ON THE PLEASURES OF THE CLOSET, ON A RAINY DAY. "I pity unlearned gentlemen in a rainy day." SIR, CERTAINLY it is the duty of every man, as he advances toward the years of difcretion, to study the climate under which he lives, and to accommodate himself to all its viciffitudes, as much as poffible. Every nation has fomething peculiar in its climate, which feems to impart to the inhabitants a certain quality that is not to be found in thofe of other nations, and which ferves to form their diftinguishing characteristic. I am not to be told, indeed, that this doctrine has been carried too far, and that those who impute the valour and virtues of the Romans to the genial climate of Italy, have tumbled headlong into a difficulty from which they cannot extricate themselves; namely, to account for the degeneracy of the defcendants of thofe Romans, who live under the fame climate. But nevertheless, we are convinced from experience, both general and individual, that mankind are affected by weather, independent of every other thing which operates upon the body or mind; and that, in this country, particularly, the fpirits of the inhabitants are fenfibly affected by clear and genial funshine, and by damp and foggy atmospheres, fo as to leave no doubt that these externals are of great importance in the fyftem of health. But I know no kind of weather, which affects my countrymen more ferioufly than rainy weather, and there are fundry reafons why this fhould be the cafe. In the firft place, a rainy day is à day of difappointment, often in matters of business, but more frequently in engagements of pleafure. Hence, of all rainy days, a rainy Sunday is pregnant with the greatest mortifications, and when we fee the most lively reprefentation of the pains of a party of pleafure. It is what no perfon calculates upon, and therefore no preparation is made to avert its probable confequences. Lord FALKLAND. Over night, the plan is laid of a plea fant day, a pleafant ride or walk, a pleafant party, a pleafant dinner, at á friends houfe in the country, and fo forth. The new cloaths are ready; the new caps are made up, the laft new fashion is to be fported, and the laft new folly to be humbly imitated. The parties retire to fleep, with a perfect confidence that they shall wake to joy and pleasure. Some of them, unable to fleep, "for thinking of it," withdraw the curtain at an early hour, when alas ! "The dawn is overcaft; the morning lours, And heavily in clouds brings on-the rain." that is to dash the cup of pleasure from their lips, and confign them to fretful impatience, or helpless folitude-for the party is broke up. The motto to this letter was a common faying of the celebrated Lord Falkland; "I pity unlearned gentlemen in a rainy day," and moft pitiable objects they are, for having, according to our parliamentary language, made up their minds to a pleasurable employment, the bitterness of difappointment will n permit them to recur to domeftic topics; they cannot comfort themselves with what they are, and where they are, but torment their imaginations with what they might have been, and where they might have been; and, having no taste for reading, they almost cease to be ob jects of ridicule, and are, indeed, as Lord Falkland confiders them, objects of pity. There are, perhaps, few things that difplay more of a man's character than the manner in which he bears disappointments of this kind, and in general, I am forry to fay it, we do not find many who do bear them with a tolerable share of good humour; the reason of which is the want of a substitute, which would always be found, where they least think of feeking it, in an agreeable or inftruc tive tive book. It is one of the greateft misfortunes of life not to have acquired, and it is truly blame-worthy to have loft, a tafte for reading, becaufe univerfal experience has proved that it is the beft and the only infallible antidote against thofe varieties of weather to which we are expofed in this country. Perhaps I may be partial to it, but befide thinking that a man who has fuch a taste may defy all weathers, I queftion very much whether the many fudden exits, peculiar to the month of November, might not be averted in fome measure by it. The experiment is at least worth trying, though I must warn my readers from expecting that this remedy will operate like a charm, or like a quack medicine, by the taking of one or two dofes only. Highly as I think of its efficacy, I am perfuaded that nothing but a courfe regularly followed for years will afford a complete antidote to the afperities of wind and weather. It will, I prefume, be readily allowed, that the