of life, and senders me the most anxious, miserable man on earth. My wife, who was the only child and darling care of an indulgent mother, employed her early years in learning all those accomplish ments we generally understand by good-breeding and polite education. She sings, dances, plays on the lute and harpsichord, paints prettily, is a perfect mistress of the French tongue, and has made a considerable progress in Italian. She is besides excellently skilled in all domestic sciences, as preserving, pickling, pastry, making wines of fruits of our own growth, embroidering, and needleworks of every kind. Hitherto, you will be apt to think there is very little cause of complaint; but suspend your opinion till I have further explained myself, and then, I make no question, you will come over to mine. You are not to imagine I find fault that she possesses or takes delight in the exercises of those qualifications I just now mentioned; 'tis the immoderate fondness she has to them that I lament, and that what is only designed for the innocent animusement and recreation of life is become the whole business and study of hers. The six months we are in town (for the year is equally divided between that and the country), from almost break of day till noon, the whole morning is laid out in practising with her several masters; and, to make up the losses occasioned by her absence in summer, every day in the week their attendance is required; and as they are all people eminent in their professions, their skill and time must be recompensed accordingly. So how far these articles extend, I leave you to judge. Limning, one would think, is no expensive diversion; but, as she manages the matter, 'tis a very considerable addition to her disbursements; which you will easily believe, when you know she paints fans for all her female acquaintance, and and draws all her relations' pictures in miniature; the first must be mounted by nobody but Colmar, and the other set by nobody but Charles Mather. What follows is still much worse than the former; for, as I told you she is a great artist at her needle, 'tis incredible what sums she expends in embroidery; for, besides what is appropriated to her personal use, as mantuas, petticoats, stomachers, handkerchiefs, purses, pin-cushions, and working-aprons, she keeps four French Protestants continually employed in making divers pieces of superfluous furniture, as quilts, toilets, hangings for closets, beds, windowcurtains, easy chairs, and tabourets; nor have I any hopes of ever reclaiming her from this extravagance, No. 328.*] MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1711-12.

herbs, or trees, of whose juices they are chiefly compounded. They are loathsome to the taste, and pernicious to the health; and as they seldom survive the year, and then are thrown away, under a false pretence of frugality, I may affirm they stand me in more than if I entertained all our visitors with the best burgundy and champaign. Coffee, chocolate, and green, imperial, peco, and bohea teas, seem to be trifles; but when the proper appurtenances of the tea-table are added, they swell the account higher than one would imagine. I cannot conclude without doing her justice in one article; where her frugality is so remarkable, I must not deny her the merit of it, and that is in relation to her children, who are all confined, both boys and girls, to one large room in the remotest part of the house, with bolts on the doors and bars to the windows, under the care and tuition of an old woman, who had been dry-nurse to her grandmother. This is their residence all the year round; and, as they are never allowed to appear, she prudently thinks it needless to be at any expense in apparel or learning. Her eldest daughter to this day would have neither read nor wrote, if it had not been for the butler, who being the son of a country attorney, has taught her such a hand as is generally used for engrossing bills in chancery. By this time I have sufficiently tired your patience with my domestic grievances; which I hope you will agree could not well be contained in a narrow compass, when you consider what a paradox I undertook to maintain in the beginning of my epistle, and which manifestly appears to be but too melancholy a truth. And now I heartily wish the relation I have given of my misfortunes may be of use and benefit to the public. By the example I have set before them, the truly virtuous wives may learn to avoid these errors which have so unhappily misled mine, and which are visibly, these three :-First, in mistaking the proper objects of her esteem, and fixing her affections upon such things as are only the trappings and decorations of her sex. Secondly, in not distinguishing what becomes the different stages of life. And, lastly, the abuse and corruption of some excellent qualities, which, if circumscribed within just bounds, would have been the blessing and prosperity of her family; but, by a vicious extreme, are like to be the bane and destruction of it."-T.

while she obstinately persists in thinking it a notable piece of good housewifery, because they are made at home, and she has had some share in the performance. There would be no end of relating to you the particulars of the annual charge, in furnishing her store-room with a profusion of pickles and preserves; for she is not contented with having every thing, unless it be done every way, in which she consults an hereditary book of receipts; for her female ancestors have been always famed for good housewifery, one of whom is made immortal, by giving her name to an eye-water and two sorts of puddings. I cannot undertake to recite all her medicinal preparations, as salves, sere-cloths, powders, confects, cordials, ratafia, persico, orange-flower, and cherry-brandy, together with innumerable sorts of simple waters. But there is nothing I lay so much to my heart as that detestable catalogue of counterfeit wines, which derive their names from the fruits,

At the date of this paper a noted toyman in Fleet-street.

