kept clear from fuch a character; I will fay then, that he who recommended him to me is Mr. Booth, the inventor of the polygraphic pictures, as alfo a farther inventor of what is known even to the great. To this perfon was I obliged to write, for him to fay if I had engaged to keep and fettle 300l. a year, or indeed agreed any how at all for any thing with this man, in order to contradict what he had pofitively affirmed to both the persons I have mentioned above, and perhaps to twenty more in Bath; and on my being all in aftonishment told of it, and anfwered as is fuppofed, he afferted it again almost with his oath; on which I was forced to write to this Mr. Booth, to say if it was true; and could get from him, only after a second letter, not so polite and mild as the firft, (friendship you know!) a positive declaration, yes or no, (which I infifted on) if I had made the engagement that was faid, or any other, with this man. I then had in anfwer all I asked for, and this letter (which was even fhewn to him, and ftill not afhamed) and his own receipt for the last ten pounds, and declaration of being paid all due, figned by him, are in this mercantile perfon's hands, against whatever he might or may have invented; and which doubtless, but for this late publication of his Bath Guide, might have been credited in the world, not perhaps very pleasantly for me. Well, I hope this now is become, however infenfibly, a fomething for my lady-readers; I with it may, and I fincerely hope whether by this, or any other means, fo great a part of the focial world as fuffered from this one individual, may be at length relieved from him. Did ever any one hear of a character fo deprived of human fhame as to publish what is feen, while confcious that twenty people in Bath knew of its being entire invention; and as to the affertions about my engagements to him likewife, knowing it muft be, as it was proved to be, fiction, from his own friend? Surely this man must have confounded his own infenfibility to all these matters with other people's, and transferred it to them, so that as he felt or fuffered nothing (callous from fuch conftant cuftom) from giving the wound, they suffered nothing in the receiving it.* And fo farewell Mr.

This puts me in mind of a ludicrous ftory I heard fome time ago of a gentleman's going into a kitchen, where he found a maid skinning fome live eels in order to put them into boiling water for dinner; on which he said Good God, Molly! how can you be fo cruel to thofe poor animals?' Lauwd, your

Pafquin, and be your merits rewarded! I fhould not however omit to fay, that the publisher of the above fenience was that of the Oracle, and I understand a Mr. Bell the editor, against whom, with even all Mr. Pitt's authority, I know I could fo little have redress, that nothing more likely than that all this relation (I give it however with my eyes open in that respect) may on the contrary produce me more of the fame, in fome fhape or other, in that paper or fome others; but I hope, gentlemen of the papers, I mistake; and that as I cannot poffibly offend you, if I would, fo that you will please to leave me entirely to myself. No puffs do I afk, however ufual or useful conductors; but only, that total inattention to me or my works, that you must have to all other unknown perfons or things. Let us pray have no altercations, whether with or without confequences.

I believe the minifter, along with every other man, muft think this one inftance of the neceffary endurance of the fubject without relief or redress, from the freedom of newspapers; whether poffible for the legislature even to diminish it at all, I know not. But this, as a subject, I may, 'tis hoped, be allowed to add, viz. That it behoves them to try. Can any one who has read these defultory stories, have a doubt in deciding between the two grievances, to me, of my robberies and my newspaper affair, with all its appendages?

Certainly my connection with such a man, fo well known already at Bath, though it seems impoffible to have been even fufpected by me while fo recommended, flung no honour or luftre over me; and perhaps (though there may, I even know, have been others) that was the motive for a bon-ton fort of Bath Lady, whom I had vifited before, and fo did again, as flattering myfelf I might have got well enough to have seen a little of the Bath people there at fome of her fort of bon-ton routs, taking no notice at all of me and my vifit; I mean not the great lady of all, who by the by had a good escape from

It should not be omitted, that at the end of all, this man wrote me a letter to say, he had been hasty, and to be fure we could not be on the fame footing as before, but still he should be proud of the honour of waiting on me fometimes. He also came up to me at the bookfellers to make his bows and compliments to me. I hardly need fay how all this was received.

my

my gentleman, as I could fhew by still a page or two more of particulars, if really penning a novel; not a little, I am however inclined to believe, by her own affistance, for I fee he has now made that lady a prefent of a good dozen of years, after different givings out; all my knowledge here is however come to me, much unfought for indeed, by me. And if that other old lady fhould hap to fee this, I beg with my beft refpects to wifh her all the most compleat fine company that Bath can afford, and to affure her I quite agree, I could not have been the leaft addition to it. Nay, in truth, my malady, so often returning, could not have had the opportunity, I fear, of even viewing the brilliancy of her companies. But however, very truly, and very seriously, I ftumbled on an unfortunate affociate, and it is well it was no worse.

