BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 FROM THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 flenrg W. Sage 
 
 1891 
 
 v9...iAzx«i---- - ^Ml'E.. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 3454.J6 1892 
 
 The journal of a voyage to Lisbon; 
 
 3 1924 013 182 294 
 
I Cornell University 
 sj Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013182294 
 
This Edition is limited to Five Hundred copies, viz. : 
 25 on Japanese Vellum, numbered i to 25. 
 475 on Handmade paper, numbered 26 to 500. 
 
 Thisis No.X~/^. 
 
Olttstotcfe Wxes» iStittious 
 
 THE JOURNAL 
 
 OF A 
 
 VOYAGE TO LISBON 
 
\^Much legend has gathered round Hogarth's sketch 
 of Fielding, here copied from Basire's engraving in 
 Andrew Millar's edition of Fielding's " Works," 1762. 
 Arthur Murphy, the editor, says that Hogarth worked 
 from a profile cut in paper by a lady who is under- 
 stood to have been the Miss Margaret Collier who 
 accompanied Fielding to Lisbon (see note to p. 72, 
 /. 10). Another account (which M. de Slgur bor- 
 rowed for the basis of his coviedy, *' Le Portrait de 
 Fielding," 1800) says that Garrick "made up" like 
 his dead friend, and that Hogarth drew him. Both 
 these stories are flatly contradicted by Hogarth s com- 
 mentators. George Steevens (" Biographical Anecdotes 
 of Hogarth," 1781, /. 131) affirms that Garrick only 
 urged Hogarth to make the attempt ; John Ireland 
 ("Hogarth Illustrated," Hi. 291) that it was simply 
 a sketch from memory. Both Ireland and Steevens 
 had exceptional opportunities for knowing the truth. 
 Besides Hogarth s pen-and-ink, there are three other 
 likenesses of Fielding which claim to be authentic, i.e., 
 a miniature in Nicholses '■^Literary Anecdotes;" a 
 portrait in the Mineral Water Hospital at Bath, said 
 to have belonged to Ralph Allen ; and another exhibited 
 in the Giielph Exhibition of 1891 (No. 221). But 
 against all these must be set the cause which is stated 
 to have prompted Hogarth's sketch, namely, "that no 
 picture of Fielding was ever drawn " (Murphy s Essay, 
 " Works," \'jii2, i. 47) ; and it may be added that the 
 miniature is manifestly based on Hogarth.'l 
 
THE • JOURNAL • OF • A 
 VOYAGE -TO -LISBON -BY 
 HENRY- FIELDING -WITH • IN- 
 TRODUCTION • AND • NOTES 
 BY • AUSTIN • DOBSON 
 
 LONDON • PRINTED • AND • ISSUED • BY 
 CHARLES • WHITTINGHAM • & • CO • AT 
 THE • CHISWICK • PRESS • MDCCCXCII 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " We can with Pleasure inform the 
 Pubhc, that they will soon be greatly 
 entertained by a posthumous Piece of 
 the late Henry Fielding, Esq; entitled, 
 A Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon ; to 
 which, we hear, will be added, a Frag- 
 ment of his Answer to Lord Boling- 
 broke." This modest "puff preliminary" 
 appeared in the " Public Advertiser " for 
 Thursday,6th February, 1755, and shortly 
 afterwards was succeeded by the usual 
 publishers' rmtifications, the first of which 
 ran as follows : — 
 
 " On Tuesday the 25'* inst. will be 
 published, In One Volume Duodecimo, 
 Price 3s. bound, {Printed for the Benefit 
 of his Wife and Children) THE JOUR- 
 NAL of a Voyage to Lisbon. By the 
 
vi editor's introduction. 
 
 late Henry Fielding, Esq; To which 
 is added, A Fragment of his Answer to 
 Lord BoHngbroke. Sold by A. Millar 
 in the Strand." 
 
 This was issued on the 13th Februarj^ 
 and in -these terms the book continued 
 to be announced at intervals until Tues- 
 day the 25th, when the wording was 
 duly altered to " This Day is published." 
 The publisher was the same Andrew 
 Millar, Tonson's successor "at Shake- 
 spear's -Head over -against Katherine 
 Street in the Strand" who had published 
 " Joseph Andrews," " Tom Jones," and 
 " Amelia." As recently as January and 
 February, 1753, he had put forth Field- 
 ing's " Proposal for Making an Effectual 
 Provision for the Poor," and his " Clear 
 State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning " 
 (who by 1755 was satisfactorily trans- 
 ferred to His Majesty's Plantations) ; and 
 he was ultimately to publish "Fielding's 
 complete works. The " Journal " was re- 
 viewed in the " London Magazine " for 
 February ; in the " Gentleman's Maga- 
 
EDITORS INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 zine " for March ; and, briefly, in the 
 " Monthly Review " for the same month. 
 But whether it brought any material 
 emolument to " those innocents " ^ its 
 author had left behind, History, which 
 conceals so much, has not recorSd. 
 
