62

LETTER VII.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR DAVID,

SINCE I came to this town the weather has in general been of a very unpleasant kind. When look out from the windows of your apartyou ment, nothing can be finer than the appearance every thing presents. The air is as clear as amber overhead, and the sun shines with so much power, that in these splendid streets, the division of the bright from the shadowy part, reminds one of the richest effects of a Cuyp, or a Sachtleeven. But when you come out, in the full trust inspired by this brilliant serenity of aspect, you find yourself woefully disappointed. The action of the sun and air upon the nerves, is indeed de

lightfully stimulant; but the whole charm is destroyed before you have time to enjoy it, by some odious squall of wind which cuts you to the teeth-and what is worse, comes loaded with a whole cloud of flying dust and gravel, which is sure to leave its traces behind it, on still more delicate parts of your physiognomy. As for myself, I am often obliged to walk with a handkerchief held before my eyes-and in spite of all my precautions, I have been several times in such a state, that I have absolutely rubbed myself blind. The whole of this arises from the want of watering the streets a thing which might surely be accomplished without the least difficulty, by a subscription among the inhabitants. If this evil be so severe at present, what must it be in the dog-days?—and yet the people submit to it all quietly in streets, below every one of which, they know water is flowing in pipes, ready to be scattered ad libitum, and at an expense not worthy of being mentioned." O! cæcas hominum mentes!"

Yesterday, however, there was an unusual degree of quietness in the state of the atmosphere. A slight shower, which fell in the morning, had laid the most offensive part of the dust,

without giving the least appearance of damp to the roads and I drove to C-k, Mr J's villa, molto gustosamente the expectation of the manifold luxuries I hoped to enjoy there -the prospective delights both of palate and intellect being heightened and improved by the preliminary gratification I tasted, while the shandrydan rolled along between the refreshed green of the meadows and corn-fields. His house is an old turreted mansion, much patched in the whole mass of its structure, and, I believe, much increased in its accommodations since he entered upon possession of it. The situation is extremely beautiful. There are very few trees immediately about the house; but the windows open upon the side of a charming hill, which, in all its extent, as far as the eye can reach, is wooded most luxuriantly to the very summit. There cannot be a more delicious rest for the eyes, than such an Arcadian height in this bright and budding time of the year; but, indeed, where, or at what time, can a fine wood be looked upon without delight? Between the wood and the house, there is a good garden, and some fields, in the cultivation of which Mr J seems to take much pleasure; for I had no

sooner arrived, than he insisted upon carrying me over his ditches and hedges to show me his method of farming; and, indeed, talked of Swedish turnip, and Fiorin grass, and red-blossomed potatoes, in a style that would have done no dishonour to your friend Curwen himself. I had come, thanks to my rustic ignorance, exactly at the hour appointed for dinner, (five o'clock,) so that I had three parts of an hour of the great man entirely to myself during the whole of which space he continued to talk about rural affairs, and to trot me up one field and down another, till I was weary, without (credite posteri !) making one single allusion to law, politics, or literature.

We were joined towards six o'clock by Professors Planes and Lohe, and one or two young advocates, who had walked out with them. Then came Robert Morshead whom you remember at Balliol, a relation and intimate friend of J's. He and the celebrated orator Alison officiate together in one of the Episcopalian chapels in Edinburgh. Although we never knew each other at Oxford, yet we immediately recognized each other's old High-Street faces, and began to claim a sort of acquaintance on that score,

as all Oxonian contemporaries, I believe, are accustomed to do, when they meet at a distance from their alma mater. There were several other gentlemen, mostly of grave years, so that I was not a little astonished, when somebody proposed a trial of strength in leaping. Nor was my astonishment at all diminished, when Mr P began to throw off his coat and waistcoat, and to prepare himself for taking his part in the contest. When he did so much, I could have no apology, so I also stripped; and, indeed, the whole party did the same, except J alone, who was dressed in a short green jacket, with scarcely any skirts, and, therefore, seemed to consider himself as already sufficiently "accinctus ludo."

I used to be a good leaper in my day-witness the thousands of times I have beat you in the Port-Meadow, and elsewhere-but I cut a very poor figure among these sinewy Caledonians. With the exception of L, they all jumped wonderfully; and J was quite miraculous, considering his brevity of stride. But the greatest wonder of the whole was Mr P

He also is a short man, and he cannot be less than seventy, yet he took his stand with the assurance of an athletic, and positively beat every one of us-the very best of us, at least half a