'Back, that this Man was defcended from one of 'the ten Children of the Maid of Honour I fhewed 'you above; but it was never made out. We 'winked at the thing indeed, because Money was 'wanting at that time.'

Here I faw my Friend a little embarrassed, and turned my Face to the next Portraiture.

SIR ROGER went on with his Account of the Gallery in the following manner. 'This Man' (pointing to him I looked at) I take to be the 'Honour of our Houfe, SIR HUMPHREY DE CO'VERLEY; he was in his Dealings as punctual as 'a Tradesman, and as generous as a Gentleman. 'He would have thought himself as much undone 'by breaking his Word, as if it were to be followed 'by Bankruptcy. He ferved his Country as Knight ' of this Shire to his dying Day. He found it no 'eafy matter to maintain an Integrity in his Words ' and Actions, even in things that regarded the Of'fices which were incumbent upon him, in the 'Care of his own Affairs and Relations of Life, ' and therefore dreaded (though he had great Talents) to go into Employments of State, where 'he must be expofed to the Snares of Ambition. 'Innocence of Life and great Ability were the dif'tinguishing Parts of his Character; the latter, ' he had often observed, had led to the Destruc

'tion of the former, and used frequently to lament 'that Great and Good had not the fame Significa'tion. He was an excellent Husbandman, but ' had refolv'd not to exceed fuch a Degree of < Wealth; all above it he bestowed in fecret Boun'ties many Years after the Sum he aimed at for 'his own Ufe was attained. Yet he did not flacken 'his Industry, but to a decent old Age spent the Life and Fortune which was fuperfluous to himfelf, in the Service of his Friends and Neigh'bours.'

HERE we were called to Dinner, and Sir RoGER ended the Discourse of this Gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the Servant, that this his Ancestor was a brave Man, and narrowly ef caped being killed in the Civil Wars; For,' faid he, he was fent out of the Field upon a private 'Meffage, the Day before the Battle of Worcester.'

The Whim of narrowly escaping by having been within a Day of Danger, with other Matters above-mentioned, mixed with good Senfe, left me at a lofs whether I was more delighted with my Friend's Wisdom or Simplicity.

K

T a little diftance from Sir ROGER'S
House, among the Ruins of an old

Abbey, there is a long Walk of aged Elms; which are fhot up fo very high, that when one paffes under them, the Rooks and Crows that reft upon the Tops of them feem to be Cawing in another Region. I am very much delighted with this fort of Noife, which I confider as a kind of natural Prayer to that Being who fupplies the Wants of his whole Creation, and who, in the beautiful Language of the Pfalms, feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. I like this Retirement the better, because of an ill Report it lies under of being haunted; for which Reason (as I have been told in the Family) no living Creature ever walks in it befides the Chaplain. My good

Friend the Butler defired me with a very grave Face not to venture myself in it after Sun-fet, for that one of the Footmen had been almost frighted out of his Wits by a Spirit that appear'd to him in the Shape of a black Horse without an Head; to which he added, that about a Month ago one of the Maids coming home late that way with a Pail of Milk upon her Head, heard such a Rustling among the Bushes that fhe let it fall.

I was taking a Walk in this Place last Night between the Hours of Nine and Ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper Scenes in the World for a Ghost to appear in. The Ruins of the Abbey are scattered up and down on every Side, and half covered with Ivy and Elder-Bushes, the Harbours of feveral folitary Birds which feldom make their Appearance till the Dusk of the Evening. The Place was formerly a Churchyard, and has still several Marks in it of Graves and Burying-Places. There is fuch an Echo among the old Ruins and Vaults, that if you ftamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the Sound repeated. At the fame time the Walk of Elms, with the Croaking of the Ravens which from time to time are heard from the Tops of them, looks exceeding folemn and venerable. These Objects naturally raise Seriousness and Attention; and

when Night heightens the Awfulness of the Place, and pours out her fupernumerary Horrors upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak Minds fill it with Spectres and Apparitions.

Mr. LOCKE, in his Chapter of the Affociation of Ideas, has very curious Remarks to fhew how by the Prejudice of Education one Idea often introduces into the Mind a whole Set that bear no Refemblance to one another in the Nature of things. Among feveral Examples of this Kind, he produces the following Inftance. The Ideas of Goblins and Sprights have really no more to do with Darkness than Light: Yet let but a foolish Maid inculcate thefe often on the Mind of a Child, and raise them there together, poffibly he shall never be able to feparate them again fo long as he lives; but Darkness fhall ever afterwards bring with it thofe frightful Ideas, and they shall be fo joined that he can no more bear the one than the other.

AS I was walking in this Solitude, where the Dusk of the Evening confpired with fo many other Occafions of Terror, I obferved a Cow grazing not far from me, which an Imagination that was apt to startle might eafily have conftrued into a black Horse without an Head: And I dare fay the poor Footman loft his Wits upon fome fuch trivial Occafion.