 For the book itself, it purported to be 
 in the exact state in which Fielding had 
 left it. " It was thought proper, by the 
 friends of the deceased," says the " Dedi- 
 cation to the Public," "that this little 
 piece should come into your hands as 
 it came from the hands of the author." 
 Yet notwithstanding this explicit declara- 
 tion, a careful comparison of what is gene- 
 rally described as the first issue with the. 
 version which in 1762 was included in 
 Fielding's " Works," and remains to-day 
 the accepted text of the book, shows 
 that the first issue, if not " patch'd by a 
 different hand," was certainly conside- 
 rably " manipulated " by the suppression 
 or excision of a number of passages. 
 These, with the exception of a few lines 
 which reflect obliquely upon Fielding 
 
viii editor's introduction. 
 
 himself/ relate in the main to the cap- 
 tain of the ship, and to the captain's 
 nephew, a military coxcomb of the type 
 of Ensign Northerton.' There is also a 
 difference in the name of the landlady 
 who, to use Horace Walpole's flippant 
 phrase, " treated and teased " the sick 
 man's dropsy in the Isle of Wight. An 
 obvious inference from these last-men- 
 tioned omissions and variation would 
 doubtless be that, in 1755, the parties 
 concerned were still living ; and that, in a 
 volume for which the widest sale was de- 
 sired, it was, to say the least, inexpedient 
 to include matter which might give rise 
 to contention or expostulation. Indeed, 
 it may well be that Mrs. Fielding and 
 her daughter returned from Portugal in 
 the very ship that carried them out, a 
 circumstance which would make the 
 almost immediate publication of a book 
 containing satirical comments upon the 
 captain an ungracious and even un- 
 
 ' See note to p. 24, 1. 3. 
 
 " See notes to p. 145, 1. 4, and p. 175, 1. 10. 
 
EDITORS INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 generous act, especially as he was pro- 
 bably known personally to the nove- 
 list's brother John, who had carried out 
 the arrangements for the passage to 
 Lisbon." ' 
 
 This explanation of the existence of an 
 earlier and a shorter version than that in- 
 cluded among Fielding's complete works 
 is so plausible that, in the absence of 
 any more reasonable theory, it should 
 require but little persuasion to procure 
 its acceptance. Unluckily, it has been 
 discovered, during the progress of the 
 present reprint, that, besides the edition 
 hitherto regarded as the first, there exists 
 another, published by the same publisher, 
 and having the same date, dedication, 
 and title-page, but corresponding in all 
 respects with the longer version. When 
 was it issued from the press ? Upon this 
 question contemporary advertisements 
 throw no light ; and the only solution 
 which suggests itself is hypothetical. The 
 book, as reference to the " Public Adver- 
 ^ See p. 41, 1. 14. 
 
X editor's introduction. 
 
 tiser" shows, was freely advertised in 
 February and March, 1755. Then, for 
 some eight months, there is no mention 
 of it whatever, until, on the 4th December, 
 the advertisements again begin to appear 
 for a short time, in much the same terms 
 as before, the reference to Fielding's 
 family being the only thing omitted, and 
 " Printed " by Andrew Millar being sub- 
 stituted for " Sold." As to the reason 
 for this re-advertisement there need be no 
 long speculation. Onthe ist of November 
 had taken place the famous earthquake 
 at Lisbon. The contemporary magazines 
 and newspapers were full of references 
 to this " topical " subject, and Millar no 
 doubt saw in it an admirable pretext for 
 pushing the account of Fielding's voyage 
 to a place that was occupying so much 
 attention. The book had to be hastily 
 reprinted ; and as it had now probably 
 become his own property, he reprinted 
 it, not as it had been edited for the press, 
 but as it had been originally left in manu- 
 script by its author. It is, of course, com- 
 
editor's introduction. xi 
 
 patent for casuistry to contend that the 
 longer version was really the first ; that 
 it had been withdrawn upon objection ; 
 and that, until 1762, when it was again 
 issued in extenso, the shorter version con- 
 tinued to be sold. A certain colourable 
 support is given to this supposition by 
 the fact that an unauthorized edition, 
 published by James Hoey of Dublin, 
 follows, not the longer, but the shorter 
 version, which looks, at first sight, as if 
 the shorter version were the later. But 
 the Dublin reprint, seeing that it con- 
 tains a supplementary account of Lisbon 
 " as it stood before the ist of Nov. 
 1755," was plainly prompted by the 
 earthquake ; and, though dated 1756, 
 might really have been printed before 
 the longer version had found its way 
 over to Ireland. It might, in fact — 
 But to proceed further is to enter a 
 jungle of conjecture. Upon the whole, 
 the presumption that the longer version 
 succeeded the shorter is not only a 
 natural but a logical one ; and that it 
 
Xll EDITORS INTRODUCTION. 
 
 did so rather prematurely must be attri- 
 buted to the excitement of theearthquake.* 
 In both versions there is one thing 
 that deserves notice. From the longer 
 version we learn the captain's Christian 
 name, since his nephew addresses him 
 familiarly as " Dick " ; but in neither is 
 given his surname or the name of his 
 vessel. These particulars were for the first 
 time revealed by the publication, in Jesse's 
 " Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians," 1875, 
 of the following letter, now, as then, in the 
 collection of Mr. Locker-Lampson. It 
 
 ' Since this was first written, a close examina- 
 tion of contemporary reviews has supplied prac- 
 tical proof, if not of the whole of the above 
 hypothesis, at least of the priority of the shorter 
 version. The " Monthly Review " for March, 
 1755, says incidentally that the "Comment on 
 Bolingbroke " occupies twenty-seven pages. To 
 speak precisely, in the shorter version it occupies 
 twenty-seyen pages and a half (pp. 201-228) ; 
 but in the longer version it occupies only 
 twenty-two and a half (pp. 223-245). It is clear, 
 therefore, that as the book was first published 
 on the 25th February, 1755, the shorter version 
 was the one reviewed, and consequently is the 
 earlier. 
 
EDITORS INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 is' here printed from a collation made in 
 1883 with the MS., Mr. Jesse's version 
 being slightly inaccurate, though by read- 
 ing "that agreeable Lre" as "that agree- 
 able 10/.," he perhaps succeeded in 
 making it more in keeping with Field- 
 ing's traditional character : — 
 
 " On board the Queen of Portugal, Rich"" 
 Veal at anchor on the Mother Bank, 
 off Ryde, to the care of the Post 
 Master of Portsmouth — this is my 
 Date and y' Direction. 
 