greateft misfortune attending a rainy day, is the breaking up of a party, and the confining the individuals of it to their own houfes. Now, in reading, a remedy is immediately found for this. What company can any one expect better than that of the moft celebrated English authors? Men who will fit down with you coolly, clearly, and deliberately, to impart their fentiments, without rudely controverting yours, offering you a bet, which perhaps may not be convenient for you to pay, far lefs, throwing a bottle at your head, a glafs of wine in your face, or any of those arguments, which are not unfrequent in what is termed genteel company. I do not wish to place an "invidious difference between the living and the dead, nor to praife the latter fo extravagantly, as to leave no merit at all for the former; but I am fure, upon calm recollection, there are few perfons who would not prefer a volume of many English authors I could mention, to molt converfations they ever took part in with their acquaintances. And there is this particular advantage attending our keeping up an intimacy with the dead, that whereas with the living we are often exposed to hear very unpleasant converfation upon very_odious fubjects, and compelled to spend what we call a moft difagreeable day, we may, from our libraries, felect the fubject that is most agreeable to us, and the author who handles it most agreeably, and enjoy the full "feaft of reafon and the flow of foul," without the poffibility of interruptions of impertinence, the clamours of intoxication, or the repentance of an ill-fpent day. Whenever, therefore, a disappointment defcends from the clouds, we may confole ourselves that the earth will certainly profit by it, and that there is at leaft a chance, or more than a chance, that in our fecluded employment, we may be more agreeably entertained than we fhould have been with our party. In a party of pleasure we cannot tell what a day may bring forth," but in the amufements of our clofet, in converfing with the wife and learned of former times, we can at least tell, what a day will not bring forth. We can affure ourfelves that it will be followed by no unpleafant reflections, and that in blending inftruction with amusement, we must have gained fomething, and can have loft nothing. The man, who confiders the fubject in this light, will think very little of the difappointment which depends upon weather, and will, in many cafes, have reafon to felicitate himself that he has made an exchange fo worthy of a rational creature. Wifdom is fo indifpenfable an ingredient in happiness, that fome have refolved all vice into ignorance. Perhaps this is carrying the principle rather too far, fince the wifeft of men are not immaculate, but furely one chief means of fecuring our happiness is, by holding converfe with men of wisdom and learning, whofe writings are fo eafy of accefs, that he who feldom confults them must ftand without all excufe. And of whatever other and more important ufes they they may be, they are highly valuable, to him merely objects of fpeculation; if it were only for the purpofe which their ferious confequences he leaves to forms the fubject of this letter, namely, the mariner, but the "pitilefs pelting to avert the horrors of a rainy day. of the ftorm," has no effect upon his The want of temper, peevishnefs, lift temper, and he can meet his friends leffnefs, and other uncomfortable fymp- with cheerfulnefs, though even in the toms, are in themfelves very ferious circumstances which Shakespeare attrimisfortunes, and require a remedy. butes to the meetings of witches. Whether the one I have proposed will In thunder, lightning, or in rain. be acceptable, I know not, but I am, I am, Sir, &c. from long experience, fo well convinced of its utility, that I do not hesitate, as far as my opinion may have weight, to add probatim eft. A man who has refources within himself has little to fear from externals. Wind and weather are بار OLD LILLY, P. S. Does not Solomon allude fome how to my fubject, when he fays, “A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman, are alike?" INTERESTING EXTRACTS FROM MR PENNANT'S HISTORY OF THE PARISHES OF WHITEFORD AND HOLYWELL. In a fatal Some aqua vita, ho! my lord, my lady! It appears to have been chiefly ufed in thofe days for medical purpofes. Remarkable Infiances of the Affection of Origin of Brandy.