Piduresque Promenade, near Dorhing, 



K4 



Time, served as a meinenfoof i(s vr.st 

 importance. Instead ot' the sj;acions 

 rotunda, saloons, and };iazzas — a dismal 

 alcove, in which were seen two larjje fi- 

 gures of a christian and an unbeliever in 

 their last moments, an da statue of Truth 

 trani])ling on a maslt, directing the at- 

 tention to those awful objects. At (he 

 termination of a walk, also, were two 

 elcgantly-carvrd pedestals, with two 

 Jiuman sculls, each of which addressed 

 the male and female visitant. Such 

 eccentric imat'cries.wroucrht upas irre- 

 fragable appeals to the frowardness and 

 contumacy of the dissolute debauchee, 

 mijiht form a persuasive penifcnfirrri/, 

 and urge the necessity of ainciidmont 

 with more eJificatioii, than all the far- 

 cical frenzies of fornsalists or fanatics. 

 Ou tiie death of Mr, Tyers, they were 

 entii'ely remove:). 



While surveying the fastidious 

 mansions of splendour and afiiuence, 

 which embellish the face ot tliis coun- 

 try, and contrasting them witli the 

 cottages in tlie vicinage, I employed 

 myself in forming a comparative 

 judgment as to the respective for- 

 tunes of their inmates. "•Luxury is 

 the sweetener of life ;'" and, without its 

 fortuitous aid, the incessant perplexi- 

 ties of the world, would work on our 

 sensibilities with redoubled force. 

 Contentment is the niain prop of hu- 

 man happines^^and, which althougli it 

 cannot beclaimetl as the exclusive right 

 of wealth, most totally depend ou th(; 

 appropriation of the me.ins we possess. 

 Pitiable as we may be inclined to tliink 

 the lives of our ancestors, in their 

 woods, and caves, and pain((>d skins, 

 ours wotild be equally so. had tiieir 

 successors utterly omitted tiie improve- 

 ment whic'i progressive ages have sug- 

 gested. The dispensations of good and 

 evil, arc so promiscuousl}- scattered 

 throughout life, as readily to account 

 for the seeming improbabilities which 

 have hitbeito diversifiee every stage. 

 Aristides, with all his stately honours, 

 his noble generosity, and statistical 

 equity, closed the evening of his days 

 in neglected poverty, Ci-cesus, the Ly- 

 dian monarch, confessed tiie veracity of 

 the Spartan maxim, " that poverty was 

 a. happier stale than riches,'" in an cx- 

 piatoiy ejaculation, wlien on the funeral 

 pile before the relenting Conqueror, 

 Julius Cresar, in the midst of his brilliant 

 career, fell a prey to the trracheroTis 

 design of a befriended stripling. In 

 the more recent annals of liistory, view 

 the mighty poleatatc, but a i'cw years 



[March I, 



ago, rousing a fallen dynasty from 

 supineness and vitiated impotence, and 

 wading through fields of slaughter and 

 de^oiation — now tortured by the base 

 a;id ambidextrous intrigue of merce- 

 n iry governors, Alas ! but yesterday 

 in the zenith of glory — to-day, a crest- 

 fallen exile ! A lesson may be deduced 

 from (he shallow(rickeryof sovereigns ; 

 tlie 'lantcrings of party ; and the con- 

 fiicts whicii so huig affitated our poli- 

 tical hemisphere : thrones are but play- 

 mings in the hands of fate; — lineage 

 may soon be extirpated by the inex- 

 orfible fiat of Death : and however 

 great may l)e the disparity, pliilosophy 

 still d(!!ines the precept to the meanest 

 of mankind. These re\-ersionary changes 

 may at least be pondered on as colla- 

 teral instances of the instal)ility of all 

 earthly existence. 



Here I saw buibliugs of almost every 

 order, from the thatched roof and the 

 s'mply-elegant villa, to the substantial 

 brick mansion with its contingent 

 offices. Each of them was placed in a 

 suitable lawn, park.oreourt, intersected 

 with gravelled paths or drives, I could 

 not iielp remarking what contemp- 

 tible huts must have been the dwellings 

 of our forefathers, with their moveabh; 

 windows, and their furniture, Avhich in 

 this age of innovation, apeasant would 

 scarcely own ; how disgusting must 

 have bepn the cottages, consisting 

 merely of a single room, without any 

 division ; how incompetent with the 

 methodical arrangement of a farm- 

 liouse of the present day ? What 

 wretched tenements must have been 

 the habitations of those, who in the 

 time of Edward the First, were thoua;ht 

 rich with ;iO!. per annu)n? Sumptu- 

 ousness of living has lately usliered in 

 suites of foreign appendages, which 

 although perhaps superseded by the 

 ingenuity of our own artificers, main- 

 tain the ))referencc, merely becaus(! 

 (hey are rare. But what can be 

 more culpable than nursing this 

 foolish rage, which has already so 

 deeply aft'ectedlhe manufacturing esta- 

 blishments of our owncoinitr}' ? Surely 

 after this consideration, we cannot 

 find any solid satisfaction in seeing the 

 palaces, the vestibules, the drawing- 

 rooms, and boudoirs of the great, 

 cheaked up with the dragons and lan- 

 terns of Ci'iina, - or tlie costly suits of 

 Parisian furnitun^ — to say nothing of 

 the myriads of Dunstable lasses, and 

 the wlmle schools of Northamptonshire 

 lace-makers, wliose manufactures have 



becft 



