I faw the peasant stooping to his plough And whistling time away; I met a form, Her toilette, health her handmaid dealt the bloom, Skirting the horn-beam row, where violets bud No. XCVI. No XCVI. Οὐκ ἔσαμαι πλετῶν ἔτ ̓ ἔυχομαι, ἀλλὰ μοι εἴη (Theognis.) "I afk not wealth; let me enjoy "An humble lot without annoy!" ΡΟΝ UPO my arrival at the houfe I was fhewn into a small room in the bafe-ftory, which the owner of this fine place usually occupied and in which he now received me: here I had been but a very few minutes before he propofed to fhew me the houfe, and for that purpofe conducted me up ftairs to the grand apartment, and from thence made the entire tour, without excepting any one of the bedchambers, offices or even clofets in the house: I cannot fay my friend Attalus confulted times and feafons in chufing fo early a moment after my arrival for parading me about in this manner; fome of the apartments were certainly very fplendid; a great deal of rich furniture and many fine pictures folicited my notice; but the fatigue of fo ill-timed a perambulation difabled me from expreffing : expreffing that degree of admiration, which feemed to be expected on this occafion, and which on any other I fhould have been forward to bestow I was forry for this, because I believe he enjoyed little other pleasure in the poffeffion of his houfe, befides this of fhewing it; but it happened to my hoft, as it does too frequently to the owners of fine places, that he miffed the tribute of flattery by too great eagernefs in exacting it. It appeared to me that Attalus was no longer the gay lively man he was formerly; there was a gloom upon his countenance and an inquietude in his manner, which feemed to lay him under a constraint that he could not naturally get rid of: Time hung heavy on our hands till the hour of dinner, and it was not without regret I perceived he had arranged his family meals upon the fafhionable system of London hours, and at the diftance of two hundred miles from the capital had by choice adopted thofe very habits, which nothing but the general cuftom of late affemblies and long fittings in Parliament can excufe upon the plea of neceffity: It was now the midft of summer, which made the abfurdity of such a difpofition of our time more glaring, for whilft the best hours of the afternoon were devoted to the table, all exercife and enjoyment out of doors were were either to be given up, or taken only in the meridian heat of the day. I difcovered a further bad confequence of these habits upon society and good-fellowship, for fuch of the neighbouring gentry, who had not copied his example, were deterred from making him any visits, not prefuming to difturb him at unfuitable hours, and yet not able, without a total difarrangement of their own comforts, to make their time conform to his. Attalus himself, I must acknowledge, both faw and confeffed the bad fyftem he was upon, he found himself grown unpopular amongst his country neighbours on this very score, and was piqued by their neglect of him : "It was a villainous cuftom," he obferved, " and deftructive "both of health and pleasure; but all people of "fashion dined at five, and what could he do? "He muft live as other great families lived; if in"deed he was a mere private gentleman, he might "do as he liked beft." If it be fo, thought I, this man's great fortune is an incumbrance to him; if it robs him of health and pleasure, what does it give him, nay what can it give him, in compenfation for the lofs of fuch bleffings? If fafhion takes away from Attalus the liberty of doing what he beft likes, and is beft for him,' I must have been mistaken in fuppofing independance was the refult of affluence; I fufpect there are are not all the advantages in his conditon which I fuppofed there were-I will examine this more narrowly. The next morning, after a late breakfast, the confequence I had foreseen enfued, for we were advanced into the hotteft hours of the day, when Attalus, being impatient to fhew me the beauties of his park and grounds, gave orders for the equipages and horfes to be made ready, and we were to fet out upon the furvey in a burning fun. When the train was in waiting at the door, we fallied forth, but here a difcuffion began, in which fo many things required a new arrangement, that a long ftop was put to our march, whilft the fcrutinizing eye of Attalus was employed in a minute examination of every thing appertaining to the cavalry and carriages; the horses were wrong harneffed, they were to be changed from the off-fide to the near-fide, faddles were to be altered, and both groom and coachman were heartily recommended to repeated damnation for their stupidity and inattention-" Never any "man was fo plagued with rafcally fervants as I "am," cried Attalus; "they are the curse and "vexation of my life; I wish I could live with❝out them; no man can be happy, who has to "do with them."-Is it fo? (faid I within myfelf) then I have the advantage over you in that refpect |