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was for the most part mistress of the profit, so she was satisfied to take upon herself the care and government of the family, and, after a long and successless struggle, to suffer her husband to be master of himself.

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In the evening, when Jones retired to his room, a small dispute arose between this fond couple concerning him: What,' says the wife, you have 'been tippling with the gentleman, I see!'- Yes,' answered the husband, we have cracked a bottle 'together, and a very gentlemanlike man he is, and hath a very pretty notion of horse-flesh. Indeed, he is young, and hath not seen much of the world; 'for I believe he hath been at very few horse-races.' Oho! he is one of your order, is he?' replies the landlady: he must be a gentleman to be sure, if he is a horse-racer. The devil fetch such gentry: I am sure I wish I had never seen any of them. have reason to love horse-racers truly!' That you have,' have,' says says the husband; for I was one, you 'know.'-'Yes,' answered she,' you are a pure one ' indeed. As As my first husband used to say, I may put all the good I have ever got by you in my eyes, and see never the worse.'-D-n your first 'husband,' cries he. Don't d-n a better man than yourself,' answered the wife: if he had been alive, you durst not have done it.'-'Then you think,' says he, 'I have not so much courage as yourself; for you have d-n'd him often in my hearing.''If I did,' says she, I have repented of it many's the good time and oft. And if he was so good to forgive me a word spoken in haste or so, it doth not become such a one as you to twitter me.

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" was a husband to me, he was; and if ever I did 'make use of an ill word or so in a passion, I never 'called him rascal: I should have told a lie, if I had 'called him rascal.' Much more she said, but not in his hearing; for having lighted his pipe, he staggered off as fast as he could. We shall therefore

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transcribe no more of her speech, as it approached still nearer and nearer to a subject too indelicate to find any place in this history.

Early in the morning Partridge appeared at the bed-side of Jones, ready equipped for the journey, with his knapsack at his back. This was his own workmanship; for besides his other trades, he was no indifferent tailor. He had already put up his whole stock of linen in it, consisting of four shirts, to which he now added eight for Mr. Jones; and then packing up the portmanteau, he was departing with it towards his own house, but was stopt in his way by the landlady, who refused to suffer any removals till after the payment of the reckoning.

The landlady was, as we have said, absolute governess in these regions; it was therefore necessary to comply with her rules; so the bill was presently writ out, which amounted to a much larger sum than might have been expected, from the entertainment which Jones had met with. But here we are obliged to disclose some maxims, which publicans hold to be the grand mysteries of their trade. The first is, If they have any thing good in their house (which indeed very seldom happens), to produce it only to persons who travel with great equipages. 2dly, To charge the same for the very worst provisions, as if they were the best. And, lastly, If any of their guests call but for little, to make them pay a double price for every thing they have; so that the amount by the head may be much the same.

The bill being made and discharged, Jones set forward with Partridge, carrying his knapsack; nor did the landlady condescend to wish him a good journey; for this was, it seems, an inn frequented by people of fashion; and I know not whence it is, but all those who get their livelihood by people of fashion, contract as much insolence to the rest of mankind, as if they really belonged to that rank themselves.

CHAP. VIII.

Jones arrives at Gloucester, and goes to the Bell: the character of that house, and of a pettifogger which he there meets with.

MR. Jones and Partridge, or Little Benjamin (which epithet of Little was perhaps given him ironically, he being in reality near six feet high), having left their last quarters in the manner before described, travelled on to Gloucester without meeting any adventure worth relating.

Being arrived here, they chose for their house of entertainment the sign of the Bell, an excellent house indeed, and which I do most seriously recommend to every reader who shall visit this ancient city. The master of it is brother to the great preacher Whitefield; but is absolutely untainted with the pernicious principles of methodism, or of any other heretical sect. He is indeed a very honest plain man, and, in my opinion, not likely to create any disturbance either in church or state. His wife hath, I believe, had much pretension to beauty, and is still a very fine woman. Her person and deportment might have made a shining figure in the politest assemblies; but though she must be conscious of this and many other perfections, she seems perfectly contented with, and resigned to, that state of life to which she is called; and this resignation is entirely owing to the prudence and wisdom of her temper; for she is at present as free from any methodistical notions as her husband: I say at present; for she freely confesses that her brother's documents made at first some impression upon her, and that she had put herself to the expense of a long hood, in order to attend the extraordinary emotions of the Spirit; but having found, during an experiment of three weeks, no emotion, she says, worth a farthing, she very wisely laid by her hood, and aban,

doned the sect. To be concise, she is a very friendly good-natured woman; and so industrious to oblige, that the guests must be of a very morose disposition who are not extremely well satisfied in her house.

Mrs. Whitefield happened to be in the yard when Jones and his attendant marched in. Her sagacity soon discovered in the air of our hero something which distinguished him from the vulgar. She ordered her servants, therefore, immediately to show him into a room, and presently afterwards invited him to dinner with herself; which invitation he very thankfully accepted; for indeed much less agreeable company than that of Mrs. Whitefield, and a much worse entertainment than she had provided, would have been welcome after so long fasting and so long a walk.

Besides Mr. Jones and the good governess of the mansion, there sat down at table an attorney of Salisbury, indeed the very same who had brought the news of Mrs. Blifil's death to Mr. Allworthy. and whose name, which I think we did not before mention, was Dowling: there was likewise present another person, who styled himself a lawyer, and who lived somewhere near Linlinch, in Somersetshire. This fellow, I say, styled himself a lawyer, but was indeed a most vile pettifogger, without sense or knowledge of any kind; one of those who may be termed train-bearers to the law; a sort of supernumeraries in the profession, who are the hackneys of attorneys, and will ride more miles for half a crown than a postboy.

During the time of dinner, the Somersetshire law. yer recollected the face of Jones, which he had seen at Mr. Allworthy's; for he had often visited in that gentleman's kitchen. He therefore took occasion to inquire after the good family there with that familiarity which would have become an intimate friend or acquaintance of Mr. Allworthy; and in

deed he did all in his power to insinuate himself to be such, though he had never had the honour of speaking to any person in that family higher than the butler. Jones answered all his questions with much civility, though he never remembered to have seen the pettifogger before; and though he concluded, from the outward appearance and behaviour of the man, that he usurped a freedom with his betters, to which he was by no means entitled.

As the conversation of fellows of this kind is of all others the most detestable to men of any sense, the cloth was no sooner removed than Mr. Jones withdrew, and a little barbarously left poor Mrs. Whitefield to do a penance, which I have often heard Mr. Timothy Harris, and other publicans of good taste, lament, as the severest lot annexed to their calling, namely, that of being obliged to keep company with their guests.

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Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the pettifogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs. Whitefield, If she knew who that fine spark was?' She answered, She had never seen the gentleman before. The gentleman, indeed!' replied the pettifogger; a pretty gentleman truly! Why, he's 'the bastard of a fellow who was hanged for horsestealing. He was dropt at squire Allworthy's door, where one of the servants found him in a box so 'full of rain-water, that he would certainly have 'been drowned, had he not been reserved for another fate.'-'Ay, ay, you need not mention it, I protest; we understand what that fate is very 'well,' cries Dowling, with a most facetious grin. Well,' continued the other, the squire ordered 'him to be taken in; for he is a timbersome man every body knows, and was afraid of drawing himself into a scrape; and there the bastard was bred up, and fed, and clothified all to the world like any gentleman; and there he got one of the servant-maids with child, and persuaded her to swear

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