336 TRAVELS 
labour. His wife was making their bread, and had heated the 
oven to bake it; the bread contained fo much ftraw, and fo little 
meal, that in order to make the dough adhere, Hie was obliged to 
ufe a wooden frame, fuch as is employed in making chccfe. ITe 
had neither field, nor cow, butter, milk, nor animal food, and was 
exifting in the moil deplorable condition. I confefs the prefence 
of thofe doric pillars, contrafted with fo much poverty and mifery, 
irritated my feelings to fuch a degree, that I fhould not have been 
forry to fee them a heap of ruins. To what purpofe this paro¬ 
chial magnificence, while the parifhioners themfelves remain in a 
Hate of ftarvation ! “ Down,” faid I within myfelf, “ down with 
the pillars, cupola, and temple ; give again to thefe poor wretches 
their wonted humble place of devotion, and inftead of wafting 
treafure on idle fliow, beftow it in cultivating the foil and giving 
them fubfiftence.” 
• 
Nothing in fociety can be the fource of more melancholy to a 
feeling mind, than a quick and violent contraft of extreme poverty 
and luxury. I remember to have experienced fimilar mournful 
reflexions on the inequalities among men in the courfe of my 
travels through the Britifli dominions. It was in Ireland, where, 
happening to be with a hunting party, I perceived a hut formed 
from a dunghill; on looking within, I faw naked children fleeping 
without any fort of covering for their bodies, with their father, their 
mother, and with hogs : and what fupported this miferable hovel? 
A wall of ten feet high, which furrounded “ his honour’s” park. 
With regard to the poor Finlander, of whom I have been fpeak- 
ing. 
