and which had efcaped the mop, by his wife's being satisfied it could not poffibly be visited by gentlefolks.

This was a dry, warm, oaken floored barn, lined on both fides with wheaten ftraw, and opening at one end into a green field, and a beautiful profpect. Here, without hesitation, the ordered the cloth to be laid, and came haftily to fnatch me from worfe perils by water than the common danger of the fea.

Mrs. Humphrys, who could not truft her own ears, or could not believe a footman in fo extraordinary a phænomenon, followed my wife, and asked her if the had indeed ordered the cloth to be laid in the barn: fhe answered in the affirmative; upon which Mrs. Humphrys declared fhe would not difpute her pleasure, but it was the first time, the believed, that quality had ever preferred a barn to a house. She fhewed at the fame time the most pregnant marks of contempt, and again lamented the labour she had undergone, through her ignorance of the absurd taste of our guests.

At length we were feated in one of the most pleasant fpots, I believe in the kingdom, and were regaled with our beans and bacon, in which there was nothing deficient but the quantity. This defect was, however, fo deplorable, that we had confumed our whole difh, before we had vifibly leffened our hunger. We now waited with impatience the arrival of our second course, which neceffity, and not luxury, had dictated. This was a joint of mutton, which Mrs. Humphrys had been ordered to provide; but when, being tired with expectation, we ordered our fervants to fee for fomething elfe, we were ins

formed that there was nothing elfe, on which Mrs. Humphrys being fummoned, declared there was no fuch thing as mutton to be had at Ryde. When I expreffed fome attonishment at their having no butcher in a village fo fituated, the anfwered they had a very good one, and one that killed all forts of meat in feason, beef two or three times a year, and mutton the whole year round; but that it being then beans and pease time, he killed no meat, by reafon he was fure of not felling it. This the had not thought worthy of communication, any more than that there lived a fisherman at the next door, whe was then provided with plenty of foals, and whitings, and lobsters, far fuperior to those which adorn a city feaft. This difcovery being made by accident, we compleated the beft, the pleafanteft, and the merrieft meal, with more appetite, more real folid luxury, and more feftivity, than was ever feen in an entertainment at White's.

It may be wondered at, perhaps, that Mrs. Humphrys fhould be fo negligent of providing for her guests, as the may feem to be thus inattentive to her own interest: but this was not the cafe; for having clapt a poll-tax on our heads at our arrival, and determined at what price to dif charge our bodies from her houfe, the lefs the fuffered any other to share in the levy, the clearer it came into her own pocket; and it was better to get twelve-pence in a fhilling than ten pence, which latter would be the cafe if the afforded us fish at any rate.

Thus we past a most agreeable day, owing to good appetites and good humour; two hearty feeders, which will devour with fatisfaction

SP

whatever food you place before them: whereas without thefe, the elegance of St. James's, the charde, the Perigord-pye, or the ortolan, the venison, the turtle, or the cuftard, may titillate the throat, but will never convey happinefs to the heart, or chearfulness to the countenance.

As the wind appeared ftill immoveable, my wife proposed my lying on thore. I prefently agreed, though in defiance of an act of parlia ment, by which perfons wandering abroad, and lodging in alehouses, are decreed to be rogues and vagabonds; and this too after having been very fingularly officious in putting that law in

execution.

My wife having reconnoitred the house, reported, that there was one room in which were two beds. It was concluded, therefore, that the and Harriot should occupy one, and myself take poffeffion of the other. She added bikewise an ingenious recommendation of this room, to one who had fo long been in a cabin, which it exactly refembled, as it was funk down with age on one fide, and was in the form of a thip with gunnels to.

For my own part, I make little doubt but this apartment was an ancient temple, built with the materials of a wreck, and, probably, dedicated to Neptune, in honour of THE BLESSING fent by him to the inhabitants, fuch bleffings having, in all ages, been very common to them. The timber employed in it confirms this opi nion, being fuch as is feldom ufed by any but fhip-builders. I do not find, indeed, any mention of this matter in Hern; but, perhaps, its antiquity was too modern to deferve his notice. Certain it is, that this island of Wight was nos

an early convert to Christianity; nay, there is fome reason to doubt whether it was ever en tirely converted. But I have only time to touch flightly on things of this kind, which, luckily for us, we have a fociety whofe peculiar profeffion it is to difcufs and develope.

Sunday, July 19. This morning early I fummoned Mrs. Humphrys, in order to pay her the preceding day's account. As I could recollect only two or three articles, I thought there was no neceflity of pen and ink. In a fingle inftance only we had exceeded what the law allows gratis to a foot foldier on his march, viz. vinegar, falt, &c. and dreffing his meat. I found, however, I was mistaken in my calculation: for when the good woman attended with her bill, it contained as follow:

1

O 13 10

Now that five people, and two fervants, fhould live a day and a night at a public houfe for fo fmall a fum, will appear incredible to any perfon in London above the degree of a chimneyfweeper; but more aftonishing will it feem, that thefe people fhould remain fo long at fuch a house avithout taiting any other delicacy than bread,

fmall beer, a tea-cup full of milk called cream, a glafs of rum converted into punch by their own materials, and one bottle of wind, of which we only talted a fingle glafs, though, poffibly, indeed, our fervants drank the remainder of the bottle.

very

This wind is a liquor of English manufacture, and its flavour is thought very delicious by the generality of the English, who drink it in great quantities. Every feventh year is thought to produce as much as the other fix. It is then drank fo plentifully, that the whole nation are in a manner intoxicated by it, and confequently little bufinefs is carried on at that feason. It refeinbles in colour the red wine which is imported from Portugal, as it doth in its intoxicating quality; hence, and from this agree ment in the orthography, the one is often confounded with the other, though both are feldom efteemed by the fame perfon. It is to be had in every parish in the kingdom, and a pretty large quantity is confumed in the metropolis, where feveral taverns are fet apart folely for the vendition of this liquor, the mafters never dealing in any other.

The difagreement in our computation produced fome fmall remonftrance to Mrs. Humphrys on my fide; but this received an immediate anfwer, She fcorned to overcharge gentlemen: her houfe had been always frequented by the very belt gentry of the island; and the • never had a bill found fault with in her life, though she had lived upwards of forty years in the houfe, and within that time the greatest gentry in Hampshire had been at it, and that D