1797] | 
fertility. After a day paffed in aétion, 
Duftle, expectation, and difappointment, 
the night brings with it, domettic com- 
fort of another kind. The alarm of tire 
‘and of thieves forms a perpetual fource 
of watchfulnefs and contrivance; and 
as, for reafons already alfigned, fhe isa 
great reader of newlpapers, thefe are 
fubjeéts which are never allowed to flip 
- out of our memory. Joined to thefe 
are the pleafing poffibilities of being 
robbed by our fervants, of our houfe in 
the country being burnt, of the banker 
failing, and of our fteward proving a 
rogue. And as. fome part of ' my 
property lies in the Weft Indies, we 
occafionally fpeculate, with a degree of 
comfort, on an earthquake for my lands, 
or the yellow fever for my tenanis.— 
As to fervants, a perpetual change of 
them is one of my wife’s chief pleafures. 
If we have good fervants, they are no 
better for us; and if they are bad, we 
are not worfe for them. This procures 
madam the reputation of GREAT Dis- 
CERNMENT. 
Such, fir, are fome of the ingredients 
in my wife’s practical fyfiem of happi- 
nefs. It is remarkable, however, that 
I tolerate it, becaufe I am of a quite 
different way of thinking. and really 
allow of buftle and confufion, merely 
becaufe I ama lover of peace. If this 
appear inconfiftent, it can appear fo cnly 
to an inveterate old batchelor. To be 
fure, I could” with the time were come 
when we could fit down quietly, and 
confider all around us as perfeét in its 
Kind, and without ftirring from. our 
chairs, make allowance for impertfeétions 
which impatience and motion cannot 
remove. And, of late, 1 fufpeét my 
wife has been ftudying the new doétrine 
of perfectibility, which, to fuit herfelf, 
She transfers from mind to matter.— 
Were I to examine her clofely on the 
fubjeét, I have little doubt that fhe 
looks forward with earnefi hope-to that 
happy day when the furniture of a 
houfe fhall arrive at perfection, when 
wain{fcot fhall be impregnable to duft, 
when plate fhall fhine in perpetual 
brightnefs, and the voice of {courers 
fhall be heard.\no more—when property 
fhall no longer change its mafter, the 
conditions of fale became a dead letter, 
and the eloguence of Chriftie folicit the 
laft bid 1 
Lan, fir, your's, &c. 
HumMPHREY PLacip, 
Marth 4,'0'197-- | 
7 
Hand-Mills...Early Painters. 185 
To tbe Editor of the Minthly Magazing 
VUSTR 
HVERAL readers of the Monthly 
Magazine perceived in the number 
for Feb. 1796, a convincing demonftra- 
tion of the fuperior advantages accruing 
to a parith or a family, from the practice 
of grinding their own corn by a hand- 
mill, as exemplifed inthe year 2795, by 
the town-gaoler of Blandford. They 
have, in confequence, made enquiry con- 
cerning fuch a machine, but can obtain 
no fatisfaétory account relative to it, and | 
therefore would be glad to be informed, 
by any of your corretpondents, through 
the medium of your Magazine, where 
fuch a machine may be met with, wha 
is its price, amd whether the corn ground 
bythe hand-mili, be as agreeable for ufe, 
as that ground in the public mulls? 
By giving place to thefe enquiries, 
you will oblige many of your numerous 
readers in this diftritt, and be the means 
of promoting the general ufe of that ma- 
chine, which, I thinks 1s an obje& 
worthy of public attention. 
I remain, your humble fervant, 
JouN BARTLETT. 
New Malton, Yorkfbire, Fan. 30, 1747- 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
oo arts of defign, of which the 
Royal Academy of London is now 
fo illuftrious a {chool, were not, as is 
commonly fuppofed, abiolutely unknown 
in England, even in the fourteenth cen- 
tury. Windows, walls, and cielings of 
cathedrals and chapels, were, even then, 
adorned by the hands of the carver in 
wood, the {culptor in ftone, the exameller, 
and the painter; but whether it were 
becaufe the temper of an artift, con{cious 
of high and peculiar genius, is often im- 
patient and refra€tory; or that the pain- 
ters of thofe days preferred the patron- 
age ot the public, before even that of a 
monarch; or that Edward was much lefs. 
munificent, than is George the Third 3 
Certain it is, that, in the fourteenth. 
century, painters were fometimes little 
lefs unwilling to work for the-king of 
England, than are failors, in thefe days, 
to ferve in time of war m the Britith 
navy. Inthe fixth volume of Rymer’s 
Kedera Angle, 1s afort ot preft-warraats 
iffued by Edward LI, againft the painters. 
then in Londen, It authorizes the of- 
ficers to whom it was addreffed, to jferze 
the perfons of thofe painters, wherever they 
anipht be juund; to condudé them to a chapel, 
wich 
