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try-house, where I intend to form several of my enfuing Speculations. Sir ROGER, who is very well acquainted with my Humour, lets me rife and go to Bed when I please, dine at his own Table or in my Chamber as I think fit, fit ftill and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the Gentlemen of the County come to fee him, he only fhows me at a Distance: As I have been walking in his Fields I have observed them stealing a Sight of me over an Hedge, and have heard the Knight defiring them not to let me fee them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am the more at Ease in Sir ROGER'S Family, because it confifts of fober and ftaid Perfons; for as the Knight is the best Master in the World, he feldom changes his Servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his Servants never care for leaving him; by this means his Domesticks are all in Years, and grown old with their Master. You would take his Valet de Chambre for his Brother, his Butler is grey-headed, his Groom is one of the gravest Men that I have ever seen, and his Coachman has the Looks of a PrivyCounsellor. You fee the Goodness of the Master even in the old Houfe-dog, and in a gray Pad that is kept in the Stable with great Care and Tenderness out of Regard to his past Services,

though he has been useless for several Years.

I could not but obferve with a great deal of Pleasure the Joy that appeared in the Countenances of these ancient Domefticks upon my Friend's Arrival at his Country-Seat. Some of them could not refrain from Tears at the Sight of their old Mafter; every one of them prefs'd forward to do something for him, and seemed difcouraged if they were not employed. At the fame time the good old Knight, with a Mixture of the Father and the Mafter of the Family, tempered the Inquiries after his own Affairs with several kind Questions relating to themselves. This Humanity and Good-nature engages every Body to him, fo that when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his Family are in good Humour, and none fo much as the Perfon whom he diverts himself with: On the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any Infirmity of old Age, it is eafy for a Stander-by to obferve a fecret Concern in the Looks of all his Servants.

MY worthy Friend has put me under the particular Care of his Butler, who is a very prudent Man, and, as well as the reft of his Fellow-Servants, wonderfully defirous of pleasing me, because they have often heard their Master talk of me as of his particular Friend.

E

MY chief Companion, when Sir ROGER is diverting himself in the Woods or the Fields, is a very venerable Man who is ever with Sir ROGER, and has lived at his Houfe in the Nature of a Chaplain above thirty Years. This Gentleman is a Person of good Senfe and fome Learning, of a very regular Life and obliging Conversation: He heartily loves Sir ROGER, and knows that he is very much in the old Knight's Efteem, so that he lives in the Family rather as a Relation than a Dependent.

I have observed in feveral of my Papers, that my Friend Sir ROGER, amidst all his good Qualities, is fomething of an Humourift; and that his Virtues, as well as Imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain Extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from thofe of other Men. This Caft of Mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, fo it renders his Converfation highly agreeable, and more delightful than the fame Degree of Sense and Virtue would appear in their common and ordinary Colours. As I was walking with him laft Night, he asked me how I liked the good Man whom I have just now mentioned? and without staying for my Anfwer told me, That he was afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own Table; for

which Reafon he defired a particular Friend of his at the University to find him out a Clergyman rather of plain Senfe than much Learning, of a good Afpect, a clear Voice, a fociable Temper; and, if poffible, a Man that understood a little of Back-Gammon. My Friend, fays Sir ROGER, found me out this Gentleman, who, befides the Endowments required of him, is, they tell me, a good Scholar, though he does not fhew it: I have given him the Parfonage of the Parish; and because I know his Value have fettled upon him a good Annuity for Life. If he outlives me, he shall find that he was higher in my Esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty Years; and though he does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that time asked any thing of me for himself, though he is every Day foliciting me for fomething in Behalf of one or other of my Tenants his Parishioners. There has not been a Law-fuit in the Parish fince he has lived among them: if any Difpute arifes they apply themselves to him for the Decifion; if they do not acquiefce in his Judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice at most, they appeal to me. At his first fettling with me, I made him a Prefent of all the good Sermons which have been printed in English, and only

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