they produce is inconceivable. On these occasions the noise they make, which is at all times great, be comes ten times greater; so that if a person who had never before seen this creature, was to look into their den on these occasions, he would certainly think he had got into Pandemonium, where the devils were at work, contriving how they might most speedily spread desolation and destruction around them. Fortunately this delirium does not last very long, and the bodily powers become weakened in proportion as the brain is inflamed; so that in a few hours the whole of this noisy tribe are entirely si lenced; and they may be then seen lying, pell mell a-top of one another, wallowing in the most beastly state of intoxication and nastinefs.

'I have told you what these creatures like; you should also know what they dislike. They are as remarkable in their antipathies, as in their likings. They have a mortal ill will at books, and if ever they get access to a library, they tear out the leaves, and scatter them about, or apply them to the most ignoble purposes. Sometimes, indeed, if the book contains fhowy prints, especially if coloured, they will run over these with a stupid kind of gaze; but, as Shakespeare says, "There is no speculation in their eye." Like children, they admire baubles, and throw the most precious jewels away. My heart has often bled at seeing the devastations that had been committed by one of these brutes, which had accidentally got full pofsefsion of a library which had been carefully collecting for ages by a set of learned men. In a fhort time, every thing that

was valuable in it, was torn, lost, or destroyed; and nothing but garbage and trash remained behind...

'But if these creatures have an aversion to books, they have still a more decided antipathy to bookish men; especially those in holy orders. They seem to pofsefs a power of scenting them out, as dogs do game; and they often ramble about in packs, in quest of them, with eagerness, in the same manner as dogs do in quest of their natural prey; and wo be to the unfortunate clergyman who chances to fall in their way, at a distance from any afsistance! for although they do not tear him to pieces with their teeth, as other animals of a lefs ferocious appearance might do, they set up such a chattering of unintelligible gibberish, and pursue him so closely wherever he goes, and at every short interval set up such a tremenduous roar of afsinine sounds, that the poor man, if he has never seen them before, is put into mortal terror. If, however, he has the prudence not to seem to hear or mind them, he may at last escape without harm; for, like every foolish animal, they tire of teazing, when they do not perceive that their exertions have a power to teaze. This animal is, upon the whole, rather a stupid, noisy, and troublesome creature, than desperately wicked; and unless it be that they sometimes lay hold upon women in lone places, and are rude to them, but which they scarce ever attempt unless they have been first provoked by the gigling or light behaviour of these women, they seldom actually hurt, unless by accidental rencounter, any other creature. Indeed a firm minded man, of a philosophical turn, always overawes them,

when only one is by itself; but when a pack of these brutes are together, the monkey anticks of one raises the spirits of the others to such a degree, that there is no other resource but silence to escape from them.

But of all their antipathies, that which they have against the fox is the greatest; and this rage has a sort of periodical paroxysms. It generally breaks forth with great fury every year, about the beginning of winter, and continues with intermifsions till the spring. On these occasions, you may see troops of these creatures afsemble together, like the gathering of lapwings before they leave us in autumn, on purpose to search for foxes wherever they can be found. When going on such expeditions, they seize the fleetest horses they can find; and they have also the art of training up a kind of dog to assist them. At that season they will think nothing of running forty or fifty miles from their native haunts in search of prey; and when they discover a fox, they set up such a halloo, and ride with such ungovernable fury, that you would think as many devils had escaped from the infernal regions, and were set a scampering through this globe. If, after long fatigue, they kill the fox, the poor animal is carried in triumph to the nearest den they can find, where they give a loose to their joy, and indulge in every excess that their nature is capable of.

I might mention several other characteristic: marks of this brute; but these traits will be suffici-. ent to enable your brother to know if any of them have ever been seen in your country. I have heard

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Nov. 7. that some of them have now and then wandered over the borders, to try if they could find fhelter in Scotland. But you have so many universities there, the professors are so learned, the clergy are so zealous, and the laity have all got such a smattering of letters, that these stragglers have been immediately scouted, and so hunted from plase to place, that they have been forced to take fhelter again in England, where the climate seems to be more congenial to them than any where else; and where the people, having been long accustomed to see them, do not bear such an extreme antipathy to them, as in Scotland. Your brother, who is a philosopher, will probably be able to give me better information on this head than I have yet got. I once heard that there was a creature that is probably a variety of the same genus, but differing in many respects from that above described, which was once very common in Scotland; and there known by the name of LARD, or LAIRD, or some such name, which is either extirpated, or much degenerated of late. If your brother will oblige me with a genuine account of that creature in return for this, I fhall account it a particular favour; for my ideas, from the imperfect accounts I have heard of it, are very indistinct.'

Here ends the legend of Mrs B. which I took -down from her own mouth, who spelled the cramp words for me herself; and with it ends my paper, so farewell for the present. Yours, ISABELLA.

OBJECTS OF PURSUIT, COMPATIBLE

SIR,

WITH THE DUTIES OF A CLERGYMAN.

To the Editor of the Bee.

THE clergy in general, and I in particular, ought to think ourselves much obliged to you for the opportunity which you give us, by means of your miscellany, of giving vent to effusions, which would otherwise very probably be as little known as our sermons; and share their ignominious fate at our death. The situation of a clergyman in the country, (to. which clafs I myself belong,) is, like every other situation, in some respects enviable; and in others to be regretted. The leisure and independence which he enjoys, or may enjoy, are advantages which cannot be too highly prized. But, on the other hand, the few spurs which he has to ambition and industry,the difficulties under which he labours, with regard to conversation and other means of improvement,and the impossibility often of making himself known, are disadvantages which he must often feel. Whether the advantages or the disadvantages preponderate, will depend much upon the characters and dispositions of individuals. I, who am fond of retirement, and who mix in society, rather as a philosopher to be informed, than as a man of the world to enjoy, do not hesitate to pronounce in favour of my situation. The light in which we ought to consider ourselves is a very flattering one: it is that of persons appointed by government, to form, by means of their VOL. Xii.

C

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