213 Revienv of Letters io- a Kohle Lord y May 



* The couTitry ^cntlematiy who not many years ago vcfidtd conftantly 

 on hiseftate, fuperintcnded the culture of his paternal fields, and by his 

 example fupported a Uation, which united confcquence with economy, 

 and utiluy with rank, is, I am afraid, no longer to be found. If we 

 iind him in the country at all, it mult only be during a few weeks in 

 certain Icafon?,. regaling his fafhionable and gay friends withfplendid mag- 

 uificonce, or in a perpetual round of vifits, where he and his fafliionable 

 family are regaled in turn. But it is not in the country, my Lord, that 

 v:t can liope to find this new planet moving in its p'-oper orbit -y — to trace 

 Its courfe, and contemplate its uncommon iplendour to advantage, we 

 mull direct our eye to another hemifphere. From the fimplc and ne- 

 ^letied haunts of rural quiet, we mull: turn to more brilliant, more daz- 

 zling, regi(M-'s (*f modern attraction — to fome watering or public place 

 of rcfort, where it^^ iinobfcured beams diffufe radiance around — to a 

 trip arrofs the Britilli Channel, on a vifit to our magnanimous invader ; 

 or to thr annual fafhionable profufion of our difnpated and luxtirions 

 capital. It is there, my Lord, that we mufl now exped to frnd our 

 plain refptctable Scotch country gentleman fuddenly transformed into 

 T-he dafhing, mcdini, elegant man of fafhion and extravagance, enjoying 

 ;he fruits of his lately acquired opulence ; indifferent to every lural con- 

 cern, fave the collection of his trthk rent-roll, and attentive to nothing 

 but the rllablirtiinent of his fplendid houfehold, the elegance of his re- 

 tinue, the decoration of his perfon, and the delicacies of his table. * 



■ Thefc things, ho\rjyer, are better ordered in England. Oar 

 author^ p. 30, fays, 



* To thofe who have had opportunities of mingling with people of 

 various dcfcriptlons in England, and who have marktd their manners^ 

 iludled their propenfities, and appreciated their tendency, the apparent 

 opulence and profperity, which we fee there extended around us, fo far 

 from exciting alarm, produce, on the contrary, fenfations of fafcty, fa- 

 lisfa£lion, and joy. While, for inilance, we indulge the delighted eye 

 with rural profpeds of plenty, indullry, and univerfal comfort, we per- 

 ceive nothing to impede this placid current of pleafure ; nothing ftrain- 

 cd, or extravagantly ambitious, to draw afide the gratified mind from a 

 contemplation of what is judicloufly moderate, to what is prepofteroufly 

 vain. We fee, on the contrary, every thing in its proper place, mov- 

 ing regularly in an even, fteady, undeviating courfe ; the landed pro- 

 prietor enjoying his ufual annual emoluments in plain, hearty, EnglKh 

 hofpltallty ; the tenant, cultivating his produdive farms, neither dif- 

 turbed with apprehenficns of increafed demands from his landlord, nor 

 racking bis fermenting brain with idle and ambitious plans of fuddcn 

 profperity. From thefe calm and peaceful fcenes of rural uniformity, 

 Ihould we turn to others more mixed and buftling, we fhall fllll find 

 them not lefs gratifying. In all the hamlets, villages, and fmaller towns* 

 removed to any diftance from the great capital of vice, and our great 

 manufaftures of corruption, we fail not to meet with an uniform con- 



dua 