Deleetata illa urbanitate tam stulta.-PETRON. ARB.
Delighted with unaffected plainness.

THAT useful part of learning which consists in emendations, knowledge of different readings, and the like, is what in all ages persons extremely wise and learned have had in great veneration. For this reason I cannot but rejoice at the following epistle, which lets us into the true author of the letter to Mrs. Margaret Clark, part of which I did myself the honour to publish in a former paper. I must confess I do not naturally affect critical learning; but finding myself not so much regarded as I am

.

As many of our readers may be pleased to see, "in puris naturalibus," the original paper, in room of which the present number was very early substituted, and as this curiosity may now be inoffensively gratified, it is here faithfully reprinted

from the copy in folio, in its order, marked as at first, No. 328", only with the addition of an asterisk. It had the signature T

at the bottom; but see the desire annexed to the short letter in the following note, both which made the concluding part of No. 330 in the original publication of these papers infolio.

**So deare love think of Mr. george Nillson with speed; i sent 2 or 3 letters before.

"I gave misteris elcock some nots, and thay put me in pruson all the night for me pains, and non new wheat i was, and I did gat cold.

"But it is for mrs. Lucy to go a good way from home, for in york and round about she is known; to writ any more her deeds, the same will tell hor soul is black within, hot corkis stinks of hell.

"March 19th, 1706."*

No. 329.] TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1711-12
Ire tamen restat, Numa quo devenit et Ancus.

HOR. 1 Ep. vi. 27.

With Aneus, and with Numa, kings of Rome,
We must descend into the silent tomb.

My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me t'other night, that he had been reading my paper upon Westminster-abbey, in which, says he, there are a great many ingenious fancies. He told me at the same time, that he observed, I had promised another paper upon the tombs, and that he should be

of a sudden turning short to one of his servants, who stood behind him, he bid him call a hackneycoach, and take care it was an elderly man that drove it.

He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Truby's water, telling me that the widow Truby was one who did more good than all the doctors and apothe. caries in the country; that she distilled every poppy that grew within five miles of her; that she distributed her water gratis among all sorts of people: to which the knight added, that she had a very great jointure, and that the whole country would fain have it a match between him and her; "and truly," says Sir Roger, " if I had not been engaged, per haps I could not have done better."

His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him he had called a coach. Upon our going to it, after having cast his eye upon the wheels, he asked the coachman if his axle-tree was good; upon the fellow's telling him he would warrant it, the knight turned to me, told me he looked like an honest man, and went in without further ceremony.

We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping

glad to go and see them with me, not having visited out his head, called the coachman down from his them since he had read history. I could not ima- box, and, upon presenting himself at the window, gine at first how this came into the knight's head, asked him if he smoked. As I was considering till I recollected that he had been busy all last what this would end in, he bid him stop by the way summer upon Baker's Chronicle, which he has at any good tobacconist's, and take in a roll of their quoted several times in his disputes with Sir Andrew best Virginia. Nothing material happened in the Freeport since his last coming to town. Accord- remaining part of our journey, till we were set down ingly I promised to call upon him the next morning, at the west end of the abbey.

that we might go together to the abbey.

I found the knight under the butler's hands, who always shaves him. He was no sooner dressed, than he called for a glass of the widow Truby's water, which he told me he always drank before he went abroad. He recommended me a dram of it at the same time, with so much heartiness, that I could not forbear drinking it. As soon as I had got it down, I found it very unpalatable; upon which the knight, observing that I had made several wry faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at first, but that it was the best thing in the world against the stone or gravel.

