such inferences should be drawn from this relation, or from any other part of his book: what he meant to exhibit was rather the fall of a conceited and ostentatious man, who, when tempted, had not recourse to proper means of resistance, and an illustration of that Scripture-precept, "Let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

Neither did the Author, on this or any other occasion, mean to deny the doctrine of seducing spirits, or one who is the chief of them; what he presumed to censure was the enthusiasm and conceit of those who take every absurd or perverse suggestion of their own spirits for the unquestionable temptation of the evilone, and every denial of a soliciting appetite, for a conquest over that enemy of souls; thus perpetually administering fresh food for enthusiastic delight, and new triumph for spiritual pride.

CONTENTS.

LETTER

1. General Description

2. The Church

3. The Vicar-The Curate, &c. ..........

4. Sects and Professions in Religion.

PAGE

1

13

25

37

55

63

77

89

99

111

125

137

151

163

14. Inhabitants of the Alms-House-Blaney

15. Inhabitants of the Alms-House-Clelia ......... 171

16. Inhabitants of the Alms-House-Benbow

17. The Hospital and Governors

18. The Poor and their Dwellings.

19. The Poor of the Borough-The Parish-Clerk

20. The Poor of the Borough-Ellen Orford

21. The Poor of the Borough-Abel Keene

22. The Poor of the Borough-Peter Grimes

23. Prisons

24. Schools

THE

BOROUGH.

LETTER I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION,

These did the Ruler of the Deep ordain,
To build proud Navies, and to rule the Main.

Pope's Homer's Iliad, Book vi. line 45.

Such scenes has Deptford, Navy-building town,
Woolwich and Wapping, smelling strong of pitch;

Such Lambeth, envy of each band and gown,
And Twickenham such, which fairer scenes enrich.

Pope's Imitation of Spenser.

Et cum cœlestibus undis

Equoreæ miscentur aquæ: caret ignibus æther,
Cacaque nox premitur tenebris hiemisque suisque;
Discutient tamen has, præbentque micantia lumen
Fulmina: fulmineis ardescunt ignibus undæ.

Ovid. Metamorph. lib. xi. ver. 520.

LETTER I.

THE BOROUGH.

The Difficulty of describing Town Scenery.-A Comparison with certain Views in the Country.-The River and Quay.-The Shipping and Business.-ShipBuilding.-Sea-Boys and Port-Views.-Village and Town Scenery again compared.-Walks from Town. -Cottage and adjoining Heath, &c.-House of Sunday Entertainment.-The Sea: A Summer and Winter View.-A Shipwreck at Night, and its Effects on Shore. Evening Amusements in the Borough.-An Apology for the imperfect View which can be given of these Subjects.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

DESCRIBE the Borough"-though our idle Tribe May love Description, can we so describe, That you shall fairly Streets and Buildings trace, And all that gives distinction to a place? This cannot be; yet, mov'd by your request, A part I paint-let Fancy form the rest.

Cities and Towns, the various haunts of men, Require the pencil; they defy the pen:

Could he, who sang so well the Grecian Fleet,
So well have sung of Alley, Lane, or Street?
Can measur'd lines these various Buildings show,
The Town-Hall Turning, or the Prospect Row?
Can I the seats of Wealth and Want explore,
And lengthen out my Lays from door to door?
Then let thy Fancy aid me-I repair

From this tall Mansion of our last-year's Mayor,
Till we the Out-skirts of the Borough reach,
And these half-buried Buildings next the Beach;
Where hang at open doors, the Net and Cork,
While squalid Sea-Dames mend the meshy work;
Till comes the hour, when fishing through the tide,
The weary Husband throws his Freight aside;
A living mass, which now demands the Wife,
Th' alternate labours of their humble Life.

Can Scenes like these withdraw thee from thy Wood,
Thy upland Forest or thy Valley's Flood?
Seek then thy Garden's shrubby Bound, and look,
As it steals by, upon the bordering Brook;
That winding Streamlet, limpid, lingering, slow,
Where the Reeds whisper when the Zephyrs blow;
Where in the midst, upon her throne of green,
Sits the large Lily* as the Water's Queen;
And makes the Current, forc'd awhile to stay,
Murmur and bubble as it shoots away;
Draw then the strongest contrast to that stream,
And our broad River will before thee seem.
With ceaseless motion comes and goes the Tide,
Flowing, it fills the Channel vast and wide;
Then back to Sea, with strong majestic sweep
It rolls, in ebb yet terrible and deep;

The white Water-lily. Nymphæa alba.