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aided by the genial spirit of their pastor, revel in all the luxury of harmless country sports, with the exhilarating and lively dance. It was delightful to mark their comely countenances and awkward gestures, and the learned doctor mixing with the group, in all the fantastic merriment of a villager, yet with a dignity that bespoke the superior, enlightened gentleman.

For a description of this beautiful country, I shall refer you to your daughters. Lucy says, she has taken leave of Tavistock Place, and intends residing here: she has half persuaded Elizabeth into the same notion. Thus it is with novelty: almost every place has charms at first sight. Young minds are easily captivated: I am now an old traveller. I can relish the beautiful and the romantic; but I can better relish the comforts of my own little study: and without the fatigue of travelling, can ramble over the whole globe, better satisfied with the description of intelligent tourists, than with my own observations upon what I chance to see.

I shall set off on Thursday morning for Lichfield, and from thence to Nottingham.

Lucy thought the lady, our coadjutor, in person, manner, and disposition, like Mrs. Lowton, of Leigh. This brought my friend Shaw "in form and person before me;" and while pacing through the still churchyard, where the remark was made, and ruminating upon "the sleep of death, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil," I could not help saying,

"O Heaven! that one might read the book of fate,

And see the revolution of the times!"

What was my wonder- my sorrow-my heart-rendings -to read on a grave-stone before me

"In hope of a blessed resurrection,
Here lie the remains of

SAMUEL SHAW,

Who died 1st of November, 1806."

And underneath the above:

66

Reader, reflect, prepare, while thus you view!

Who next must die 's uncertain! Why not you?”

Why, I swear I could have exclaimed with Horatio, “I saw him yesternight." Poor Sam! I knew him well: he

was a fellow of infinite jest-of most excellent fancy! Here lie those hands I have shook a thousand times.

"Where are thy gibes now thy gambols - thy songs and wit-that were wont to set the table in a roar?"

Now " two paces of the vilest earth enclose him," whom I honoured when living, and whom in death I now sincerely mourn. Excellent fellow!" I could have better spared a better man!" Life's "a stage, where every man must play a part"-Why then

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

And let my liver rather cool with wine,

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans!"

"Let come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day!"

Why not make your mind up to come and pass a month here? We buy excellent asparagus for ninepence a hundred, lamb at sixpence a pound, and as much saline water as you can drink for half-a-crown a week. "The air too 's refreshing, and the ripe harvest of the new mown hay gives it a sweet and wholesome odour."

"By all the roses of the spring,

Honour, truth, and every thing,
I love thee"

Affectionately,

B. O.

To Miss LUCY L. OAKLEY, LEAMINGTON.

Nottingham, June 1, 1822.

I RECOLLECT, sometime ago, my dear Lucy upbraiding me for not writing to her, remarking, that all her sisters possessed letters of mine in the proportion of two or three to one. If I did not write to you oftener than to your sisters, it was, " because you are a nice little girl, and must not be teased." I should be sorry to make you uncomfortable, Lucy; so that should you be teased in the recital of this, it will be your own fault for having provoked it. Let not Elizabeth suppose that I love her better than I do you, because I favour her by not writing to her, thereby leaving her to pursue her own concerns, without teasing her by drawing her attention from other objects.

Now, then, I am off. The coach, or coachman, whirled me down from Leamington to Birmingham in three hours - there I had four hours on my hands before I started for Lichfield. It was fair time-the streets literally crowded- showmen, conjurors, and mountebanks attracted the gazing populace. I did not think it right to add to the pressure of the crowd; and therefore gave up the room I might have occupied to some one who had more relish for sights than myself: so I walked off to quieter scenes, and strolled to the extremity of the town, to view a fine Gothic church just erected, which, considering its size and beauty, surprised me to find it cost only ten thousand pounds: but when examining the interior enrichments of the arches and mullions of the windows, together with all the ornaments of tracery work, and finding they were cast iron, I could

easily account for it. The country about Birmingham abounds with iron ore, which the ingenuity of its inhabitants turns to great advantage, at a moderate expense; and a variety of substantial and ornamental work, which our ancestors could only produce in wood and stone with great labour and as great cost, is here manufactured with great celerity, and at a very trifling cost.

I visited the manufactory of Mr. Thomason, where almost every stranger goes. I bought of him a beautiful bronze vase, a fac-simile of the magnificent marble vase you saw at Warwick Castle. It was lucky for me a certain lady was not present, for there were so many "pretty things," that I should have left the place pennyless, had she been with me.

I am now going to call upon my friends, Messrs. Moore, Maltby, and Robinson; and as my time will be fully occupied, I shall, for the present, put this unfinished letter into my case, and fill up the remainder of the sheet when I arrive at home.

Tavistock Place, June 2, 1822.

Travelling all night, I surprised your mamma and sisters at the breakfast table this morning, at eight o'clock; where I found them with two visitors, Miss Parrott and Miss Williams.

I had a very dusty ride from Birmingham to Lichfield; but was compensated afterwards by viewing the cathedral, which is extremely elegant. Two fine spires flank the front entrance; between which is an elaborate enrichment of Gothic ornaments, with a profusion of effigies, kings, saints, and martyrs. From the centre tower rises a magnificent spire, greatly eclipsing, in height, the two just mentioned, measuring, from the

base to the summit, three hundred feet. Within the cathedral, which is extremely light and airy, are monuments of Doctor Johnson, a native of this city, and David Garrick; and at the end of one of the aisles, most appropriately placed, is Chantrey's celebrated work to the memory of two children, (one burnt to death, the other drowned,) daughters of a clergyman belonging to this church. This monument was in the exhibition last year, and is considered to be the chef-d'œuvre of Chantrey. There is also another, erected in a different part of the church, to the memory of the famous Miss Seward, and her father, who was a dignitary of this cathedral.

I walked through the city to the house, and into the very room where the celebrated Doctor Johnson was born. This great genius, in the early part of his life, kept an academy, and it was in this house he wrote his tragedy of Irene. An anecdote told of him states, that when he read his tragedy to Mr. Walmsley, (who, I believe, was his tutor and patron,) the latter objecting to his having brought his heroine into great distress, asked him, "How can you possibly contrive to plunge her into deeper calamity ?" when Johnson, in allusion to the supposed oppressive proceedings of the court of which Mr. Walmsley was registrar, replied, "Sir, I can put her into the spiritual court!" He is called the Colossus of literature. You have read his Lives of the Poets, and his Rasselas. He was a strictly conscientious man.

"From his cradle

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one:

And to add greater honours to his age

Than man could give him- he died fearing Heaven!"

I slept at a comfortable inn, and set off next morning for Derby. Here it was fair time; a crowded population

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