As we went up the body of the church, the knight pointed at the trophies upon one of the new monuments, and cried out, "A brave man,. I warrant him!" Passing afterward by Sir Cloudesly Shovel, he flung his hand that way, and cried, Sir Cloudesly Shovel! a very gallant man." As we stood before Busby's tomb, the knight uttered himself again after the same manner: "Dr. Busby! a great man! he whipped my grandfather; a very great man! I should have gone to him myself, if I had not been a blockhead: a very great man!"

I could have wished indeed that he had acquainted me with the virtues of it sooner; but it was too late to complain, and i knew what he had done was out of good-will. Sir Roger told me further, that he looked upon it to be very good for a very well pleased to see the statesman Cecil upon

man whilst he stayed in town, to keep off infection, and that he got together a quantity of it upon the

We were immediately conducted into the little chapel on the right hand. Sir Roger planting himself at our historian's elbow, was very attentive to every thing he said, particularly to the account he gave us of the lord who had cut off the king of Morocco's head. Among several other figures, he was his knees; and concluding them all to be great men, was conducted to the figure which represents that of a needle. Upon our interpreter's telling us that she was a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, the knight was very inquisitive into her name and family; and, after having regarded her finger for some time, "I wonder," says he. "that Sir Richard

first news of the sickness being at Dantzick: when martyr to good housewifery who died by the prick

In a MS. written by Dr. Birch, now before the annotator, it is said, that an original number of the Spectator in folio was withdrawn at the time of its republication in volumes, on the remonstrance of a family who conceived themselves injured

papits appearance in print. It was, most probably, this very

paper.

The following short letter, with the desire annexed to it, are subjoined to No. 3.30 in the original publication of the Spectator in folie: as they evidently relate to this paper which was sup

pressed very soon after its original date, they are here reprinted for the first time.

Baker has said nothing of her in his Chronicle."

We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, where my old friend, after having heard that the stone under the most ancient of them, which was brought from Scotland, was called Jacob's pillar, sat himself down in the chair, and, looking like the figure of an old Gothic king, asked our interpreter, what authority they had to say that Jacob had ever been in Scotland? The fellow, instead of returning him an answer, told him, that he hoped his honour would pay his forfeit. I could observe Sir Roger a little ruffled upon being thus trepanned; but our guide not insisting upon his demand, the knight soon recovered his good humour, and whis pered in my car, that if Will Wimble were with us,

and saw those chairs, it would go hard but he would stances, in comparison to that of his former abundget a tobacco stopper out of one or t'other of them. ance. This took away the vigour of his mind, and Sir Roger in the next place, laid his hand upon all mammer of attention to a fortune which he now Edward the Third's sword, and leaning upon the thought desperate; insomuch that he died without pommel of it, gave ns the whole history of the Black Prince: concluding, that in Sir Richard Baker's opinion, Edward the Third was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the English throne.

We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb; upon which Sir Roger acquainted us, that he was the first who touched for the evil: and afterward Henry the Fourth's; upon which he shook his head, and told us there was fine reading in the casualties of that reign.

Our conductor then pointed to that monument where there is the figure of one of our English kings without a head; and upon giving us to know, that the head, which was of beaten silver, had been stolen away several years since; "Some whig, I'll warrant you," says Sir Roger; you ought to lock up your kings better; they will carry off the body too, if you don't take care."

a will, having before buried my mother, in the midst of his other misfortunes. I was sixteen years of age when I lost my father; and an estate of 200L a year came into my possession, without friend or guardian to instruet me in the management or enjoyment of it. The natural consequence of this was (though I wanted no director, and soon had fellows who found me out for a smart young gentleman, and led me into all the debaucheries of which I was capable), that my companions and I could not well be supplied without running into debt, which I did very frankly, till I was arrested, and conveyed, with a guard strong enough for the most desperate assassin, to a bailiff's house, where I lay four days, surrounded with very merry, but not very agreeable, company. As soon as I had extricated myself from this shameful confinement, I reflected upon it with so much horror, that I deserted all my old acquaintance, and took chambers in an inn of court, with a resolution to study the law with all possible application. I trifled away a whole year in looking over a thousand intricacies, without a friend to apply to in any case of doubt; so that I only lived there among men, as little children are sent to school before they are capable of improvement, only to be out of harm's way. In the midst of this state of suspense, not knowing how to dispose of myself, I was cought for by a relation of mine; who, upon observing a good inclination in me, used me with great familiarity, and carried me to his seat in the country. When I came there he introduced me to all the good company in the county; and the great obligation I have to him for this kind notice, and residence with him ever since, has made so strong an impression upen me, that he has an authority of a father over me, founded upon the love of a brother. I have a good study of books, a good stable of horses always at my command; and, though I am not now quite No. 330.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1711-12. eighteen years of age, familiar converse on his part,

The glorious names of Henry the Fifth and Queen Elizabeth gave the knight great opportunities of shining, and of doing justice to Sir Richard Baker, who, as our knight observed with some surprise, had a great many kings in him, whose monuments he had not seen in the abbey.