 "July 12 1754 
 
 " Dear Jack, After receiving that agree- 
 able Lre from Mess". Fielding and C., 
 we weighed on monday morning and 
 sailed from Deal to the Westward Four 
 Days long but inconceivably pleasant 
 passage brought us yesterday to an 
 Anchor on the Mother Bank, on the 
 Back of the Isle of Wight, where we had 
 last Night in Safety the Pleasure of hear- 
 ing the Winds roar over our Heads in as 
 violent a Tempest as I have known, and 
 where my only Consideration were the 
 
xiv editor's introduction. 
 
 Fears which must possess any Friend of 
 ours, (if there is happily any such) who 
 really makes our Wellbeing the Object 
 of his Concern especially if such Friend 
 should be totally inexperienced in Sea 
 Affairs. I therefore beg that on the Day 
 you receive this M''. Daniel ' may know 
 that we are just risen from Breakfast in 
 Health and Spirits this twelfth Instant 
 at 9 in the morning. Our Voyage hath 
 proved fruitful in Adventures all which 
 being to be written in the Book you 
 must postpone y' Curiosity As the Inci- 
 dents which fall under y^ Cognizance 
 will possibly be consigned to Oblivion, 
 do give them to us as they pass. Tell 
 y' Neighbour I am much obliged to him 
 for recommending me to the care of a 
 most able and experienced Seaman to 
 whom other Captains seem to pay such 
 Deference that they attend and watch 
 his Motions, and think themselves only 
 
 • His mother-in-law, Mrs. Fielding's maiden 
 name having been Maiy Daniel (see note to p. 
 44, 1- 9)- 
 
editor's introduction. XV 
 
 safe when they act under his Direction 
 and Example.' Our Ship in Truth seems 
 to give Laws on the Water with as much 
 Authority and Superiority as you Dis- 
 pense Laws to the PubHc and Example 
 to y"" Brethren in Commission, Please to 
 direct y'' Answer to me on Board as in 
 the Date, if gone to be returned, and 
 then send it by the Post and Pacquet to 
 Lisbon to 
 
 " V affec'. Brother 
 
 "H. Fielding 
 
 " To John Fielding Esq. at his House 
 in Bow Street Cov' Garden London." 
 
 Fielding's letters are extremely rare, 
 and there is a good deal of minor informa- 
 tion in this one. It mentions his wife's 
 mother (who had probably remained in 
 charge of the little family at Fordhook) ; 
 it shows that the " Journal " was already 
 in contemplation, if not actually begun ; 
 it confirms the fact that John Fielding 
 
 ' This was probably the source of the passage 
 at p. 91,11. 7-12, which occurs in the shorter ver- 
 sion, but not in the longer. 
 
xvi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (and not Saunders Welch, as Boswell 
 says) was his brother's immediate suc- 
 cessor at Bow Street ; and, lastly, it inci- 
 dentally supplies the names of the ship and 
 of the captain thereof, to whose qualities 
 as a seaman is paid a compliment which 
 seems afterwards to have found its way 
 into the first issue of the book. Of 
 Richard Veal himself, no further particu- 
 lars are forthcoming. But it is worth notice 
 in passing that the name of the com- 
 mander of the " Inspector " Privateer, of 
 London, which was wrecked in the Bay 
 of Tangier, on the Coast of Barbary, the 
 4th of January, 1746, was also Richard 
 Veale, or Veal. He is not mentioned in 
 the list of unfortunates who, until they 
 were redeemed by the Crown in 1750, 
 remained to languish as slaves among 
 the Moors ; and it may well be that he 
 was not among the ninety-six who were 
 drowned, but among the few who effected 
 their escape.' If, therefore, the Richard 
 
 ' See the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1748, 
 1749, and 1751, and the "Ladies Magazine" 
 
editor's introduction, xvii 
 
 Veal who in 1754 carried Fielding to 
 Lisbon, and had been a privateer, be 
 identical with the commander of the 
 " Inspector," it is obvious that those 
 " moving incidents " of his past career 
 with which he occasionally regaled his 
 bunk-ridden passenger must, at times 
 have been well worth hearing.^ 
 
 From these exclusively bibliographical 
 considerations, it is time to turn to the 
 "Voyage to Lisbon" itself That it is 
 hot its author's masterpiece may be con- 
 ceded, and there are good reasons why 
 it should not be. Great works have be- 
 fore now been written in prisons ; and if 
 ever place of confinement came under 
 Johnson's definition of " a jail, with the 
 chance of being drowned," it must as- 
 suredly have been the good ship " Queen 
 of Portugal." But it may be questioned 
 
 for 1751, where is printed an "Address to the 
 Publick" by William Latton, Plenipotentiary 
 and Consul General from His Majesty to the 
 Emperor of Morocco, by whom the redemption 
 of these unhappy captives was at last effected. 
 ^ Cf. p. 193, 1. 24 et seq. 
 
 b 
 
xviu EDITORS INTRODUCTION. 
 
