NUMB. 138. SATURDAY, July 13, 1751. tecum libeat mihi fordida rura Atque humiles habitare cafas, et figere cervos. With me retire, and leave the pomp of SIR, TH VIRG. courts To the RAMBLER. HOUGH the contempt with which you have treated the annual migrations of the gay and bufy part of mankind, is juftified by daily obfervation, fince most of those who leave the town, neither vary their entertainments nor enlarge their notions; yet I fuppofe you do not intend to reprefent the practice itself as ridiculous, or to declare that he whofe condition puts the diftribution of his time into his own power may not properly divide it between the town and country. That the country, and only the country, difplays the inexhaustible varieties of nature, and fupplies the philofophical mind with matter for admiration and enquiry, never was denied; but my curiofity is very little attracted by the colour of a flower, the anatomy of an infect, or the structure of a neft; I am generally employed upon human manners, and therefore fill up the months of rural leisure with remarks on thofe who live within the circle of my notice. If writers would more frequently vifit those Ee 4 thofe regions of negligence and liberty, they might diverfify their reprefentations, and multiply their images, for in the country are original characters chiefly to be found. In cities, and yet more in courts, the minute difcriminations which distinguish one from another are for the most part effaced, the peculiarities of temper and opinion are gradually worn away by promifcuous converfe, as angular bodies and uneven furfaces lofe their points and afperities by frequent attrition against one another, and approach by degrees to uniform rotundity. The prevalence of fashion, the influence of example, the defire of applaufe, and the dread of cenfure, obstruct the natural tendencies of the mind, and check the fancy in its first efforts to break forth into experiments of caprice. Few inclinations are fo ftrong as to grow up into habits, when they muft ftruggle with the conftant oppofition of fettled forms and established customs. But in the country every man is a feparate and independent being folitude flatters irregularity with hopes of fecrecy and wealth, removed from the mortification of comparison, and the awe of equality, fwells into contemptuous confidence, and fets blame and laughter at defiance; the impulses of nature act unrestrained, and the difpofition dares to fhew itself in its true form, without any difguife of hypocrify, or decorations of elegance. Every one indulges the full enjoyment of his own choice, and talks and lives with no other view than to please himself, without enquiring how far he deviates from the general practice, or confidering others as entitled to any account of his fentiments or actions. If he builds or demolishes, 6 lifhes, opens or encloses, deluges or drains, it is not his care what may be the opinion of those who are skilled in perspective or architecture, it is fufficient that he has no landlord to control him, and that none has any right to examine in what projects the lord of the manor spends his own money on his own grounds. For this reason it is not very common to want fubjects for rural converfation. Almost every man is daily doing fomething which produces merriment, wonder, or refentment, among his neighbours. This utter exemption from reftraint leaves every anomalous quality to operate in its full extent, and fuffers the natural character to diffufe itself to every part of life. The pride which, under the check of publick observation, would have been only vented among fervants and domefticks, becomes in a country baronet the torment of a province, and instead of terminating in the deftruction of China ware and glaffes, ruins tenants, difpoffeffes cottagers, and haraffes villages with actions of trefpafs and bills of indictment. It frequently happens that even without violent paffions, or enormous corruption, the freedom and laxity of a ruftick life produces remarkable particularities of conduct or manner. In the province where I now refide, we have one lady eminent for wearing a gown always of the fame cut and colour; another for fhaking hands with those that vifit her; and a third for unfhaken refolution never to let tea or coffee enter her house. But of all the female characters which this place affords, I have found none fo worthy of attention as that of Mrs. Bufy, a widow, who lost her husband in her thirtieth year, and has fince paffed her time at the the manor-house, in the government of her children, and the management of the estate. Mrs. Buy was married at eighteen, from a boarding-school, where she had paffed her time like other young ladies in needle-work, with a few intervals of dancing and reading. When fhe became a bride she fpent one winter with her husband in town, where having no idea of any conversation beyond the formalities of a vifit, fhe found nothing to engage her paffions; and when she had been one night at court, and two at an opera, and feen the Monument, the Tombs, and the Tower, fhe concluded that London had nothing more to fhew, and wondered that when women had once feen the world they could not be content to stay at home. She therefore went willingly to the ancient feat, and for fome years ftudied housewifery under Mr. Bufy's mother, with fo much affiduity, that the old lady, when she died, bequeathed her a caudle-cup, a foup-difh, two beakers, and a cheft of table-linen spun by herself. He Mr. Busy finding the economical qualities of his lady, refigned his affairs wholly into her hands, and devoted his life to his pointers and his hounds. never visited his eftates, but to deftroy the partridges or foxes; and often committed fuch devaftations in the rage of pleasure, that fome of his tenants refused to hold their lands at the ufual rent, Their landlady perfuaded them to be fatisfied, and entreated her hufband to difmifs his dogs, with many exact calculations of the ale drank by his companions, and corn confumed by the horses, and remonftrances against the infolence of the huntfman, and the frauds of the groom. The huntsman was too neceffary to his happiness happiness to be difcarded; and he had ftill continued to ravage his own eftate, had he not caught a cold and a fever by shooting mallards in the fens. His fever was followed by a confumption, which in a few months brought him to the grave. Mrs Buy was too much an economift to feel either joy or forrow at his death. She received the compliments and confolations of her neighbours in a dark room, out of which she stole privately every night and morning to fee the cows milked; and after a few days declared that he thought a widow might employ herself better than in nurfing grief; and that, for her part, fhe was refolved that the fortunes of her children fhould not be impaired by her neglect. She therefore immediately applied herself to the reformation of abuses. She gave away the dogs, discharged the fervants of the kennel and ftable, and sent the horses to the next fair, but rated at so high a price that they returned unfold. She was refolved to have nothing idle about her, and ordered them to be employed in common drudgery. They loft their fleekness and grace, and were foon purchafed at half the value. She foon difencumbered herself from her weeds, and put on a riding-hood, a coarfe apron, and fhort petticoats, and has turned a large manor into a farm, of which he takes the management wholly upon herself. She rifes before the fun to order the horses to their geers, and fees them well rubbed down at their return from work; fhe attends the dairy morning and evening, and watches when a calf falls that it may be carefully nurfed; fhe walks out among |