"In short, Mr. Fitz-Adam, what with natural and acquired effeminacy, the present age seems an age of affectation. The whole head is weak, and the whole heart sick. And yet, that I may not leave your readers with disagreeable ideas in their minds, notwithstanding these alarming appearances, the eye of a philosopher can still trace out something to counterbalance this amazing degeneracy. However desperate the vulgar may think our situation, we, who see the fervor of the torrid zone sweetly compensated by copious dews, and everlasting breezes, and the whole system of nature admirably adjusted; we, I say, see likewise that this human defect is not left without its remedy. However delicate our men are become, we may still hope that the rising generation will not be totally enervated. The assured look, the exalted voice, and theatrical step of our modern females, pretty sufficiently convince us that there is something manly still left amongst us. So that we may reasonably conclude, though the male and female accomplishments may be strangely scattered and disposed of between the sexes, yet they will somehow or other be jumbled together in that complicated animal, a man and his wife.

"I am, SIR,

"Your humble servant,

"S. H."

No. 59. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1754.

SIR,

TO MR. FITZ-ADAM.

"I AM a constant reader of your papers, and congratulate you upon the men of wit you have for

your correspondents. I do not pretend to add to the number, and shall only attempt to furnish you with a few hints, which, considered and formed into order by a writer of your ability, may possibly be productive of entertainment, at least, to the public.

"Your letters upon the modern taste in gardening are, in my judgement, excellent in their kind; and so indeed are those upon architecture, as far as they go: but methinks you have not carried your observations quite far enough; nor have you any where remarked the injustice and ingratitude with which those worthy patriots are treated, who ruin their estates, or lay out the fortunes of their younger children on their seats and villas, to the great embellishment of this kingdom, which, if it is not already one great and complete garden, contains at least more sumptuous country-houses, parks, gardens, temples, and buildings, than all the rest of Europe. If you are in danger of losing yourself on the vast and dreary wastes of some comfortless heath, and are directed on your course by a friendly beacon of prodigious height, you are told that this is such a gentleman's Folly. The munificence of a man of taste raises at an immoderate expense a column or turret in his garden, for no other purpose than the generous one of giving delight and wonder to travellers; and the ungrateful public calls it his Folly. Nay, were her late majesty queen Anne, of pious memory, to reign again, and fifty new churches to be really built, I doubt if in this dissolute age, this also might not be called her Majesty's Folly.

But notwithstanding these discouragements, I am daily entertained with new beauties; and it is with great impatience that I wait the completion of a Chinese temple, now rising on the top of a very elegant villa upon the road-side near Brompton. I

have often too, with great satisfaction, beheld a structure of this kind, on the top of a very handsome green-house, now in the possession of a noble foreigner at Turnham-green; which, as I am informed, is a matter of great curiosity to his countrymen who frequent it; nothing of this sort being to be met with in the environs of Paris, or indeed of Pekin itself, or in any country but this. A most majestic peacock, as big as the life, on the spindle of a weathercock, adds also to its merit; which, with all the beauty of the bird itself, has not its disagreeable vociferous quality; and though it does not foretell by its noise a change in the weather, it informs you with more certainty of the variation of the wind.

"I am somewhat of an invalid, and, being sensible how much exercise conduces to health, I seldom fail, when the weather does not allow me the use of my physician, a trotting horse, to take a flurry, as it is elegantly called, in a hackney coach; which affords exercise to the imagination as well as the body, and creates thinking, if I may be allowed the expression, as much as it does an appetite. The air of business in the crowds that are constantly passing; the variety of the equipages, and the new and extraordinary sights that still present themselves in this great metropolis, the centre of trade, industry, and invention, fill my mind with ideas, which, if they do not always instruct, at least amuse

me.

"I take great pleasure in guessing at the ranks and professions of men by their appearance; and though I may now and then be mistaken, yet I am generally in the right. Once indeed I mistook a right reverend divine, on the other side Temple-bar, for a Jew, till the mitre on his coach convinced me of my error; as I also did a Jew, by the decora

tions on his chariot, for a peer of the realm. And indeed, Mr. Fitz- Adam, since the herald's-office has suspended its authority, it is surprising what liberties are taken with the arms of the first families in the kingdom; insomuch that a man must have a quick eye who can distinguish between the pillars, flower-pots, and other inventions of the curious painter, and the supporters of the nobility. But what most of all perplex me are the ornaments, after the Chinese manner, over the arms by way of coronet and were not these distinctions confined solely to Europe, I should sometimes be in danger of mistaking an Indian director for a Mandarin.

"It has not escaped your notice how much of late we are improved in architecture; not merely by the adoption of what we call Chinese, nor by the restoration of what we call Gothic; but by a happy mixture of both. From Hyde-park to Shoreditch scarce a chandler's-shop or an oyster-stall but has embellishments of this kind; and I have heard that there is a design against the meeting of the new parliament to fit up St. Stephen's chapel with Chinese benches, and a throne from the model of that on which the Eastern monarch distributes justice to his extensive empires. It is whispered also that the portico to Covent-garden church is to give place to one of the Gothic order. But before I leave the city, let me not neglect to do justice to that excellent engineer, the great pastry-cook in St. Paul's church-yard. My good fortune conducted me thither on Twelfth-day; when seeing a vast concourse of people assembled, my ruling passion, curiosity, engaged me to quit my vehicle to partake in the satisfaction so visible in all their countenances. But how shall I describe the pomp and parade of so noble an appearance? The triumph of a lordmayor's day is nothing to it, though, if I mistake

not, those brave and faithful guardians of the wealth and safety of the city, the train-bands and militia, make a most comely and warlike appearance; for not to mention the flags shining with silver and gold: troops innumerable of gingerbread, both horse and foot, finer in their uniforms than the French king's household; there was not even the smallest mince-pye, but for its strength and just proportion was equal at least to the chef-d'œuvre of a Vauban or a Cohorn. But what above all excited my praise and admiration was a citadel of an enormous magnitude, that would have appeared impregnable to a whole army of Dutchmen, had it not been for several breaches that had been made in it by some small field-pieces of copper: but this indeed astonished me the less, having been told that the towns in Flanders which cost so much blood, which were so stubbornly disputed in the former war, and which fell so easily into the hands of the immortal Saxe in seventeen hundred and forty-four, were chiefly obtained by an ordnance of this kind, though somewhat heavier in its quality.

“And now, Mr. Fitz-Adam, if I was not afraid of troubling you with more observations, I should lead you again into the country. But were I to expatiate on the hermitages and sylvan temples, formed like the earths of those instructive builders, the badgers, from whom the hint was taken, and furnished with ivy, moss, cobwebs, and straw beds, with all the elegance of primitive simplicity, contrasting the magnificent structures of our most favourite architects, I fear my letter would exceed your patience. I shall therefore defer, at least these most important subjects, till I find how these my observations have been received; and, whether you do them justice or not, I shall continue,

"Your constant admirer."