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soon after his marriage, when he took to studying books of education; and had actually from these composed a Treatise for the instruction of his expected heir; which, however, was forgotten before the child had learned to speak, for then he had turned improver.

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"It was then that the fine grove of oaks and chesnuts, the massy richness of whose foliage served equally to shelter and adorn his stately mansion, was levelled to the ground, and every spot within sight of the windows metamorphosed into a dry smooth shaven green,' awkwardly sprinkled with knarled sapplings and ill-formed clumps of shrubbery. How far this spirit of improvement might have led him it is impossible to conjecture, for it was still at its height, when a piece of silver ore, found by one of the workmen in digging a canal intended to meander through the grounds, gave a new object to his ever ardent mind.

"For three sleepless nights his fancy revelled in all the riches of Peru. Miners

were brought from various parts of the kingdom, and the greatest encouragement offered to those who should be successful in discovering the vein, of the existence of which he could not entertain a doubt. Huge excavations were made in various directions, all begun in hope and ending in disappointments; the miners strictly followed the usual example of our British ministers of state'; who, when they have plunged the nation into an unnecessary and unsuccessful war, take care, when the account of defeats comes from one quarter, to amuse the attention of the publick with the prospect of better success in another; and Sir Caprice, like the honest British people, was too willing to be deceived to suffer himself to discover the trick. At length, finding his miners grow rich in proportion as he grew poor, his patience became entirely exhausted; and with many execrations on their knavery and his own folly, he suddenly dismissed them all, and set himself diligently to re

pair the devastations they had committed on the face of his estate. It was this circumstance which, perhaps, turned his thoughts to agriculture, which, as he contrived to manage it, was as unproductive a folly as any in which he has ever yet engaged. With such avidity, however, did he enter into it, that I well remember him walking about the fields with a silver spoon in his hand, to taste the different composts, into the specifick qualities of which he thought it necessary to examine; and, ignorant of chemical process, he trusted to his palate for a discovery of the acids or akalis they contained. It would seem that in this particular it had proved a deceitful guide ;— for notwithstanding his delicacy of taste, and although he had laid out his fields in the best method that the best theoretical writers had pointed out, he had the worst crops that were known in the country; he was, at length, contented to replace the old tenants in their farms; and finding his estate considerably incumbered by his various schemes

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of fortune-making (avarice having now be come the passion which chiefly predominated in his heart) he resolved for a few years to try the economical plan of travelling. He accordingly set out for the continent with. bis Lady, leaving his eldest daughter at the most fashionable boarding-school in London; his second, who had been adopted from the hour of her birth by his sister, Miss Ardent, remained with her; and the youngest had the happiness of being received under the roof of her excellent aunt, lady Grey,

"Sir Caprice Ardent and his lady remained abroad for six years, in the course of which period his lady brought him three sons; only one of whom survives; a poor puny boy, so completely spoiled by indulgence that there is no bearing his petulance and prate. During the residence of our Baronet in Italy, he gave sufficient proofs to his friends that the change of atmosphere had no effect on the temperament of his mind. Antiques, musick, pictures, statues, intaglios, and even butterflies, were, in 8*

VOL. II,

their turns, the exclusive objects of his attention. The death of a relation, who bequeathed him a large legacy, brought him at length back to his country, just as the rage for building had begun to occupy his mind. With its effects, you are sufficiently acquainted; and you will, probably, before the conclusion of the summer, see it give place to some other absurdity, which will be entered on with equal ardour, managed with equal skill, and ultimately abandoned with equal facility."

Alas! cried I, I find that folly is a plant which flourishes in every clime; it only differs in the colouring. But if it is not intruding too far upon your time and patience; I should be glad to know what hue it assumed in the young Lady who was educated by the same tutor.

My friend willingly gratified my curiosity, and thus proceeded :

"To the eldest sister of Sir Caprice, who inherited from Nature a stronger intellect and quicker perception than her brother, the

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