surprising. Her vehicle was converted into an ordinary wheelbarrow; and the same person that I had, but a moment before, beheld enveloped in flounce and brocade, fell to crying potatoes with the lustiest scream, and the most hearty good-will imaginable. I had scarcely taken leave of my old dowager potatoe-woman, before I beheld, at a distance, a couple of noble peers approach in a phaëton and four. As soon, however, as they arrived at the spot, the water reflected back the image of a cart carrying two criminals to the place of execution, and the blue riband round one of their necks took the likeness of a halter. A very spruce gentleman in black now came forward, with a cane and tassel in his hand, and a glittering something on his finger. This gentleman, was told, was an evening lecturer, and a very popular preacher. It was singular enough to see so venerable a personage, as soon as he came to this oracular water, equipped with a bag and brush, and crying forth, "Sweep! Sweep!" with the most natural tones conceivable. A nobleman's carriage now came rolling by, when what was my astonishment, to see his lordship get out of his vehicle, and, after handing the coachman into it, mount the box himself! I could not observe his lordship's skill in driving for the noise made in my ears by a passing nabob, who was stunning me with the cry of "Black your shoes, your honour! My attention was now diverted by a long funeral procession: the hearse underwent but small alteration, as no dead man is out of character, but the plumes all fell upon the ground, and were trampled under foot; in the succeeding carriages there was one roar of laughter; the chief mourners were changed into merry-andrews, while the mutes fell to singing with a very hearty good-will. I turned my eyes from this disgusting spectacle, and beheld, at some distance, two gentlemen arm in arm, who, I was informed, had long passed for models of disinterested friendship. They had hardly, however, come up with me, before, as it appeared in the stream, one of them drew out a pistol from his bosom, and would certainly have shot the other through the head, if he had not taken to his heels the moment his arm was disengaged. A couple that had been united some years, as a bystander informed me, succeeded these bosom friends. I thought I blushed, after my fashion, that is, as much as my adust complexion would allow me, to see them change their lower garments in the watery mirror, and the lady walk off, en cavalier, with her husband's breeches. A surgeon happening most opportunely to meet a carcase-butcher just at the critical spot, appeared to give him up his box of instruments, and march away with his tray on his shoulder. A very fine man, in a red coat, was now coming up, with a truly martial stare; in a moment, however, his regimentals were covered with a smock frock, and his cane changed into a carter's whip, and in this equipment he plodded away like another Cincinnatus retiring to the plough. At this instant, as I looked into the stream, a person seemed to be picking my pocket as he passed: I turned hastily round, and was told that the gentlenan that was walking by, was a methodist preacher. A stately person that now advanced, was, as I was informed, a famous poet at watering-places, and celebrated for his elegies on ladies' larks, and linnets, and lap-dogs, and ladies themselves: as he approached, the whole inside of a book, which he held under his arm, seemed to be dispersed a thousand ways, like the leaves of the Sybillæ, and nothing but the covers were left him, while the man himself was reflected by the stream in the character of an undertaker. Methought, after this, a most solemn scene rose before my eyes. A succession of the OLIVE-BRANches, for ten generations back, passed beside the stream; and, what was truly surprising, it reflected them all just as they were, in their native simplicity, not a lineament of their faces altered, not a shred of their garments transposed. I thought my great-grandfather, whom I knew by the tobacco-stopper in his hand, cast a discontented look at the modish appearance of my buckles, which I had purchased since my arrival in town; which circumstance so terribly disconcerted me, that I was on the point of throwing myself into the stream, if I had not waked at that instant, and changed my mind in consequence. No 56. SATURDAY, JUNE 8. Like a maiden shy and fearful, Winter's wither'd clutches hold thee, I My paper owes, methinks, a kind of annual tribute to the Spring under its auspices it began, and started into life with the primrose and the violet. question much if I should have had courage for this project at any other time of the year; but when all nature is teeming with a new produce, when every vegetable is acting up to its destination, and answering its calling, I should feel it as a tacit reproach to myself, if at the same moment I were conscious of an indisposition towards those duties and exertions for which, as a moral agent, I was designed. The aids too of a fine day, and a glowing horizon, are not inconsiderable towards forming a temper of mind adapted to spirited undertakings; and it is on this account, that if there be one day in the week finer than another, it is sure to become the æra of a cheerful Number; and on this occasion the fields of my neighbour Blunt are the scene of my operations. I know of no spot in which Spring appears with such advantage, as in the premises of this gentleman ; . who, since the surprising revolution wrought in his character, by the institutes and habits of our society, has developed a great many hidden qualities of a very agreeable kind, and among the rest, a peculiar talent in the distribution of rural scenery. There is, indeed, so strong a relationship between morals and taste, that the one is seldom improved without a manifest advantage to the other; and as they both have their birth in the same right constitution of mind, a secret tie of affinity always approximates them, however their natural tendency to unite may be crossed by superinduced habits, and perverse modes of education. Thus, for every step my neighbour Blunt has advanced in his plans of self-correction, I think I have remarked some corresponding improvement in the disposition of his grounds; and his present expansion of mind has been attended with a proportionate enlargement of his scenes and prospects. A little hillock in the midst of one of his fields, on which there is a circular bench round the trunk of an ancient oak, whence you look down upon his garden, which is only a more studied kind of park, has always been the scene of my lighter speculations; as his chesnut groves have been my resort, when it has been my purpose to submit to my readers a soberer train of thoughts. Shut up as I am at present, in the midst of the capital, I must necessarily forego these aids; but yet perhaps this denial gives me an intenser feeling of the beauties which I lose, and paints them yet stronger in idea, for the regret which accompanies the thought of them. The time which I had dedicated to this visit, is on the point of expiring; a circumstance that gives me the greater pleasure, as I observe that no one in this part of the world seems to feel any interest in the progress of the year, but as it facilitates the destruction of the species; thus, |