with my seven shirts, which she had rested against the rails during the delay, and screwed up her face into a most rueful caricature, that might provoke a laugh at another time; while her young son Denny, grasping his waistband in one hand, and a basket of sea provisions in the other, took the lead in the procession, and so we journeyed on to George's Quay, where the ship was just ready to sail. When I entered, I found my fellow passengers seated round a large table in the cabin; we were fourteen in number. A young highland lord had taken the head of the table and the conversation, and with a modesty peculiar to himself, gave a history of his travels, and his intimate connexions with the princes of the empire. An old debauched officer was complaining of the gout, while a woman, who sat next to him (good Heaven! what a tongue!) gave a long detail of what her father suffered from that disorder. To do them all justice, they exerted themselves most zealously for the common entertainment. As for my part, I had nothing to say; nor, if I had, was any one at leisure to listen to me; so I took possession of what the captain called a bed, wondering with Partridge, 'how they could play so many different tunes at the same time without putting each other out.' I was expecting that the seasickness would soon give those restless mouths different employment, but in that I was disappointed; the sea was so calm that one only was sick during the passage, and it was not my good fortune that the lot should fall on that devil who never ceased chattering. There was no cure but patience; accordingly I

never stirred from my tabernacle (unless to visit my basket) till we arrived at Parkgate. Here, after the usual pillage at the custom-house, I laid my box down on the beach, seated myself upon it, and, casting my eyes over the Welsh mountains, I began to reflect on the impossibility of getting back without the precarious assistance of others. "Poor Jack!" thought I, "thou wert never till now so far from home, but thou mightest return on thine own legs. Here now must thou remain, for where here canst thou expect the assistance of a friend?" Whimsical as the idea was, it had power to affect me; until, at length, I was awakened from this reverie by a figure which approached me with the utmost affability; methought his looks seemed to say,' Why is thy spirit troubled?' He pressed me to go into his house, and to eat of his bread,' and to drink of his drink.' There was so much good-natured solicitude in the invitation, 'twas irresistible. I rose therefore, and followed him, ashamed of my uncharitable despondence. "Surely," thought I, "there is still humanity left amongst us," as I raised my eyes to the golden letters over his door, that offered entertainment and repose to the wearied traveller. Here I resolved to stay for the night, and agreed for a place in his coach next morning to Chester; but finding my loquacious fellow passenger had agreed for one in the same vehicle, I retracted my bargain, and agreed for my box only; I perceived, however, when I arose next morning, that my box was not sent, though the coach was gone. I was thinking how I should remedy this unlucky disappointment,

when my friendly host told me that he could furnish me with a chaise! Confusion light upon him! what a stroke was this! It was not the few paltry shillings that vexed me, but to have my philanthropy till that moment running cheerly through my veins, and to have the current turned back suddenly by the detection of his knavery. Verily, Yorick, even thy gentle spirit, so meekly accustomed to bear and forbear, would have been roused on such an occasion. I paid hastily for my entertainment, and shaking the dust from my feet at his gate, I marched with my box on my shoulder to a waggoner's at the other end of the town, where I entered it for London, and sallied forth towards Chester on foot. I was so nettled at being the dupe of my own credulity, that I was almost tempted to pass an excommunication on all mankind, and resolved never more to trust my own skill in physiognomy. Wrapt up in my speculations, I never perceived at what a rate I was striding away, till I found myself in the suburbs of Chester, quite out of breath, and completely covered with dust and dirt. From Chester I set out that evening in the stage: I slept about four hours next day at Coventry, and the following evening, at five o'clock, was in view of near a hundred and twenty spires, that are scattered from one side of the horizon to the other, and seem almost bewildered in the mist that perpetually covers this prodigious capital. 'Twould be impossible for description to give any idea of the various objects that fill a stranger, on his first arrival, with surprise and astonishment. The magnificence of the churches, hospitals, and other

public buildings, which every where present themselves, would alone be ample subject of admiration to a spectator, though he were not distracted by the gaudy display of wealth and dissipation continually shifting before his eyes in the most extravagant forms of pride and ostentation, or by a hurry of business that might make you think this the source from which life and motion are conveyed to the world beside. There are many places here not unworthy of particular inspection, but as my illness prevented me from seeing them on my first arrival, I shall suspend my curiosity till some future time, as I am determined to apply to reading this vacation with the utmost diligence, in order to attend the courts next winter with more advantage. If I should happen to visit Ireland next summer, I shall spend a week before I go in seeing the curiosities here (the king and queen, and the lions); and if I continue in my present mood, you will see a strange alteration in your poor friend. That cursed fever brought me down so much, and my spirits are so reduced, that, faith! I don't remember to have laughed these six weeks. Indeed, I never thought solitude could lean so heavily on me as I find it does: I rise, most commonly, in the morning between five and six, and read as much as my eyes will permit me till dinnertime; I then go out and dine, and from that till bedtime I mope about between my lodgings and the park. For Heaven's sake send me some news or other (for surely Newmarket cannot be barren in such things) that will teach me once more to laugh. I never received a single line from any one since I came

here. Tell me if you know any thing about Keller: I wrote twice to that gentleman, without being favoured with any answer. You will give my best respects to Mrs. Aldworth and her family; to doctor Creach's; and don't forget my good friends, Peter and Will Connel. Yours sincerely,

J. P. C.

P. S.-I will cover this blank edge with entreating you to write closer than you commonly do when you sit down to answer this, and don't make me pay tenpence for a halfpenny worth of white paper.

MR. CURRAN TO

1774.

APJOHN and I arrived in London about eight o'clock on Thursday. When I was set down, and threw myself into a box in the next coffeehouse to me, I think I never felt so strangely in my life. The struggle it cost me to leave Ireland, and the pain of leaving it as I did, had been hurried into a sort of numbness by the exertion of such an effort, and a certain exclusion of thought, which is often the consequence of a strong agitation of mind: the hurry also of the journey might in some measure have contributed to soothe for a moment these uneasy sensations. But the exertion was now over, the hurry was past; the barriers between me and reflection now