 if any masterpiece was ever produced, 
 in any place, under Fielding's bodily 
 conditions, and from so limited a stock 
 of material. We know that the admirable 
 introductory chapters of "The Anti- 
 quary " were written during an attack of 
 toothache ; that the " Legend of Mont- 
 rose" (with its inimitable Rittmaster) 
 was composed in acute pain. But in 
 neither of these cases was the author 
 doomed and dying. If one recalls for a 
 moment the wasted figure of the man 
 from whose ghastly aspect women and 
 children ffed at Fordhook ; who had so 
 completely lost the use of his limbs that 
 he had to be hoisted like a dead weight 
 over the ship's side at Rotherhithe, and 
 carried helplessly in a chair across the 
 treacherous mud flats at Ryde ; who was 
 enfeebled by disease, broken by want 
 of sleep, and embarrassed by every kind 
 of personal discomfort, it is marvellous 
 that he should have had the heart to put 
 pen to paper at all. Yet write he does, 
 and writes moreover in such a fashion 
 
editor's introduction. xix 
 
 that one almost forgets it is a dying person 
 who is speaking. That he was aware of 
 this himself he tells us at the outset : 
 that he remembered it always is plain 
 from a dozen quiet touches. He knew, 
 he says, when he left Fordhook that he 
 was quitting it for ever. Of a storm in 
 the Channel he observes that it would 
 have given no small alarm to a man 
 " who had either not learnt what it is to 
 die, or known what it is to be miserable.'' 
 Yet so indomitable is his gallantry of 
 spirit, so irrepressible his joy of life, so 
 insatiable still his "curious eye" for 
 humanity, that a fresh face or a new 
 sensation makes the old fire ilame up 
 once more, and he writes as if he had 
 not a care in the world. The reader has 
 no doubt remarked the extraordinary 
 sentence in the letter quoted above — 
 " We are just risen from Breakfast in 
 Health and Spirits ; " and even in the 
 discomforts of Ryde, he speaks of a 
 dinner in a barn " as the best, the plea- 
 santest, and the merriest meal, with more 
 
XX editor's introduction. 
 
 appetite, more real, solid luxury, and 
 more festivity, than was ever seen in an 
 entertainment at White's." Nor, not- 
 withstanding his unstimulating subject- 
 matter, has his hand by any means lost 
 its cunning. His portraits of Captain 
 Veal (especially when completed by the 
 passages at first suppressed), of Captain 
 Veal's nephew, of Farmer Francis and 
 his wife, of the "gentleman" at Gravesend 
 who was "a riding surveyor" — are by 
 no means unworthy of the hand which 
 drew Parson Abraham Adams, And 
 although much of this character-painting 
 is in the old ironic manner, which is, in a 
 sense, his natural speech, it is never 
 malignant. He is laughing, not at the 
 individual, but at the race in general ; 
 and he scarcely ever finishes his sketch 
 without a word to show that he is willing 
 to give his sitter the benefit of the smallest 
 good quality he possesses. He is merciless 
 to shams ; but, like Fotitenelle, he never 
 utters the least thing against the most in- 
 finitesimal virtue. Of his own sufferings 
 
editor's introduction. xxi 
 
 he says little, and then never to em- 
 phasize or exaggerate them ; but he is 
 infinitely compassionate to the temporary 
 ailment of his wife, for whose condition 
 he seems far more concerned than he is 
 for himself In short, if the "Voyage to 
 Lisbon" be not his best work, at least 
 it gives a picture of fortitude, of cheerful 
 patience, of manly endurance under trial, 
 which may be fairly described as un- 
 exampled in our literature. Many men 
 begin life as wildly and recklessly as 
 Henry Fielding, but not to many is it 
 given to end it as nobly as he did. He 
 expended his last energies in works of 
 philanthropy and benevolence ; almost 
 his last ink was shed in opposing the in- 
 fidel tenets of Bolingbroke ; and he went 
 to a foreign grave with the courage of 
 a hero and the dignity of a philosopher. 
 
 Austin Dobson. 
 
 Ealing, W., 
 March, 1892. 
 
THE 
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 OF A 
 
 VOYAGE to LISBON. 
 
[" We may read Fielding's character 
 clearly in his booksj/or it was not com- 
 plex, but especially in his 'Voyage to 
 Lisbon,' where he reveals it in artless 
 inadvertence." — Lowell's Democracy 
 and Other Addresses, 1887, p. 87.] 
 
THE 
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 O F A 
 
 VOYAGE to LISBON, 
 
 By the late 
 HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand. 
 MDCCLV. 
 
DEDICATION TO THE 
 PUBLIC. 
 
 Your candour is desired on the perusal 
 of the following sheets, as they are the 
 product of a genius that has long been 
 your delight and entertainment. It must 
 be acknowledged that a lamp almost 
 burnt out does not give so steady and 
 uniform a light, as when it blazes in its 
 full vigour ; but yet it is well known that, 
 by its wavering, as if struggling against 
 its own dissolution, it sometimes darts a 
 ray as bright as ever. In like manner, a 
 strong and lively genius will, in its last 
 struggles, sometimes mount aloft, and 
 throw forth the most striking marks of its 
 original lustre. 
 
 Wherever these are to be found, do 
 you, the genuine patrons of extraordinary 
 capacities, be as liberal in your applauses 
 of him who is now no more, as you were 
 of him whilst he was yet amongst you. 
 
4 DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 And, on the other hand, if in this little 
 work there should appear any traces of a 
 weaken'd and decay'd life, let your own 
 imaginations place before your eyes a true 
 picture, in that of a hand trembling in 
 almost its latest hour, of a body emaciated 
 with pains, yet struggling for your enter- 
 tainment ; and let this affecting picture 
 open each tender heart, and call forth a 
 melting tear, to blot out whatever failings 
 may be found in a work begun in pain, 
 and finished almost at the same period 
 with life. 
 
