(employing them on the fame occafion) fee ing or feeling the very fame objects, or occur rences, in the fame way; fo that there muft "be, I fay, a degree of novelty in every work "not fervilely purloined from what the plagiary "had neither candour to avow, nor ingenuity "to improve. But, even granting that the greater crop of general obfervation, has been gathered by others who have made their in"tellectual harveft abroad, and brought it "home, pro bono publico, let me remind you, by the help of an allufion borrowed from husbandry, that the vigilance of the farmer "has never yet been able to clear the ground "of its produce, fo as to leave nothing where"with to reward the industrious gleaner: Some "ears of the valuable grain escape the jealous "rake even of avarice itself, and where the "fields are fpacious, there muft always be fomething worth ftooping for, even where the la"bourers are many." Pleafed and encouraged by this mode of reafoning; Icexclaimed, Be it fo then another -Book of Travels fhall be written, and, to fhew my gratitude for the prefent converfation, the work fhall owe its title to an idea that is this moment suggested by the agricultural images you have fo agreeably played with. I will call my book that that is to be, GLEANINGS, &c. gathering up whatever may be left to humble industry, or excurfive curiofity, in the path of my wanderings, now and then deviating into the fields of fancy, mixing thus my wheat with fuch flowers as grow in its neighbourhood, whether in hedge rows or gardens, whether the productions of art or nature. "Good! cried my "friend, rubbing his hands together, and at length you shall bind your collected gleanings into fheaves-that is, volumes-and préfent them, neat as imported from the foreign markets, to your friends and enemies. To both of whom, added he fmilingly, and "with a brisker friction of his hands, they will supply food of a different kind, the one banquetting on whatever you set before them with " hearty good-will, the other fatiating on the "best you can offer, with as hearty malice,, "Besides, continued he, you will thus furnish a "feaft to yourself, and be entertained while you entertain. I will have it fo—Farewell: Be "fure you write a book, and do not return to me "till you can come volume in hand.” He departed, without fuffering me to fay more, afferting that the best proof of my regard for him would be given in my adoption of his councils. The councils were wholefome, and I fhall fol low them: Before my leaving London it was fettled, at another conversation, with the fame friend, that my Gleanings were to be difpenfed by parcels to him, that he was to put them into the granary-that is his library-till their bulk increased fufficiently to be of public use, and not a month was to pafs without a fmall beaf being fent to him. Alas! it was decreed that ere the first month was expired this amiable counfellor and friend fhould go "To that bourne from whence no traveller returns.”! "Still drops from life fome withering joy away." (faith our celebrated Johnson.) The impreffion made upon me by his death, would, perhaps, have induced me to give up an idea, which could not be pursued without a fentiment of regret for the lofs of him who inspired it, had Į not reflected that there existed still another, whofe mind, no lefs than my own, required amusement; and, at length, to conclude, that the best mode of testifying my esteem and veneration for the deceased would be to fulfil bis wishes; even while I fulfilled yours, my dear furviving comfort, at the fame time. To these ends, I now addrefs to you, from the most beautiful part of the British Empire (-for fuch fuch I think we may fairly call the principality of the ancient Britons-) the first offerings of my Gleanings. An humble employment, perhaps to collect ear by ear, as it were, the refufe of what others have either overlooked or neglected: but if, out of this lowly occupation, you and I, my excellent friend, in the first instance, and my readers, in the second, when the corn is gathered into fheaves, and bound up, fhould be able to make that bread which ftrengtheneth the heart, or press from the fcanty vintage that wine of life, which exhilarates, and gives a cheerful countenance in the drooping moment: -if it affords the tranfient fweets of a foreign fhore, when the flowers at home are withered or defpoiled, I fhall not have ftooped in vain. Adieu, my friend! Our convention is fettled, and you shall foon hear from me again, : LETTER LETTER II. TO THE SAME. South Wales. As it behoves a Gleaner to be diligent, deliberate, and not hurry over his ground like those who come to a full crop, and whom abundance makes careless, I have refolved, not only for your fake, but my own, to stay always fome days, frequently fome weeks, and not feldom fome months in every town, city, or village, from whence I fhall write. A rule which in verts the general one. Inftead of adding to the long list of post-hafte travellers, I am determined to perform my journies at a foot-pace rather than a full gallop, convinced, from a although "he who rides, as it were excannot write any deal of experience, that, "runs may read," he who Prefs, through a country, thing worth the attention even of a running reader-At least, it becomes a queftion worth answering, whether the deliberate mode is not more likely to discover and defcribe what merits communication, than the helter-fkelter fafhion of writing on the fpur, whip, and wheel, our accounts of people and places? I am of opinion it is; and I have the fupport of good old peo ple, |