at Lord W. 's. His fon and the bride "were by; Lord C. had velvet breeches, and "gold clocks to his stockings; the question "was, whether this was proper? I put it to "the bride; I made her blufh, I warrant you; fhe was a fine woman, a prodigious fine "woman; fhe always ufed my wash-ball; I wrote out the receipt for her; it was given. me at Vienna by Count O- ; a very great man Count O- and knew more of the "affairs of the empire than any man in Ger

many. From him I first learned with cer"tainty, that the Duchefs of Lorraine's two "fore-teeth were falfe ones. I remember he "had an old gray monkey.-Sifter Mary, " you have heard me tell the ftory of Count "O's monkey."-But here it pleafed Heaven that William called his mafter out of the room, and faved us from the Count and his old gray monkey.

This fuperficial knowledge of great men, and accidental acquaintance with fome of the vocables of ftate-bufinefs, has given him a confequential fort of phrafeology, which he applies, with all the gravity in the world, to the most trifling occurrences. When he orders the chaife for his eldeft fifter, himself,

and

and me, the white pad for. Sophy, and the old roan mare for her attendant, he calls it "regulating the order of the proceffion." When he gives out the wine from the cellar, and the groceries from the ftore-room, (for he does both in perfon), he tells us, he has been "granting the Supplies;" the acceptance, or offer of a vifit, he lays before "a committee of "the whole house;" and for the killing of the fat ox this Christmas, he called the gentlemen three fucceffive mornings to "a grand council "of war."

It were well if all this were only matter of amufement; but fome of us find it a fource of very ferious diftrefs. Your managing men are commonly plagues; but Mr R. manages fo much to a hair's-breadth, that he is a downright torment to the other members of his family. It was but yesterday we had the honour of a ceremonious vifit from fome great folks, as we think them, who came lately from your town to eat their mince-pies in the country. After a wonderful ringing of bells, calling of fervants, and trampling upon the ftairs all morning, Mr R. came down to the drawing-room at a quarter before three, with all his ufual fiddle-faddleation, but, as I

thought,

thought, in very good humour. He had on his great-company wig, and his round fet fhoe-buckles. The fervants had their liveries. new white-ball'd, and the best china was fet out, with the large filver falvers, and the emboffed porter-cups on the fide-board. The covers were ftripped from the worked chairbottoms, and his grandmother's little diced carpet was taken off the roller, and laid, like a patch, on the middle of the floor, the naked part of which was all fhining with beeswax. The company came at their hour; the beef was roafted to a turn; dinner went on with all imaginable good order and stupidity; fupper was equally regular and fleepy; in fhort, every thing feemed quite as it should be: Yet, next morning, I perceived foul weather in all the faces of the family; Mr R. and his fifter fcarce spoke to one another, and he talked, all the time of breakfast, of female careleffnefs and inattention. Mifs Sophia explained it to me when we were left alone. "Oh! do you know," faid fhe, "a fad af "fair happened laft night: My brother and "fifter had such a tiff! You must under"ftand, before the company arrived yester"day, he had, as usual, adjusted the ceremo

"nial

"nial of their different apartments; but he "difcovered, on attending them to their 66 rooms at night, that my fifter had put the "gilt-china bottle and bafon into the callico "bed-chamber, and the ordinary blue and

white into the pink damafk."—It is lucky this man is no guardian of mine; were he to watch me as he does his fifters, and fee all the odds and ends about me.-But what has he to do to be a guardian. Yet Nature, perhaps, meant him for fomething, if fortune had allowed it; he might have been excellently employed in a pin-fhop, in fticking the rows in a pin-paper.

I fancy you have got quite enough of my landlord. You ufed to fay I was the best of your philofophers, your Democritus in petticoats. If I have an inch of philofophy about me, it is without my knowledge, I affure you; you are welcome to it, however, fuch as it is. Other folks may give you what I have heard you call the great views of Nature and Life; it is enough for me if I can enrich your collection with a paper of infects.

Yours moft truly,

C. F.

V

N° 94.

N° 94.

A

SATURDAY, April 1. 1780.

MONG the other privileges of an anonymous periodical author, is that of writing letters in praife of himfelf, which he is, now and then, obliged to infert on account of their merit, however offenfive they may be to his modefty. This fort of correfpondence, which I fuppofe is a very pleafant one, I have not yet ventured to indulge in. The correfpondents whom I have perfonated, always talk of themfelves inftead of the MIRROR; and, on the other hand, feveral of the papers I have received, are written in the perfon of the author, a character in which it were improper to praise him, and which, when au med, gives, perhaps, no great inclination to do it. Of this laft fort is the firft of two communications to which I devote the paper of to-day; the fecond, containing one of the very few compliments which the MIRROR has exhibited of itself, is a genuine letter from London, written by a gentleman in the very fituation