match before he left this country, with a good looking girl of our neighbourhood, who, not altogether with his inclination, had gone out to him soon after his establishment in India. This lady returned hither with him, and has edified all the family amazingly.

"But her instructions are not confined to her own family; mine is unluckily included. This is a favour which my wife is very proud of; as Mrs. Mushroom has forgot most of her old acquaintance in the parish, and associates only with us, and one or two more of her neighbours, who have what she calls capability; that is, Sir, as I understand it, who will listen to all the nonsense she talks, and ape all the follies she practises. These are strong words: but it would put any man in a passion to see how she goes on. I don't know how it is, but I am ten times angrier at this new plague than I was with Lady

For her I had many apologies; but to think of that little chit Peg Mushroom playing all this mischief among us!-why, Sir, I remember her but as it were yesterday, when she used to come draggled to our house of a morning a-foot, and ride home double, on my blind mare, behind one of the plough-boys.

"But I interrupt my account of things in my anger at them. The Sunday after these new-comers' arrival, they appeared in church, where their pew was all carpeted and cushioned over for their reception, so bedizened-there were flowered muslins and gold muslins, white shawls and red shawls, white feathers and red feathers; and every now and then the young Mushroom girls pulled out little bottles that sent such a perfume around them. Nay, my old friend, their father, like a fool as he was, had such a mixture of black satin and pink satin about him, and was so stiff and awkward in his finery, that he looked for all the world like the King of Clubs,

and seemed, poor man ; to have as little to say himself.

for

"But all this, Sir, is no joking matter to me. Some of the neighbours, indeed, laugh at it; but we, who are favourites, say that is nothing but envy. My wife and daughter Mary have rummaged out their têtes and feathers; and the hoops, that had suffered a little from the moths, have been put in complete repair again. I was silly enough to let my wife get hold of a draught on town for the price of my last year's barley; and I verily believe she and Mary alone carry the produce of ten acres on their backs. My wife said, a shawl was a decent comfortable wear for a middle-aged woman like her, my Rachel, by the way, has been fifty these ten years; and so she gave orders to purchase one at a sale in town, which she got a monstrous bargain, though I am ashamed to tell you, that it stood me in two fat oxen and a year-old cow.

"I am glad to take this estimate of things, because in the value of money we are now got into a style of expression which loses all idea of small sums. Hundreds and thousands of pounds carried a sound of some importance, and could easily be divided into lesser parts; but Madam Mushroom's lack, or half a lack, sounds like nothing at all; and she has stories which she tells to my poor gaping girls, of a single supper in the East, given by some Nabob with half-a-dozen hard names, that cost one or two of those lacks, besides half a lack in trifling presents to the company. In those stories, the EastIndian lady, being subject to no contradiction, goes on without interruption or commentary, till my poor wife and daughters' heads are turned quite topsy-turvy. Even mine, though reckoned tolerably solid, is really dizzy with hearing her. There are such accounts of Nabobs, Rajahs, and Rajah

Pouts, elephants, palanquins, and processions; so stuck full of gold, diamonds, pearls and precious stones, with episodes of dancing-girls and otter of roses!-I have heard nothing like it since I was a boy, and used to be delighted with reading the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

"The effect of all this on my family you will easily guess. Not only does it rob me of my money, but them of their happiness. Every thing that used to be thought comfortable or convenient formerly, is now intolerable and disgusting. Every thing we now put on, or eat, or drink, is immediately brought into comparison with the dress, provisions, and liquors at Mushroom-Hall, for so they have new-christened my neighbour's farm-house. My girls' home-made gowns, of which they were lately so proud, have been thrown by with contempt since they saw Mrs. Mushroom's muslins from Bengal; our barn-door fowls, we used to say, were so fat and well-tasted, we now make awkward attempts, by garlic and pepper, to turn into the form of curries and peelaws; and the old October we were wont to brag all our neighbours with, none of the family but myself will condescend to taste, since they drank Mr. Mushroom's India Madeira.

"In short, Sir, I am ten times worse off with this fresh disaster than I was with the former unlucky intimacy with Lady. My Lady was at some distance in point of place, and still more in point of rank from us; but this new plague is close at our doors, and Mrs. Mushroom is so obliging as to be a constant visitor. I am really afraid that I must sell my little estate, and leave this part of the country altogether; that I must try to find out some new place of residence, where Nabobs, Rajahs, and lacks of rupees, were never heard of, and where

people know no more of Bengal than of the man in the moon.

"I am,

&c.

JOHN HOMEspun."

It is with peculiar satisfaction that the LOUNGER has received this commencement of Mr. Homespun's correspondence, of which he knows the value, and hopes for the continuance.

Ꮓ

No. 18. SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1785.

IT has been observed, that the world is generally just in the opinions which it forms of the characters of the different persons who appear on the stage of life; that few have been held high in the estimation of the public who have not deserved it; and that instances as rarely occur of its censure misapplied, as of its applause misplaced. But though this remark, it must be allowed, is true in the general, yet experience teaches that it cannot be admitted without exceptions; and that the truly virtuous and deserving, particularly in the private walks of life, may often pass unnoticed, while the less worthy may become the objects of favour.

Cleora was married at an early period of life. Gaily educated, and thoughtless in disposition, she was incapable of any strong attachment. She married Lothario, because he was a man of the ton, dressed well, kept good company, and professed himself her humble admirer. He married her, because she was reckoned pretty, danced well, was a toast, and

As they

was as much in the fashion as he was. went together without affection, so neither of them allowed their love to be troublesome to the other. Pleasure, dissipation, show, was the taste of both. Lothario was sometimes at home, and in his wife's company; but then it was only in a crowd, and amidst a variety of guests. Abroad they sometimes met at dinner and supper parties; but as frequently their parties were not the same, and their amusements lay in different quarters.

Such a life of dissipation could not be supported without great expense. Though Lothario was possessed of a considerable land-estate, yet when he succeeded to it, it was much encumbered with debt; and that debt was now greatly increased by his own extravagance. Every year made a new bond or mortgage necessary.

Cleora knew all this; but she allowed it not to make any impression on her mind. It was too serious a subject to be suffered to intrude itself in the midst of her enjoyments. The mother of a numerous family, she is equally inattentive with Lothario, to giving them proper habits and impressions. The boys, neglecting every useful branch of study, by a strange combination, are both beaux and blackguards. At public places they are reckoned fashionable, while, at the same time, in their private amusements they value themselves on their coarseness and intemperance. The daughters are now come to the age of women; but Cleora has no other object as to them than to increase their fondness for public places and late hours: devoted to these herself, she makes her daughters the pretext for her own indulgences.

Thus Cleora, if she were to think, if she were to stop her course of dissipation for a moment, would see bankruptcy at hand, and her children, if not her