1800.) 
of fingularities, but proceeding from a 
particular vein of good-fenfe: and though 
fond of retirement, and carelefs of appear- 
ances, fince “he was crofled in love 5 it is 
faid that in his youth he had been a fine 
gentleman, who fupped with Lord Ro- 
chefter and Sir George | Etheredge, had 
fought a duel, and kicked a bully ina, 
coffee-houfe. It is certain that many of 
the fubfeguent difpiays of his character, in 
which he is reprefenced as ignorant of the 
common forms of life, ruftic, uninformed, 
and credulous, very ill accord with this 
fuppofed town education. Steel himfelt 
has been guilty of fome of thefe deviations 
from the original draught ; but Addifon 
feems not at all-te have regarded it, and 
to have painted afier a conception of his 
own, to which he has faithfuily adhered. 
His Sir Roger, though fomewhat of an 
huimourift in his manner, is effentially a 
“benevolent, chearful, hearty country gen- 
tleman, of very flender abilities and con- 
fined education, warmly attached to church 
and king, and imbued with all the politi- 
cal opinions of what was called the coun- 
try party. Thouzh he is made an object 
of affection from the goodnets of his heart, 
and the hilarity of his temper, yet his 
weaknefles and prejudices f{carcely allow 
place for efteem ; nor dowe meet with any 
of that whimfical complication of fenfe-and 
folly which Steel’s papers exhibit, and 
which he accounts for on the fuppofition of 
a fort of menial infirmity, left by his 
amorous difappointment. 
~ T thall poimt out fome of the particulars 
which feem defigned by Addifon to lower 
him down to the ftandard of capacity 
which he chofe to allot to the abftract cha- 
rater of the country gentleman. His be- 
haviour at church may pafs as the oddity 
ofan humourift, though it alfo plainly de- 
notes the ruflication of a fequeftered life 5 
but hts half belief of witchcraft in the cafe 
of Moll White, is undoubtedly. a fatirical 
_ftroke on country fuperftition. | Sir Roger 
ferioufly advifes the old woman not to 
have communication with the devil, or 
burt her neighbours” cattle ; and it is ob- 
ferved, “that he would frequently have 
bound her over to the county feffions, had 
hot his chaplain, with much ado, ‘per- 
fuaded him to the contrary.” At the af- 
fizes he gets upand makes a f{peech ; but, 
the Spectator fays, “* itwas fo little to the 
purpofe, that he will not trouble his readers 
with an account of it.’’ Inthe adventure 
with the gipfies, the knight duffers them to 
tell him his fortune, and appears more than 
half inclined to put faith in their predic- 
tions. His notion that the A& for fecuring 
Humour of Addifon. ‘ 
3: 
the church of England had already begun 
to take effect, becaufe a rigid diffenter, 
who'had dined atthis houfe on Chriftmas- 
day, had been obferved to eat heartily of 
plum-porridge, is too palpable a ftroke of 
raillery on the narrow conceptions of the. 
high party to be miftaken. The whole 
defcription of Sir Roger’s behaviour at the 
reprefentation of the Diftrefled Mother, is 
admirably humourous; but the figure the ° 
knight makes in it is not at all more re- 
{fpettable in point of tafte or knowledge, 
than that of Partridge in Tom Jones on a 
fimilar occafion. But it is in the vifit to 
the tombs in’ Weftminfter Abbey, that 
Addifon: has moft unmercifully jefted on 
\ on ae i 
the good man’s fimplicity. Sir Roger, it 
fees, was prepared for this {pectacle by 
a courfe of hiftorical reading in the fummer, 
which was to enable him to bring quota. 
tions from Baker’s Chronicle in his politi- 
cal debates with Sir Andrew Freeport. 
He accordingly deals out his knowledge 
very liberally as he paffes through the he- 
roes of this profound hiftorian. “The 
fhew-man, however, informs him of many 
circumftances which he had not met with 
in Baker ; and this profufion of anecdotes 
makes him appear fo extraordinary a per- 
fon to Sir Roger, that he not only kindly 
fhakes him by the hand at parting, but ine 
vites him to his lodgings in Norfolk. ftreet, 
in order “* to talk over thefe matters with 
him more at leifure.” The trait is plea- 
fantly ludicrous, but fomewhat outreé, as 
applied toa perfon at all removed from the 
loweft vulgar. 
If the picture of Sir Roger be compared 
with that of the country {quire in the Free- 
holder, it will be found that they differ 
chiefly in the milder temper and more be- 
nevolent difpofition of the knight, and 
, 
{carcely at all in point of information and ~ 
underftanding. Both have the fame nati- 
onal and party prejudices, and exhibit an 
equal inferiority tothe more cultured in- 
habitant of the town. As the ‘papers in 
which Sir Roger appears have ever been 
among the moit popular in the Spectator, T 
cannot but think they have done much in 
fixing on the public mind the abftra& idea | 
of a country gentleman, and attaching to 
it that fort of contempt with which, whe- 
therjuftly or otherwife, it has ufualiy been 
treated ; and I fhould no more hefitate to 
term Addifon a /atirif? in this piece of 
pleafantry, than the author of the cele- 
brated ‘* Lettres Provinciales,”? who has 
perhaps excelled every writer in the re- 
fined delicacy of his ridicule. 
.- Stoke Newington, ~ J. Arkin. 
Fan. 6, 1800. 
A 2 For 