 It was thought proper, by the friends 
 of the deceased, that this little piece 
 should come into your hands as it came 
 from the hands of the author ; it being 
 judged that you would be better pleased 
 to have an opportunity of observing the 
 faintest traces of a genius you have long 
 admired, than have it patch'd by a diffe- 
 rent hand ; by which means the marks 
 of its true author might have been 
 effac'd. 
 
 That the success of this last written, 
 tho' first published volume, of the author's 
 posthumous pieces, may be attended with 
 some convenience to those innocents he 
 hath left behind, will, no doubt, be 
 
DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC. S 
 
 a motive to encourage its circulation 
 through the kingdom, which will engage 
 every future genius to exert itself for your 
 pleasure. 
 
 The principles and spirit which breathe 
 in every line of the small fragment begun 
 in answer to Lord Bolingbroke will un- 
 questionably be a sufficient apology for 
 its publication, altho' vital strength was 
 wanting to finish a work so happily begun 
 and so well designed. 
 
THE PREFACE. 
 
 There would not, perhaps, be a more 
 pleasant, or profitable study, among those 
 which have their principal end in amuse- 
 ment, than that of travels or voyages, if 
 they were writ, as they might be, and 
 ought to be, with a joint view to the en- 
 tertainment and information of mankind. 
 If the conversation of travellers be so 
 eagerly sought after as it is, we may be- 
 lieve their books will be still more agree- 
 able company, as they will, in general, be 
 more instructive and more entertaining. 
 But when I say the conversation of 
 travellers is usually so welcome, I must 
 be understood to mean that only of such 
 as have had good sense enough to apply 
 their peregrinations to a proper use, so as 
 to acquire from them a real and valuable 
 knowledge of men and things ; both 
 which are best known by comparison. 
 If the customs and manners of men were 
 every where the same, there would be no 
 
8 THE PREFACE. 
 
 office SO dull as that of a traveller : for the 
 difference of hills, valleys, rivers; in short, 
 the various views in which we may see 
 the face of the earth, would scarce afford 
 him a pleasure worthy of his labour ; 
 and surely it would give him very little 
 opportunity of communicating any kind 
 of entertainment or improvement to 
 others. 
 
 To make a traveller an agreeable com- 
 panion to a man of sense, it is necessary, 
 not only that he should have seen much, 
 but that he should have overlooked much 
 of what he hath seen. Nature is not, 
 any more than a great genius, always 
 admirable in her productions, and there- 
 fore the traveller, who may be called 
 her commentator, should not expect to 
 find every where subjects worthy of his 
 notice. 
 
 It is certain, indeed, that one may be 
 guilty of omission as well as of the oppo- 
 site extreme : but a fault on that side 
 will be more easily pardoned, as it is 
 better to be hungry than surfeited, and to 
 miss your dessert at the table of a man 
 whose gardens abound with the choicest 
 fruits, than to have your taste affronted 
 with every sort of trash that can be 
 
THE PREFACE. 9 
 
 pick'd up at the green-stall, or the wheel- 
 barrow. ' 
 
 If we should carry on the analogy be- 
 tween the traveller and the commentator, 
 it is impossible to keep one's eye a 
 moment off from the laborious much 
 read doctor Zachary Grey, of whose re- 
 dundant notes on Hudibras I shall only 
 say, that it is, I am confident, the single 
 book extant in which above five hundred 
 authors are quoted, not one of which 
 could be found in the collection of the 
 late doctor Mead. 
 
 As there are few things which a tra- 
 veller is to record, there are fewer on 
 which he is to offer his observations : this 
 is the office of the reader, and it is so 
 pleasant a one, that he seldom chuses to 
 have it taken from him, under the pre- 
 tence of lending him assistance. Some 
 occasions, indeed, there are, when proper 
 observations are pertinent, and others 
 when they are necessary ; but good sense 
 alone must point them out. I shall lay 
 down only one general rule, which I 
 believe to be of universal truth between 
 relator and hearer, as it is between author 
 and reader ; this is, that the latter never 
 forgive any observation of the former 
 
lO THE PREFACE. 
 
 which doth not convey some knowledge 
 that they are sensible they could not 
 possibly have attained of themselves. 
 
 But all his pains in collecting know- 
 ledge, all his judgment in selecting, and 
 all his art in communicating it, will not 
 sufifice, unless he can make himself, in 
 some degree, an agreeable, as well as an 
 instructive companion. The highest in- 
 struction we can derive from the tedious 
 tale of a dull fellow scarce ever pays us 
 for our attention. There is nothing, I 
 think, half so valuable as knowledge, and 
 yet there is nothing which men will give 
 themselves so little trouble to attain ; 
 unless it be, perhaps, that lowest degree 
 of it which is the object of curiosity, and 
 which hath therefore that active passion 
 constantly employed in its service. This, 
 indeed, it is in the power of every travel- 
 ler to gratify ; but it is the leading prin- 
 ciple in weak minds only. 
 
 To render his relation agreeable to the 
 man of sense, it is therefore necessary 
 that the voyager should possess several 
 eminent and rare talents ; so rare, indeed, 
 that it is almost wonderful to see them 
 ever united in the same person. 
 
 And if all these talents must concur in 
 
THE PREFACE. II 
 
 the relator, they are certainly in a more 
 eminent degree necessary to the writer : 
 for here the narration admits of higher 
 ornaments of stile, and every fact and 
 sentiment offers itself to the fullest and 
 most deliberate examination. 
 