-BRANDY, it is "Fofter Fathers, &c. in former Times, probable, was not, at that time (1642) OF the affection between the fofter in fashion in Wales: yet nurse, in Kofather, fofter mother, and foster-brother, meo and Juliet, calls for it amain, unthe following instances in Wales were der the name of aqua vita: frequent. The fidelity of Robin ap Inko, fofter-brother to Jevan ap Vychan, of the Gwedir, in the reign of Edward IV, was a molt noted one. feud between Jevan and his brother-inlaw Rys ap Howel, the latter, expecting a fray, provided a butcher to murder Jevan in the confufion of the battle, and to him he gave orders in thefe terms. The butcher not being acquainted with Jevan, Ap Rys faid, "Thou fhalt foone difcerne him from the reft by his ftature, and he will make way before him. There is a fofter brother of his, one Robin ap Iako, a little fellow, that useth to match him behind: take heed of him, for be the encountre never fo hot, his eye is ever on his fof ter-brother and fo it happened. Robin fufpected the treachery, and watching his opportunity, cane behind him, and knocking him on the head in the moment in which he had come behind Jevan, and had aimed one at his beloved brother. The patrimony of his faithful follower was in the parish of Llanderfel, and to this day retains the name of Tyddin Inko. In Captain Wyndham's voyage to Guinea, there was brandy on board for the ufe of the fick lors. It was faid to have been invented by Raymundus Lullius who died in the the Bad, King of Navarre, came to a Charles year 1315. moft horrible end, fays Mezerey, who, to reftore his ftrength, weakened by debauchery. was wrapped in fheets steeped in cau de vie. His valet by accident fet fire to them after the third day he died in the molt dreadful tortures, and it is to be hoped thus expiated the crimes of his most execrable life. I am indebted for the origin of brandy to a moft elaborate effay on it, which I received from Mr William Taylor, of Norwich, by favour of my friend Dr Aikin. : fin Singular Event-At one end of the gallery, at Moftyn Hall, in Flintshire, is a great room, remarkable for, a gular event. During the time that Henry Earl of Richmond was fecretly laying the foundation of the overthrow of "P. S.-How does your head do this morning?-mine aches confoundedly." of the house of York, he paffed concealed from place to place, in order to form an intereft among the Welsh, who favoured his caufe on account of their At this time money was fo fcarce, refpect to his grandfather Owen Tudor, that 41. was a price for a pair of oxen ; their countryman. While he was at and the baronet of Moftyn was thought Moftyn, a party attached to Richard III. very liberal in fending his heir apparent arrived there to apprehend him. He to the univerfity with 20l. in his pocket. was then about to dine, but had just Typographical Anecdote.-Mr Pentime to leap out of a back-window, nant, after having given an account of and make his efcape through a hole, the curious manufcripts and ancient which, to this day, is called the King's. books in the Moftyn Library, adds; Richard ap Howel, then lord of Mo." To this claffical lift let nie add a moftyn, joined Henry at the battle of Bof- dern edition of the Bible, remarkable worth; and after the victory, received for its magnificence, but more so for a from the King, in token of gratitude for fingular erratum. It was printed by his prefervation, the belt and fword he Basket, at the Clarendon prefs, in 1717, wore on that day; he also preffed Rich in two vaft volumes. It is adorned ard greatly to follow him to court: but with a frontispiece, and various headhe nobly answered, like the Shunamitifh pieces, from paintings by Sir J. Thornwoman: "I dwell among mine own hill, and others, engraven by Vander people.' The fword and belt were Gutch, de Bofche, &c. The ridicu preferved in the houfe till within these lous mistake is in the running-title to few years. It is obfervable, that none the twentieth chapter of St Luke; in of our hiftorians account for a certain which "Parable of the vineyard,” is period of Henry's life, previous to his printed "Parable of the vinegar ;" and acceffion. It is very evident that he on that account the edition is better paffed the time, when he difappeared known by the name of the Vinegar Bifrom Bretagne, in Wales. Many co- ble, than any other. temporary bards, by feigned names, record this part of his life, under thofe of the Lion, the Eagle, and the like, which were to restore the empire to the Britons for the infpired favourers of the house of Lancaster did not dare to deliver their verses in other than terms allegorical, for fear of the reigning Prince. : The Utility of Great Farms.