respect, for I have but one man and one horse, and both are always ready at a moment's warning. I mounted a phaeton with Attalus and we fet, forward in a broiling day: My conductor im-, mediately began to vent his angry humour upon the wrong object, and plied his thong at such a furious rate upon his unoffending horfes, that the high-mettled animals fo refented the unjust correction, that after struggling and kicking under the lafh for fome time, one of them reared across the pole of the chaife and fnapped it: This produced a ftorm of paffion more violent than the firft, and though it was evident the fervant had put the horses on their proper fides at first, the fault was charged upon him with vehement imprecations, and this produced a fecond halt langer and more disagreeable than our fetting out had been: Our purpose however was not to be de-. feated and, we muft pofitively proceed; Attalus was not in a humour to submit with patience to disappointments, fo that having ordered two of his fervants to difmount, we took their horfes. and fet off upon our tour; the beauties of nature were before us, but that ferenity of mind, which should ever accompany the contemplation of those beauties, was wanting; Attalus was one. of fortune's fpoilt children, and his temper, grown. irritable 1 irritable by indulgence and humourfome by profperity, had loft it's relish for fimplicity and was wholly given up to a filly paffion for oftentation and parade; he immediately began to harangue upon the many evil qualities of fervants, a topic at the best unedifying and commonly most difgufting to the hearers; he bewailed his own ill-fortune in that refpect very bitterly, and fo much of the way paffed off before this philippic' was concluded, that I began to think I had been carried out for no better purpose than to hear a declamation in the open air: I brought him at laft to a stop by obferving he had a paradife about him, and that it was a pity his vexations did not fuffer him to enjoy it-Upon this hint! he feemed to recollect himfelf and proceeded to expatiate upon his own improvements, pointing. out to me what he had done, and what he had: more in mind to do, if his overseer had obeyed his inftructions, and proper people had beenfound to execute his defigns. I took notice of a group of neat cottages, which had a very picturefque and pleasing appearance, for they were deliciously fituated, and. had all the air, as I obferved, of happy habitations-"No matter for that," replied Attalus, "down they must all come, for they are cruelly "in my eye, and I purpose to throw all that hill "into wilderness with plantations of pine, where you fee the rock and broken ground, which "will be a bold and ftriking contrast to the or"namented grounds about it-I am furprifed," added he, "you can fee any beauty in those "paltry huts."--Before I could make reply, an old peafant had approached us, and humbly enquired of Attalus, when he was to be diflodged from his cottage-"I have ordered the work men to take it down next week," said he, "the feafon is favorable for your removal and « you must feek out elsewhere." The decree was heard without an effort to reply; a figh was all the plea the poor man offered, and with that figh he fent a look to heaven, that in its paffage rent my heart: I determined to be gone next morning. We proceeded in our circuit till we were croffed by a high enclosure, which awkwardly enough feparated a pasture of about three acres, in which was a brick-kiln too confpicuously. placed not to annoy the fight, and at that very moment too furiously employed. in the act of duty, not to be exceffively offenfive to the smell; we found ourselves involved in columns of thick. fmoke, which were not of the most grateful odour in the world; I confefs I was not a little furprised at the location of this flaming nuisance, and as we were making our way through the fmothering cloud, remarked to Attalus that ornament must give place to use——“ I brought "you hither," fays he, "purposely to fhew you "how I am treated by a furly obftinate fellow in <c my neighbourhood, who has not another foot "of land in the world, but this curfed patch of «ground, and which the rascal keeps on purpose "to spite me, though I have bidden three times "the value of it: indeed it is indifpenfably ne"ceffary to me, as you may well believe by the "annoyance it produces in his hands; I have «tried all means to get it from him, rough and "fmooth, and if a profecution would have laid "against it, I would have driven him out of it "by the expences of a fuit; but all to no pur pose; I am so tormented by the fellow's obfti<< nacy, and my comforts are fo facrificed by the "nuifance, that I have no longer any enjoyment "in my place; nay I have ftopped most of my "works and discharged my labourers, for what "fignifies carrying on improvements, when I "can no longer live in my houfe with that « cursed brick-kiln for ever in my eye, and with "little intermiffion in my noftrils alfo ?" A new theme of difcontent was now started, which the unhappy Attalus purfued with heavy complaints as we travelled down a ftream of finoke, fmoke, which feemed as if maliciously to purfue 1 |