For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the knight show such an honest passion for the glory of his country, and such a respectful gratitude to the memory of its princes.

I must not omit, that the benevolence of my good old friend, which flows out towards every one he converses with, made him very kind to our interpreter, whont he looked upon as an extraordinary man: for which reason he shook him by the hand at parting, telling him, that he should be very glad to see him at his lodgings in Norfolk-buildings, and talk over these matters with him more at leisure.-L.

Maxima debetur pueris reverentia

Juv. Sat. xiv. 48.

To youth the greatest reverence is due.

• THE following letters, written by two very considerate correspondents, both under twenty years of age, are very good arguments of the necessity of taking into consideration the many incidents which affect the education of youth.

"SIR,

"I have long expected that, in the course of your observations upon the several parts of human life, you would one time or other fall upon a subject, which, since you have not, I take the liberty to recommend to you. What I mean is, the patronage of young modest men to such as are able to

and a strong inclination to exert myself on mine, have had an effect upon me, that makes me acceptable wherever I go. Thus, Mr. Spectator, by this gentleman's favour and patronage, it is my owa fault if I am not wiser and richer every day I live. I speak this as well by subscribing the initial letters of my name to thank him, as to incite others to an imitation of his virtue. It would be a worthy work to show what great charities are to be done without expense, and how many noble actions are lost, out of inadvertency, in persons capable of performing them, if they were put in mind of it. If a gentleman of figure in a county would make his family a pattern for sobriety, good sense, and breeding, and would kindly endeavour to influence the education and growing prospects of the younger gentry about him, I am apt to believe it would save him a great

countenance, and introduce them into the world. deal of stale beer on a public occasion, and render For want of such assistances, a youth of merit lan-him the leader of his country from their gratitude guishes in obscurity or poverty when his circum- to him, instead of being a slave to their riots and stances are low, and runs into riot and excess when tumults, in order to be made their representative. his fortunes are plentiful. I cannot make myself The same thing might be recommended to all who better understood, than by sending you a history of have made any progress in any parts of knowledge, myself, which I shall desire you to insert in your or arrived at any degree in a profession; others may paper, it being the only way I have of expressing gain preferments and fortunes from their patrons; my gratitude for the highest obligations imaginable. but I have, I hope, received from mine good habits

"I am the son of a merchant of the city of London, who, by many losses, was reduced from a very luxuriant trade and credit to very narrow circum

and virtues. I repeat to you, Sir, my request to print this, in return for all the evil a helpless orphan shall ever escape, and all the good he shall receive

1

in this life: both which are wholly owing to this
gentleman's favour to,
Sir, Your most obedient Servant,

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"S. P."

"I am a lad of about fourteen. I find a mighty pleasure in learning. I have been at the Latin school four years. I don't know I ever played truant, or neglected any task my master set me in my life. I think on what I read in school as I go home at noon and night, and so intently, that I have often gone half a mile out of my way, not minding whither I went. Our maid tells me she often hears me talk Latin in my sleep, and I dream two or three nights in a week I am reading Juvenal and Homer. My master seems as well pleased with my performances as any boy's in the same class. I think, if I know my own mind, I would choose rather to be a scholar than a prince without learning. I have a very good, affectionate father; but though very rich, yet so mighty near, that he thinks much of the charges of my education. He often tells me he believes my schooling will ruin him; that I cost him God knows

what in books. I tremble to tell him I want one.

