the founds of larks and nightingales, with all the mufick of the felds and woods. I have lately received a letter from fome 334 fome very odd fellow upon this fubject, which I fhall leave with my reader, without faying any thing further of it. SIR, Am a man out of all business, and would willingly turn my head to any thing for an honest livelihood. I have invented feveral projects for raifing many millions of money without burdening the fubject, but I cannot get the parliament to liften to me, who look upon me, forfooth, as a crack, and a projector; fo that defpairing to enrich either myself or my country by this public-fpirited nefs, I would make fome proposals to you relating to a defign which I have very much at heart, and which may procure me will be pleafed to rea handfome fubfiftence, if you ⚫commend it to the cities of London and Westminster. The post I would aim at, is to be ComptrollerGeneral of the London CRIES, which are at prefent ⚫ under no manner of rules and difcipline. I think I am pretty well qualified for this place, as being a man of very strong lungs, of great infight into all the branches of our British trades and manufactures, and of a competent skill in mufic. The CRIES of London may be divided into Vocal ⚫ and Inftrumental. As for the latter they are at prefent under a very great diforder. A freeman of London has the privilege of difturbing a whole ftreet for an hour together, with the twanking of a brafs-kettle or frying-pan. The Watchman's thump at midnight ftartles us in our beds, as much as the breaking in of a thief. The Sowgelder's horn has indeed fomething mufical in it, but this is feldom heard within the liberties. I would therefore propose, that no inftrument of this nature should be made ufe of, which I have not tuned and licensed, after having carefully examined in what manner it may affect the ears of her majefty's liege fubjects. • Vocal cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed fo full of incongruities and barbarisms, that we appear a diftracted city to foreigners, who do not comprehend the meaning of fuch enormous outcries. • Milk ¥ Milk is generally fold in a note above E-la, and in founds fo exceeding fhrill, that it often fets our teeth on edge. The Chimney-fweeper is confined to no certain pitch; he fometimes utters himself in the deepest base, and fometimes in the fharpeft treble ; • fometimes in the higheft, and sometimes in the lowest note of the gamut. The fame obfervation might be made on the Retailers of Small-coal, not to mention • broken Glaffes, or Brick-duft. In thefe therefore, and the like cafes, it should be my care to sweeten and mellow the voices of these itinerant tradesmen, before they make their appearance in our ftreets, as alfo to accommodate their cries to their refpective wares and to take care in particular, that thofe may not make the most noife who have the least to fell, which is very obfervable in the venders of Cardmatches, to whom I cannot but apply that old proverb of MUCH CRY BUT LITTLE WOOL. Some of thefe laft mentioned muficians are fo very loud in the fale of these trifling manufactures, that an honeft fplenetic gentleman of my acquaintance bargained with one of them never to come into the ftreet where he lived. But what was the effect of this contract? Why, the whole tribe of Card-matchmakers which frequent that quarter, paffed by his door the very next day, in hopes of being bought off after the fame manner. It is another great imperfection in our London CRIES, that there is no juft time nor measure obferved in them. Our News fhould indeed be published in a very quick time, because it is a commodity that will not keep cold. It should not, however, be cried with the fame precipitation as FIRE. Yet this is generally the cafe. A bloody battle alarms the town from one end to another in a inftant. Every motion of the French is published in fo great a hurry, that one would think the enemy were at our gates. This likewife I would take upon me to regulate in such a manner, that there should be fome diftinction made between the spreading of a victory, a march, or an incampment, a Dutch, a Portugal, or a Spanish mail. Nor muft I omit under this head thofe ex• ceffive ceffive alarms with which feveral boisterous ruftics infeft our streets in Turnip-SEASON; and which are more inexcufable, because these are wares which are in no danger of cooling upon their hands. There are others who affect a very flow time, and are in my opinion, much more tuneable than the former. The Cooper in particular fwells his laft note in an hollow voice, that is not without its harmony; nor can I forbear being infpired with a molt agresable melancholy, when I hear that fad and folemn air with which the public are very often afked, if they have any CHAIRS to mend? Your own memory may Ifuggeft to you many other lamentable ditties of the fame nature, in which the mufic is wonderfully languishing and melodious. It I am always pleafed with that particular time of the year which is proper for the pickling of Dill and Cucumbers; but alas, this cry, like the fong of the nightingale, is not heard above two months. would therefore be worth while to confider, whether the fame air might not in fome cafes be adapted to ⚫ other words. It might likewife deferve our moft ferious confideration, how far, in a well regulated city, thofe humourifts are to be tolerated, who, not contented with the traditional cries of their forefathers, have invented particular fongs and tunes of their own: fuch as was not many years fince, the Paftry-man, commonly known by the name of the Colly-Molly-Puff*; and fuch as is at this day the vender of Powder and Wathballs, who, if I am rightly informed, goes under the name of PoWDER-WAT. I must not here omit one particular abfurdity which runs through this whole vociferous generation, and which renders their CRIES very often not only incom⚫ modious, but altogether useless to the public. I mean, *This little man was but just able to fupport the basket of pastry which he carried on his head, and fung in a very peculiar tone the cant words which paffed into his name, COLLY-MOLLY-PUFF. There is a half sheet print of him in the "Set of London CRIES," M. LAURON, del. P. TEMPEST, exc. GRANGER'S "Biogra phical HISTORY of ENGLAND.” "the |