One is frequently surprised at the rapidity with which the 

 deserted waste becomes converted into the populous village or 

 town. First it is covered with scattered habitations, which 

 occasionally exist in pairs, and the most prominent of them 

 receive individual names, from some leading inhabitant, or 

 from some peculiarity in his dwelling. Any circumstance 

 tending to increase population, or even time alone, will do the 

 rest. One place acquires distinction, and becomes a centre to 

 which several of the others tend, while the latter, allowing 

 their increase of population to be poured into it, advance 

 slowly or remain stationary. The following humorous sketch 

 is almost a historic record of the progress of some of our 

 towns. "There is a church; that is the ordinary foundation. 

 Where there is a church, there must be a parson, a clerk, and 

 a sexton, — thus we account for three houses. An inn is re- 

 quired on the road; this produces a smith, a saddler, a 

 butcher, and a brewer. The parson, the clerk, the sexton, the 

 butcher, the smith, the saddler, and the brewer, require a 

 baker, a tailor, a shoemaker, and a carpenter. They soon 

 learn to eat plum pudding, and a grocer follows. The grocer's 

 wife and the parson's wife contend for superiority in dress, 

 whence flow a milliner and a mantua maker. A barber is 

 introduced to curl the parson's wig, and to shave the smith on 

 Saturday nights, and a stationer to furnish the ladies with 

 paper for their sentimental correspondence ; an exciseman is 

 sent to guage the casks, and a schoolmaster discovers that the 

 ladies require to be taught to spell. A hatter, a hosier, and a 

 linen draper follow by degrees ; and as children are born they 

 begin to cry out for rattles and gingerbread. In the mean- 

 time, a neighbouring apothecary, hearing with indignation 

 that there is a community living without physic, places three 

 blue bottles in the window. The butcher having called the 

 tailor " prick louse," over a pot of ale, snip knocks him down 

 with his goose ; upon this plea, an action for assault is brought 

 at the next sessions. The attorney sends his clerk over to 

 collect evidence ; the clerk, judging it a good opening, sets all 

 the people by the ears, becomes a pettifogging attorney, and 

 peace flies the village for ever. But the village becomes a 

 town and acquires a bank ; and should it have existed in 

 happier days, might have gained a corporation, a mayor, a 