I

I am forced to keep my pocket-money, and lay it cut for a book now and then, that he don't know of. He has ordered my master to buy no more books for me, but says he will buy them himself. I asked him for Horace t'other day, and he told me in a passion he did not believe I was fit for it, but only my master had a mind to make him think had got a great way in my learning. I am sometimes a month behind other boys in getting the books my master gives orders for. All the boys in the school, but I, have the classic authors in usum Delphini, gilt and lettered on the back. My father is often reckoning up how long I have been at school, and tells me he fears I do little good. My father's carriage so discourages me, that he makes me grow dull and melancholy. My master wonders what is the matter with me; I am afraid to tell him; for he is a man that likes to encourage learning, and would be apt to chide my father, and, not knowing his temper, may make him worse. Sir, ifs you have any love for learning, I beg you would give me some instructions in this case, and persuade parents to encourage their children when they find them diligent and desirous of learning. I have heard some parents say, they would do any thing for

walking in my gallery in the country, and see my ancestors, who many of them died before they were of my age, I cannot forbear regarding them as so many old patriarchs, and, at the same time, looking upon myself as an idle smock-faced young fellow. I love to see your Abrahams, your Isaacs, and your Jacobs, as we have them in old pieces of tapestry, with beards below their girdles, that cover half the hangings." The knight added, " if I would recommend beards in one of my papers, and endeavour to restore human faces to their ancient dignity, that, upon a month's warning, he would undertake to lead up the fashion himself in a pair of whiskers.""

I smiled at my friend's fancy; but, after we parted, could not forbear reflecting on the metamorphosis our faces have undergone in this particular.

The beard, conformable to the notion of my friend Sir Roger, was for many ages looked upon as the type of wisdom. Lucian more than once rallies the philosophers of his time, who endeavoured to rival one another in beards; and represents a learned man who stood for a professorship in philosophy, as unqualified for it by the shortness of his beard.

Ælian, in his account of Zoilus, the pretended critic, who wrote against Homer and Plato, and thought himself wiser than all who had gone before him, tells us that this Zoilus had a very long beard that hung down upon his breast, but no hair upon his head, which he always kept close shaved, regarding, it seems, the hairs of his head as so many suckers, which, if they had been suffered to grow, might have drawn away the nourishment from his chin, and by that means have starved his beard.

I have read somewhere, that one of the popes refused to accept an edition of a saint's works, which were presented to him, because the saint, in his effigies before the book, was drawn without a beard. We see by these instances what homage the world has forinerly paid to beards; and that a barber was not then allowed to make those depredations on the faces of the learned, which have been permitted him of late years.

Accordingly several wise nations have been so extremely jealous of the least ruffle offered to their beards, that they seem to have fixed the point of honour principally in that part. The Spaniards were wonderfully tender in this particular. Don Quevedo, in his third vision on the last judgment, has carried the humour very far, when he tells us

their children, if they would but mind their learn- that one of his vain-glorious countrymen, after

ing: I would be glad to be in their place. Dear Sir, having received sentence, was taken into custody pardon my boldness. If you will but consider and by a couple of evil spirits; but that his guides haplong pening to disorder his mustachios, they were forced to recompose them with a pair of curling-irons, before they could get him to tile off.

as

py my case, I will pray for your prosperity
as I live.
"Your humble Servant,
"JAMES DISCIPULUS."

London, March 2, 1711.

T.

If we look into the history of our own nation, we shall find that the beard flourished in the Saxon heptarchy, but was very much discouraged under the Norman line. It shot out, however, from time No. 331.] THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1711-12. to time, in several reigns under different shapes.

Holds out his foolish beard for thee to pluck.

WHEN I was last with my friend Sir Roger in Westminster-abbey, I observed that he stood longer than ordinary before the bust of a venerable old man. I was at a loss to guess the reason of it; when, after some time, he pointed to the figure, and asked me if I did not think that our forefathers looked much wiser in their beards than we do with out them? "For my part," says he, "when I am

The last effort it made seems to have been in
Queen Mary's days, as the curious reader may find,
if he pleases to peruse the figures of Cardinal Pole.
and Bishop Gardiner; though, at the same time, I
think it may be questioned, if zeal against popery
has not induced our Protestant painters to extend
the beards of these two persecutors beyond their na-
tural dimensions, in order to make them appear the

more terrible.

I find but few beards worth taking notice of in the reign of King James the First. During the civil wars there appeared one, which