No. 45. SATURDAY, December 10, 1785.

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE LOUNGER.

SIR,

PERHAPS it is vanity in me to suppose, that you have been expecting to hear from me, and it is possible, from my first account of myself, may have supposed that there were very melancholy reasons for my silence. But I am, Sir, thank God! returned to my native country in no worse condition with respect to health, than when I left it. As to peace and happiness, I can't say; my wife thinks her health much the better for our expedition.

Perhaps, Sir, I may in time learn to be

reconciled to noise and disturbance, and forget my old habits of quiet, and care of my health, which my dear deceased friend Dr Doddipoll had taught me. And yet I do not find that my journey has reconciled me much to the change, though I have had some practice in the way of bustle and adventure, as you will find from a short account of our excursion.

As the motive of our journey was professedly the re-establishment of my health, I had reason to imagine that it would be conducted in the manner best suited for that purpose. I had made out a little Pharmacopeia of things necessary to be taken along with us on the road: but, would you believe it, Sir, our new familyphysician declared them altogether unnecessary; and our whole medicine-chest was made up of one phial, containing two drachms of spirit of hartshorn, and a bottle holding about as many pounds of

French brandy. But my wife found room in the carriage for her favourite maid, her Spanish lap-dog, and three band boxes. Her monkey, who arrived just before we set out, she was with difficulty prevailed on to leave behind under the care of the housekeeper; an acquaintance indeed who met us a few miles out of town on the road to England, rode up to my wife's side of the carriage, said he supposed Mr Dysoon was following; and pointing to the corner where I was stuck up among the band-boxes, told her he was glad to find she had taken little Master Jackoo along with her.

Though Harrowgate was the place of our destination, yet my wife (who was general of this expedition) thought it might be proper to stop at one of the more private watering-places in Cumberland, to initiate us, as it were, into that sort of life; as young recruits, I am told, are taught to stand their own fire, by first

flashing their muskets in the pan. We accordingly made a halt at one of those places, with the intention of staying some weeks; but we very soon tired of it, as the society was by no means genteel enough for my wife to mix in with any degree of satisfaction.

The only people she would allow us to consort with, were the family of Sir David Dumplin, a London merchant, who had been knighted for his eminence in commerce, who had arrived a few days before us, with his lady and three daughters; and a Captain in the army, who had come thither to recover the fatigues he had suffered during the siege of Gibraltar, and whom Mrs Dy-soon took great delight in hearing recount his adventures. We amused ourselves during our stay by making the other members of the party ridiculous, though they did not want for jokes against us too. They called me and my wife "Death and Sin;" the first I could un

derstand from my feebleness and bad health; but how they applied the second, neither the captain nor I could ever comprehend; they had several jests equally low and unjust against the family of Sir David Dumplin, who they pretended was only a sugar-boiler in Wapping, and had been knighted on occasion of some city address. Sir David himself, to do him justice, behaved in a very civil manner to every body, and, except sometimes when he snored after dinner, never gave the smallest offence to the rest of the company; and as for me, I was always, both in mind and body, inclined to peace and quietness. But Lady Dumplin and her daughters, with my Angelica and the captain, were constantly at war with the other end of the table, which was divided into two hostile and irreconcileable provinces. Their differences might, indeed, have proceeded very disagreeable lengths, had we not contrived to erect a sort of barrier