<< TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

"SIR,

"I AM confined, by the occupations of a laborious employment, to a constant residence in town. During the summer and autumn, however, I sometimes can afford a day, which I wish to spend in a jaunt in the country. I lived in the country, Sir, in my earlier days; and whenever I hear a wood, a meadow, or the banks of a river, mentioned, I always think of peace, of happiness, and innocence.

"This season I have had a friend in town, who, being an idle man, is a great maker of parties. Among others, he contrives to get people together of a Saturday or a Sunday, to go and dine in the country, which, he says, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, affords some of the most beautiful and romantic scenes he ever saw. Last Saturday I was asked to join in one of his parties of this sort; to which, being a lover of rural scenes, as I mentioned before, I readily consented.

"My friend had the ordering of every thing on our expedition. The carriages he had bespoke did not arrive at the place of meeting till near an hour after the time appointed; and, when they did come, we had another hour to wait for our conductor, who, having sat up at a town-party, till five that morning, was not willing to be disturbed till mid-day.

"We arrived at the place of our destination betwixt two and three. I immediately proposed a walk, to enjoy the beauty of the fields, and the purity of the air; but my proposal was overruled, from the consideration of the near approach of dinner; some of the company likewise observing,

that the evening was the properest time for walking in this hot weather. Meantime a cup was called for, which in the same hot weather was pronounced vastly pleasant, and my friend declared was more refreshing to him than the purest air under heaven. "Dinner was soon after brought in, which consisted of a profusion of meat, ill drest, and served up in a slovenly style. This, however, was a country-dinner, and people were not to be nice in the country. So we sat, enjoying the pleasures of the country, amidst the steams of greasy broth, rusty ham, and stinking mutton; our ears delighted with the jingle of bells, and the hallooing of guests in the stair-case, which were very ineffectually answered by the bustle of an awkward waiter, and a fat hoyden of a chambermaid.

"When the table-cloth was removed, our conductor, who said he found himself much the better for his dinner, called for the landlord, and desired him to send in a particular sort of wine, the flavour of which he highly commended. An old proverbial recipe was cited to him, by a red-faced gentleman at the bottom of the table, which signifies that a man should drink a bottle to-day, as a cure for the effects of two or three drunk yesterday. 'T was a prescription very much suited to the inclination of my friend, who declared, after having drunk a bottle of it, that he never was better in all his life. Nobody mentioned the evening being a proper time for walking; so we sat till our carriages were at the door, and till we despatched four last bottles after their arrival. The post-boys, whose patience needed some cordial to maintain it, were busy in their way below; so that, when at last we got into the chaises, they were as drunk- -as drunk as we were. The carriage in which another gentleman and I were placed was overturned about a mile from

town; I escaped with a sprained ancle; but my friend had his collar-bone broke.

"Now, Mr. MIRROR, I incline to think, that a man may find a bad dinner, and get drunk after it, just as well in town as in the country; and, in the first case, he will have the advantage of saving his bones, the chaise-hire, and the tax upon posthorses.

"I am, &c.

"CIVIS."

No. 57. TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1779.

No thinking man will deny, that travelling into foreign countries is, in certain situations, attended with many and great advantages. It polishes the manners of the courtier, enlarges the views of the statesman, and furnishes the philosopher with a more extensive field of observation, and enables him to form more certain conclusions with regard to the nature and character of man. At the same time, I have often been disposed to doubt, how far it is an eligible thing for a private gentleman, without talents and inclination for public life, to spend much of his time abroad, to acquire a relish for foreign manners, and a taste for the society of a set of men, with whom neither his station nor his fortune entitle him to associate in the after-part of his life. The following letter on this subject may perhaps be acceptable to my readers.

"TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

SIR,

"Most of your predecessors have favoured the public with speculations on travelling: and they have been at pains to point out the abuses of it that from time to time have prevailed among us. In the Spectator, the absurdity of a fond mother and mother's own son going together to make the tour of Europe, in order to learn men and things, is exposed in a very masterly manner. If I have not been misinformed, that admirable essay was the

production of a young man, who afterwards, by his great talents and eminent virtues, added dignity to the highest office in the law of England, which he filled many years with the entire approbation of all good men.

"In The World, the folly of sending an ignorant booby to travel, who looked with contempt on the French and Italians, because they did not speak English, is held up to ridicule in a vein of wit, and with an elegance of expression, that mark the compositions of the Earl of Chesterfield.

"A correspondent in your own paper has pointed out the fatal effects of a practice, unknown till within these few years, of sending boys to foreign schools, or academies, where, according to his account of the matter, they learn nothing but vice and folly.

Although travelling has proved equally fatal to me, my case is very different from any of those I have mentioned: I shall, therefore, take the liberty to give an account of myself, from which you and your readers will be best able to judge, whether making what is called the grand tour, be an adviseable thing for persons in my circumstances and situation.

"I am the only son of a gentleman of fortune and family. My father, who was himself a man of letters, wished to give me a liberal education, and was desirous to unite the solidity of the ancient system with that ease and grace, which, of late, have been cultivated so much, and which, by some, have been thought the most essential of all acquirements. Soon after my twentieth year, my father died, leaving me possessed of a family-estate of a thousand pounds a year, and, I hope I may say it without vanity, with as great a share of knowledge as any of my contemporaries could boast of. The tour of