I have one more national object to offer to confideration, and which I hope will bring me back to fomething lefs vulgar and wretched, than what I have been fo long engaged in. Nay, I am not quite free from flattering myself, that it may appear an abfolute contrast to them, and poffibly claim fome little pretenfions to the being one of (if I may dare to fay fo) even fome elegance. The article I allude to is, chiefly on the public buildings &c. of our great metropolis; and a fatisfactory idea in the venting is, that however chimerical or mistaken may be any of my other particulars, this must be allowed to be practical; and I could almoft add, not mistaken in its intentions.

I begin my article by afking of whether minifters or non-ministers of this country, what ideas either may entertain of thofe that are entertained by the princes or nobles of the Continent, whofe laudable curiofity leads to the vifiting this true object of that curiofity, our great and glorious country? What ideas they entertain, I fay, when driving through our Royal Park of Hyde-Park, of its gate-ways at either end of it; as also, of its wall that inclofes it? Are they all, think you, very royal in their fights? And then I afk, what, either very far back, or now, would have been then, or would be now, the national coft to render them all fo? Shall I answer this? Every

people, as every individual, have their caft or character, and ours is not that of magnificence.

Some ideas rife in my mind about this park, though fo far diftant from it at prefent as not to be enabled to look again for their realization, (as to locality, &c.) ere I speak at all definitively; and ftill the more fo from poffeffing a memory I can very little boast of indeed: however, I hope I remember enough of fituations to say this farther word of what strikes me, at least, in regard to this park.

I have already said, that more princely gate-ways and walls feemed defireable; I now add, that I fhould imagine it better if we did not enter where we do, at the end of Piccadilly, but higher up in the street. I have it not in my memory, as never having viewed the buildings in that light, how much or how little the prefent houfes might interfere with my plan; but fuppofing them not to do it, whether from purchafe or otherwife, I would go fo far higher as to fee no wall on the entry, to which new plantations would of course contribute. I would then make the road run ftraight from thence, which poffibly might then go not far diftant from the prefent ride of the company, though rather, I think, higher up and nearer the water; and, as I said at first, I ftill would plant brufhy as well as high-growing wood along all the walls, fo as entirely to hide them all, and procure by this means the appearance at leaft of a large park, whofe boundaries you did not fee on either fide; as far however, I must mean, as the outfide houfes can admit of it. If the Royal Family refided ever at Kensington Palace, nay indeed, though they did not, fince many people of fashion do, and it still is one of the Royal appendages, I would have another noble gate-way erected to terminate the road and enter the gardens, where, as being then a good way in the broad depth of them, I would form a coach-road, which fhould properly wind and make an approach to the palace; how decorated, to be confidered afterwards.

And

And none of thefe gate-ways fhould be of that foe to all grandeur, brick; but ftone. That the road through the park fhould turn for travellers off to the high road, is already supposed.

So much for my article of the park; as to gate-ways, I would just observe what a noble one there is at the entry at Hampton-court; built I fuppofe from foreign ideas of these things, by King William. And fure its noble

effect must be allowed. In regard to its not being Italian architecture, it matters but little with me, as long as it is lofty, decorated, grand, and royal, though I do not mean most certainly that I would reject all Italian architecture, while confeffing a little heterodoxy of faith as to its absolute and univerfal decrees; I will however avow my total and abfolute rejection of Mr. Adams's late refinements, come they from wherever they even may; excepting however, perhaps, certain cabinets or other minikin apartments; but of all this, if ever, not now at least. I omitted however one particular as to the park, which is, that there should be more attention than there is, to planting in it; as the trees are very old, and not far from decay in general; and the north fide very bare of them. I forgot too, what I have often had in my head as I have rode by; I mean this, that it has often ftruck me that it would have a grand effect if a road were ftruck across within the chefnuts up to the opposite end at the top of Oxford-street, and terminated by a gate-way; as alfo by one at the other oppofite ending in Park-lane as an entry there, fo as to make a handsome road from thence quite across the park, a noble avenue being already chiefly there formed by the double row of chefnuts: (Does any zig-zag genteel gentleman come in here to tell me of his fine tafte in rejecting ftraight lines?) Not but poffibly I might be for thinning the lines, if too close for fight, which I don't know. This ftrikes me as rather princely in the effect this avenue would have from either end, as well as in the traverfing it; and this is all that has, I think, occurred to me as to this part of my metropilan plan of decoration. And what would the And what would the expence of all

this