-Suppofing all farms are reduced to an equality, and all made fmall ones, the ground must be divided into little portions for the fupport of a miserable team, or of a few cows, or for raifing fmall quantities of corn. No magazines could be formed against evil days; the produce of the dairy would be fmall, and the provifion for fodder ferve for little more than to fupport the live ftock. few hobbets of corn would be sent to market to pay the rent; the reft might ferve to maintain the family till the return of harveft: and if the stock should be confumed before that feason, how would they wish for the restoring of the great farms! Many of the little farmers A * A hobbet confifts of eighty-four quarts A measure is half a hobbet. A peck is half a meafure. Thefe meafures are ufed in all the Flintshire markets; they extend alfo to ether Welth counties, and even Hereford "I hope you will excufe me for afking for the 41. you owe me for the pair of oxen; for I want the money to make up 20l. to fend my fon to Oxford next week. I am, dear Pyers, Your's, &c. &c. ROGER MOSTYN. fhire. are are also day-labourers: to whom could of the opulent farmer, for the fake of increased renț. He will (as fad examples prove) depopulate his country by removing the turdy labourers to the ground of wiser landlords, and leave his own weakened by their desertion; while the fields of the former laugh and fing, but round his own, ingens erit folitudo. they apply for work, the very fupport of them and their families? Never has there been a famine in England fince the introduction of great farms. Unavoid able fcarcities will happen, from caufes inevitable: But there has not been an inftance, for numbers of centuries, of the poor running into corners to die for want of food; of their feeing infants - perish before their eyes; and perhaps a plague might enfue, the confequence of famine, to thin the land of multitudes of the miferable furvivors. I fpeak difinterestedly; for I have not on my eftate a fingle great farmer. I find no merit in this affertion; had it been otherwife, I fhould have fupported him in all that was right, in common with my poorest tenant, and my poorest tenant perhaps in preference to him. I would never grant a lease to a great corn-tenant. I would preferve a power over his granary, which legiflature will not or cannot affume. Should he attempt by exportation to exhaust it, in years of fcarcity, and not leave a fufficient fupply for the country which produced the grain; fhould he attempt a monopoly; fhould he refuse to carry a proper quantity to the next market; or fhould he refufe to fell to the poor, who cannot attend the market, corn in fmall quantities, I would inftantly affume the power of the landlord, and expel him from my estate: a juft punishment for the tenant, who, through rapacity declines to comply with my defires, excited with no other view than to promote the good of the public. I could wifh (was it in my power) to add even to the cottages of my labourers two or three fields, that they might have the comfort of a cow, to fupply their families with milk. They are too ufeful a clafs of men to be neglected: to be left to the precarious poffibility of getting any of that invigo rating fluid, fo neceffary for their infants, and even for the support of their own ftrength, to fuftain them, through their labour. Give them a dry flated cottage, with an upper floor, and a kind landlord, and a British labourer need not envy Cæfar. Our Before I take leave of the fubject, let me define the fize of a great and a fmall farm in this parish. Our greatest farm is rented at itol. per annum, at the rate of about 14s. per acre. small farms have from twenty to ten acres; and the rent per acre from 12s. to 7s. There may be in every parish inftances of the exorbitant rife of rent : an evil moft frequently originating in the luxury of the landlord. Our rents are moderate, because our gentry would blufh to add one difh to their table at the expence of the tenant. Mr Wedge, in his furvey of Chefhire, speaks humanely and fenfibly on the affected The neceffity of great farms is ad- maxim of "high rents being a spur to mitted but let it be remembered, that induftry." This (for I muft help Mr their fupport refts upon the labourers, Wedge with a fimile) refembles the who are equally requifite to the great practice of the prudent planter, who farmer as beams are to a building. Let wishes to quicken the industry of the not the rapacity of the mifcalled great negroes by the invigorating application man direct all his force to the fupport of the cart-whip to their velvet skins. ON THE HIGHLAND DRESS. BY SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. IT is not my intention to difpute, appearance of the garb worn by that either the genuinenefs, or the warlike gallant corps, the 42d regiment, and Vol. LVIII. 5 B which |