 It would appear therefore, I think, 
 somewhat strange, if such writers as 
 these should be found extremely com- 
 mon ; since nature hath been a most 
 parsimonious distributer of her richest 
 talents, and hath seldom bestowed many 
 on the same person. But on the other 
 hand, why there should scarce exist a 
 single writer of this kind worthy our 
 regard ; and whilst there is no other 
 branch of history (for this is history) 
 which hath not exercised the greatest 
 pens, why this alone should be over- 
 looked by all men of great genius and 
 erudition, and delivered up to the Goths 
 and Vandals as their lawful property, is 
 altogether as difficult to determine. 
 
 And yet that this is the case, with 
 some very few exceptions, is most mani- 
 fest. Of these I shall willingly admit 
 Burnet and Addison; if the former was 
 not perhaps to be considered as a political 
 essayist, and the latter as a commentator 
 
12 THE PREFACE. 
 
 on the classics, rather than as a writer of 
 travels ; which last title perhaps they 
 would both of them have been least am- 
 bitious to affect. 
 
 Indeed if these two, and two or three 
 more, should be removed from the mass, 
 there would remain such a heap of dul- 
 ness behind, that the appellation of 
 voyage-writer would not appear very 
 desirable. 
 
 I am not here unapprized that old 
 Homer himself is by some considered as 
 a voyage-writer ; and indeed the begin- 
 ning of his Odyssey may be urged to 
 countenance that opinion, which I shall 
 not controvert. But whatever species of 
 writing the Odyssey is of, it is surely at' 
 the head of that species, as much as the 
 Iliad is of another ; and so far the excel- 
 lent Longinus would allow, I believe, at 
 this day. 
 
 But, in reality, the Odyssey, the Tele- 
 machus, and all of that kind, are to the 
 voyage-writing I here intend, what ro- 
 mance is to true history, the former being 
 the confounder and corrupter of the 
 latter. I am far from supposing, that 
 Homer, Hesiod, and the other antient 
 poets and mythologists, had any settled 
 
THE PREFACE. 1 3 
 
 design to pervert and confuse the records 
 of antiquity ; but it is certain they have 
 effected it ; and, for my part, I must 
 confess I should have honoured and 
 loved Homer more had he written a true 
 history of his own times in humble prose, 
 than those noble poems that have so 
 justly collected the praise of all ages ; 
 for though I read these with more ad- 
 miration and astonishment, I still read 
 Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, 
 with more amusement and more satis- 
 faction. 
 
 The original poets were not, however, 
 without excuse. They found the limits 
 of nature too strait for the immensity of 
 their genius, which they had not room to 
 exert, without extending fact by fiction ; 
 and that especially at a time when the 
 manners of men were too simple to afford 
 that variety, which they have since offered 
 in vain to the choice of the meanest 
 writers. In doing this, they are again 
 excusable for the manner in which they 
 have done it, 
 
 Ut speciosa dehinc miracula promant. 
 
 They are not indeed so properly said to 
 turn reality into fiction, as fiction into 
 
14 THE PREFACE. 
 
 reality. Theif paintings are so bold, 
 their colours so strong, that every thing 
 they touch seems to exist in the very 
 manner they represent it : their portraits 
 are so just, and their landscapes so beau- 
 tiful, that we acknowledge the strokes 
 of nature in both, without enquiring 
 whether nature herself, or her journey- 
 man the poet, formed the first pattern of 
 the piece. 
 
 But other writers (I will put Pliny 
 at their head) have no such pretensions 
 to indulgence : they lye for lying sake, 
 or in order insolently to impose the most 
 monstrous improbabilities and absurdi- 
 ties upon their readers on their own 
 authority ; treating them as some fathers 
 treat children, and as other fathers do 
 lay-men, exacting their belief of what- 
 ever they relate, on no other foundation 
 than their own authority, without ever 
 taking the pains of adapting their lies 
 to human credulity, and of calculating 
 them for the meridian of a common 
 understanding ; but with as much weak- 
 ness as wickedness, and with more im- 
 pudence often than either, they assert 
 facts contrary to the honour of God, to 
 the visible order of the creation, to the 
 
THE PREFACE. 1$ 
 
 known laws of nature, to the histories of 
 former ages, and to the experience of 
 our own, and which no man can at once 
 understand and believe. 
 
 If it should be objected (and it can no 
 where be objected better than where I 
 now write,' as there is no where more 
 pomp of bigotry) that whole nations have 
 been firm believers in such most absurd 
 suppositions ; I reply, the fact is not 
 true. They have known nothing of the 
 matter, and have believed they knew not 
 what. It is, indeed, with me no matter 
 of doubt, but that the pope and his clergy 
 might teach any of those Christian 
 Heterodoxies, the tenets of which are the 
 most diametrically opposite to their own ; 
 nay, all the doctrines of Zoroaster, Con- 
 fucius, and Mahomet, not only with cer- 
 tain and immediate success, but without 
 one catholick in a thousand knowing he 
 had changed his religion. 
 
 What motive a man can have to sit 
 down, and to draw forth a list of stupid, 
 senseless, incredible lies upon paper, 
 would be difficult to determine, did not 
 Vanity present herself so immediately 
 as the adequate cause. The vanity of 
 ^ At Lisbon. 
 
