barbarities, on the limbs which they expose. But these I forbear to mention, because they can't but be very shocking to the reader, as well as the spectator. In this manner they carry on a war against mankind; and by the standing maxims of their policy, are to enter into no alliances but one, and that is offensive and defensive, with all bawdy-houses in general, of which they have declared themselves protectors and guarantees. 'I must own, sir, these are only broken incoherent memoirs of this wonderful society, but they are the best I have been yet able to procure; for being but of late establishment, it is not ripe for a just history: and to be serious, the chief design of this trouble is to hinder it from ever being so. You have been pleased, out of a concern for the good of your countrymen, to act under the character of Spectator not only the part of a looker-on, but an overseer of their actions; and whenever such enormities as this infest the town, we immediately fly to you for redress. I have reason to believe that some thoughtless youngsters, out of a false notion of bravery, and an immoderate fondness to be distinguished for fellows of fire, are insensibly hurried into this senseless, scandalous project: such will probably stand corrected by your reproofs, especially if you inform them that it is not courage for half-a-score fellows, mad with wine and lust, to set upon two or three soberer than themselves; and that the manners of Indian savages are no becoming accomplishments to an English fine gentleman. Such of them as have been bullies and Scowrers' of a long standing, and are grown veterans in this kind of service, are I fear too ha dened to receive any impressions from your 1 See No. 35. admonitions. But I beg you would recommend to their perusal your ninth speculation: they may there be taught to take warning from the club of duellists; and be put in mind that the common fate of those men of honour was to be hanged. I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant, • March the 10th, 1711-12.' PHILANTHROPOS. The following letter is of a quite contrary nature; but I add it here that the reader may observe at the same view how amiable ignorance may be when it is shown in its simplicities, and how detestable in barbarities. It is written by an honest countryman to his mistress, and came to the hands of a lady of good sense wrapped about a thread-paper,' who has long kept it by her as an image of artless love." To her I very much respect, Mrs. MARGARET "LOVELY, and oh that I could write loving Mrs. Margaret Clark, I pray you let affection excuse presumption. Having been so happy as to enjoy the sight of your sweet countenance and comely body sometimes, when I had occasion to buy treacle 1 A paper to hold lengths of silk or thread. Mr. Shandy asks, What is become of my wife's thred-paper?' (Tristram Shandy,' vol. iii. ch. xli.). Mr. Dobson quotes from the continuation of the Tatler (vol. v., 1712, p. 200), I have had two or three quarrels with my wife's woman for putting thread in your paper, and had like to have turned away my butler for setting up candles in it.' 2 It is said that this letter was really sent to a lady who married Mr. Cole, a Northampton attorney, by a neighbouring freeholder, Gabriel Bullock, and shown to Steele by the antiquary, Browne Willis. See note to No. 328, and the superseded number, 328*. or liquorice powder at the apothecary's shop, I am so enamoured with you, that I can no more keep close my flaming desire to become your servant. And I am the more bold now to write to your sweet self, because I am now my own man, and may match where I please; for my father is taken away, and now I am come to my living, which is ten yard-land,' and a house; and there is never a yard of land in our field but it is as well worth ten pound a year as a thief is worth a halter; and all my brothers and sisters are provided for; besides I have good household stuff, though I say it, both brass and pewter, linens and woollens; and though my house be thatched, yet, if you and I match, it shall go hard but I will have one half of it slated. If you think well of this motion, I will wait upon you as soon as my new clothes is made and hay-harvest is in. I could, though I say it, have good. .' The rest is torn off, and posterity must be contented to know that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty, but are left in the dark as to the name of her lover. T. 1 A yard-land contained from twenty to thirty acres, according to the county in which it was situated. 2 According to a note by Bishop Percy, Mrs. Cole's niece, Mrs. Cantrell, remembered what was torn off from the letter by a child at play; it ran as follows: 'Good matches amongst my neighbours. My mother, peace be with her soul, the good old gentlewoman has left me good store of household linen of her own spinning, a chestful. If you and I lay our means together, it shall go hard but I will pave the way to do well. Your loving servant till death, Mister Gabriel Bullock, now my father is dead." No. 325. Thursday, March 13, 1712 [BUDGELL. Quid frustra simulacra fugacia captas? Quod petis, est nusquam: quod amas, avertere, perdes. -ÖVID, Met. iii. 432. ILL HONEYCOMB diverted us last night WILL with an account of a young fellow's first dis covering his passion to his mistress. The young lady was one, it seems, who had long before conceived a favourable opinion of him, and was still in hopes that he would some time or other make his advances. As he was one day talking with her in company of her two sisters, the conversation happening to turn upon love, each of the young ladies was, by way of raillery, recommending a wife to him; when, to the no small surprise of her who languished for him in secret, he told them with a more than ordinary seriousness, that his heart had been long engaged to one whose name he thought himself obliged in honour to conceal; but that he could show her picture in the lid of his snuff-box. The young lady who found herself the most sensibly touched by this confession, took the first opportunity that offered of snatching his box out of his hand. He seemed desirous of recovering it, but finding her resolved to look into the lid, begged her, that if she should happen to know the person she would not reveal her name. Upon carrying it to the window she was very agreeably surprised to find there was nothing within the lid but a little looking-glass, in which, after she had viewed her own face with more pleasure than she had ever done before, she returned the box with a smile, telling him, she could not but admire1 at his choice. Will fancying that his story took, immediately fell into a dissertation on the usefulness of lookingglasses, and applying himself to me, asked if there were any looking-glasses in the times of the Greeks and Romans; for that he had often observed, in the translations of poems out of those languages, that people generally talked of seeing themselves in wells, fountains, lakes, and rivers. Nay,' says he, ‘I re member Mr. Dryden in his Ovid tells us of a swinging fellow, called Polypheme, that made use of the sea for his looking-glass, and could never dress himself to advantage but in a calm.' My friend Will, to show us the whole compass of his learning upon this subject, further informed us that there were still several nations in the world so very barbarous as not to have any looking-glasses among them; and that he had lately read a voyage to the South Sea, in which it is said that the ladies of Chili always dress their heads over a basin of water. I am the more particular in my account of Will's last night's lecture on these natural mirrors, as it seems to bear some relation to the following letter, which I received the day before : 'SIR, I HAVE read your last Saturday's observation2 on the fourth book of Milton with great satisfaction, and am particularly pleased with the hidden 2 No. 321. 1 Wonder. |