1 6 THE PREFACE. 
 
 knowing more than other men is, perhaps, 
 besides hunger, the only inducement to 
 writing, at least to publishing, at all : 
 why then should not the voyage-writer 
 be inflamed with the glory of having 
 seen what no man ever did or will see 
 but himself? This is the true source 
 of the wonderful, in the discourse and 
 writings, and sometimes, I believe, in the 
 actions of men. There is another fault 
 of a kind directly opposite to this, to 
 which these writers are sometimes liable, 
 when, instead of filling their pages with 
 monsters which no body hath ever seen, 
 and with adventures which never have 
 nor could possibly have happened to 
 them, they waste their time and paper 
 with recording things and facts of so 
 common a kind, that they challenge no 
 other right of being remembered, than 
 as they had the honour of having hap- 
 pened to the author, to whom nothing 
 seems trivial that in any manner happens 
 to himself. Of such consequence do his 
 own actions appear to one of this kind, 
 that he would probably think himself 
 guilty of infidelity, should he omit the 
 minutest thing in the detail of his journal. 
 That the fact is true, is sufficient to give 
 
THE PREFACE. 1/ 
 
 it a place there, without any considera- 
 tion whether it is capable of pleasing or 
 surprising, of diverting or informing the 
 reader. 
 
 I have seen a play (if I mistake not, 
 it is one of Mrs. Behn's, or of Mrs. 
 Centlivre's) v/here this vice in a voyage- 
 writer is finely ridiculed. An ignorant 
 pedant, to whose government, for I know 
 not what reason, the conduct of a young 
 nobleman in his travels is committed, 
 and who is sent abroad to shew My Lord 
 the world, of which he knows nothing 
 himself, before his departure from a town, 
 calls for his journal, to record the good- 
 ness of the wine and tobacco, with other 
 articles of the same importance, which 
 are to furnish the materials of a voyage 
 at his return home. The humour, it is 
 true, is here carried very far ; and yet, 
 perhaps, very little beyond what is to be 
 found in writers who profess no intention 
 of dealing in humour at all. 
 
 Of one or other or both of these kinds 
 are, I conceive, all that vast pile of books 
 which pass under the names of voyages, 
 travels, adventures, lives, memoirs, his- 
 tories, &c., some of which a single traveller 
 sends into the world in many volumes, 
 C 
 
1 8 THE PREFACE. 
 
 and others are, by judicious booksellers, 
 collected into vast bodies in folio, and 
 inscribed with their own names, as if 
 they were indeed their own travels ; thus 
 unjustly attributing to themselves the 
 merit of others. 
 
 Now from both these faults we have 
 endeavoured to steer clear in the follow- 
 ing narrative : which, however the con- 
 trary may be insinuated by ignorant, un- 
 learned, and fresh-water critics, who have 
 never travelled either in books or ships, 
 I do solemnly declare doth, in my 
 own impartial opinion, deviate less from 
 truth than any other voyage extant ; my 
 lord Anson's alone being, perhaps, ex- 
 cepted. 
 
 Some few embellishments must be al- 
 lowed to every historian : for we are not 
 to conceive that the speeches in Livy, 
 Sallust, or Thucydides, were literally 
 spoken in the very words in which we 
 now read them. It is sufficient that 
 every fact hath its foundation in truth, 
 as I do seriously aver is the case in the 
 ensuing pages ; and when it is so, a good 
 critic will be so far from denying all kind 
 of ornament of stile or diction, or even 
 of circumstance to his author, that he 
 
THE PREFACE. 1 9 
 
 would be rather sorry if he omitted it : 
 for he could hence derive no other advan- 
 tage than the loss of an additional plea- 
 sure in the perusal. 
 
 Again, if any merely common incident 
 should appear in this journal, which will 
 seldom, I apprehend, be the case, the 
 candid reader will easily perceive it is 
 not introduced for its own sake, but for 
 some observations and reflections natu- 
 rally resulting from it ; and which, if but 
 little to his amusement, tend directly to 
 the instruction of the reader, or to the in- 
 formation of the public ; to whom if I 
 chuse to convey such instruction or in- 
 formation with an air of joke and laughter, 
 none but the dullest of fellows will, I be- 
 lieve, censure it ; but if they should, I 
 have the authority of more than one 
 passage in Horace to alledge in my 
 defence. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to obviate 
 some censures to which a man, without 
 the gift of fore-sight, or any fear of the 
 imputation of being a conjurer, might 
 conceive this work would be liable, I 
 might now undertake a more pleasing 
 task, and fall at once to the direct and 
 positive praises of the work itself; of 
 
20 THE PREFACE. 
 
 which indeed I could say a thousand 
 good things : but the task is so very- 
 pleasant that I shall leave it wholly to 
 the reader ; and it is all the task that I 
 impose on him. A moderation for which 
 he may think himself obliged to me, 
 when he compares it with the conduct of 
 authors, who often fill a whole sheet with 
 their own praises, to which they some- 
 times set their own real names, and some- 
 times a fictitious one. One hint, however, 
 I must give the kind reader ; which is, 
 that if he should be able to find no sort 
 of amusement in the book, he will be 
 pleased to remember the public utility 
 which will arise from it. If enter- 
 tainment, as Mr. Richardson observes, 
 be but a secondary consideration in a 
 romance ; with which Mr. Addison I 
 think agrees, affirming the use of the 
 pastry-cook to be the first ; if this, I say, 
 be true of a mere work of invention, sure 
 it may well be so considered in a work 
 founded, like this, on truth ; and where 
 the political reflections form so distin- 
 guishing a part. 
 
 But perhaps I may hear, from some 
 critic of the most saturnine complexion, 
 that my vanity must have made a horrid 
 
THE PREFACE. 21 
 
 dupe of my judgment, if it hath flattered 
 me with an expectation of having any- 
 thing here seen in a grave light, or of 
 conveying any useful instruction to the 
 public, or to their guardians. I answer 
 with the great man, whom I just now 
 quoted, that my purpose is to convey in- 
 struction in the vehicle of entertainment ; 
 and so to bring about at once, like the 
 revolution in the Rehearsal, a perfect 
 reformation of the laws relating to our 
 maritime affairs : an undertaking, I will 
 not say more modest, but surely more 
 feasible, than that of reforming a whole 
 people, by making use of a vehicular 
 story, to wheel in among them worse 
 manners than their own. 
 
THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the beginning of August, 1753, when 
 I had taken the Duke of Portland's 
 medicine, as it is called, near a year, 
 the effects of which had been the carrying 
 off the symptoms of a lingering imperfect 
 gout, I was persuaded by Mr. Ranby, 
 the King's premier serjeant-surgeon, 
 and the ablest advice, I believe, in all 
 branches of the physical profession, to 
 go immediately to Bath. I accordingly 
 writ that very night to Mrs. Bowden, 
 who, by the next post, informed me she 
 had taken me a lodging for a month 
 certain. 
 
 Within a few days after this, whilst I 
 was preparing for my journey, and when 
 I was almost fatigued to death with 
 several long examinations, relating to 
 five different murders, all committed 
 within the space of a week, by diffe- 
 rent gangs of street robbers, I received 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a message from his Grace the Duke 
 of Newcastle, by Mr. Carrington, the 
 King's messenger, to attend his Grace in 
 Lincoln's-inn-fields, upon some business 
 of importance ; with which I imme- 
 diately complied ; when his Grace sent 
 a gentleman to discourse with me on the 
 best plan which could be invented for 
 putting an immediate end to those 
 murders and robberies which were every 
 day committed in the streets : upon 
 which, I promised to transmit my opinion, 
 in writing, to his Grace, who, as the 
 gentleman informed me, intended to lay 
 it before the privy council. 
 
 Tho' this visit cost me a severe cold, 
 I, notwithstanding, set myself down to 
 work, and in about four days sent the 
 Duke as regular a plan 4s I could form, 
 with all the reasons and arguments I 
 could bring to support it, drawn out in 
 several sheets of paper ; and soon re- 
 ceived a message from the Duke, by 
 Mr. Carrington, acquainting me, that my 
 plan was highly approved of, and that 
 all the terms of it would be complied 
 with. 
 
 The principal and most material of 
 those terms was the immediately de- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 positing ^600 in my hands ; at which 
 small charge I undertook to demolish 
 the then reigning gangs, and to put the 
 civil policy into such order, that no such 
 gangs should ever be able, for the future, 
 to form themselves into bodies, or at 
 least to remain any time formidable to 
 the public. 
 
 I had delayed my Bath-journey for 
 some time, contrary to the repeated ad- 
 vice of my physical acquaintance, and to 
 the ardent desire of my warmest friends, 
 tho' my distemper was now turned to a 
 deep jaundice ; in which case the Bath- 
 waters are generally reputed to be almost 
 infallible. But I had the most eager de- 
 sire of demolishing this gang of villains 
 and cut-throats, which I was sure of ac- 
 complishing the moment I was enabled 
 to pay a fellow who had undertaken, for 
 a small sum, to betray them into the 
 hands of a set of thief-takers whom I 
 had enlisted into the service, all men of 
 known and approved fidelity and in- 
 trepidity. 
 
 After some weeks the money was paid 
 at the Treasury, and within a few days 
 after £200 of it had come to my hands 
 the wl^ole gang of cut-throats was entirely 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dispersed, seven of them were in actual 
 custody, and the rest driven, some out of 
 town, and others out of the kingdom. 
 
 Tho' my health was now reduced to 
 the last extremity, I continued to act 
 with the utmost vigour against these 
 villains ; in examining whom, and in 
 taking the depositions against them, I 
 have often spent whole days, nay some- 
 times whole nights, especially when there 
 was any difficulty in procuring sufficient 
 evidence to convict them ; which is a very 
 common case in street-robberies, even 
 when the guilt of the party is sufficiently 
 apparent to satisfy the most tender con- 
 science. But courts of justice know no- 
 thing of a cause more than what is told 
 them on oath by a witness ; and the 
 most flagitious villain upon earth is tried 
 in the same manner as a man of the 
 best character, who is accused of the same 
 crime. 
 
 Mean while, amidst all my fatigues 
 and distresses, I had the satisfaction to 
 find my endeavours had been attended 
 with such success, that this hellish society 
 were almost utterly extirpated, and that, 
 instead of reading of murders and street- 
 robberies in the news, almost every 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2/ 
 
 morning, there was, in the remaining 
 part of the month of November, and in 
 all December, not only no such thing as 
 a murder, but not even a street-robbery 
 committed. Some such, indeed, were 
 mentioned in the public papers ; but they 
 were all found, on the strictest enquiry, 
 to be false. 
 
 In this entire freedom from street- 
 robberies, during the dark months, no 
 man will, I believe, scruple to acknow- 
 ledge, that the winter of 1753 stands 
 unrival'd, during a course of many years ; 
 and this may possibly appear the more 
 extraordinary to those who recollect the 
 outrages with which it began. 
 
 Having thus fully accomplished my 
 undertaking, I went into the country in 
 a very weak and deplorable condition, 
 with no fewer or less diseases than a 
 jaundice, a dropsy, and an asthma, alto- 
 gether uniting their forces in the destruc- 
 tion of a body so entirely emaciated, that 
 it had lost all its muscular flesh. 
 
 Mine was now no longer what is called 
 a Bath case ; "nor, if it had been so, had 
 I strength remaining sufficient to go 
 thither, a ride of six miles only being at- 
 tended with an intolerable fatigue. I 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now discharged my lodgings at Bath, 
 which I had hitherto kept. I began, in 
 earnest, to look on my case as desperate, 
 and I had vanity enough to rank myself 
 with those heroes who, of old times, be- 
 came voluntary sacrifices to the good of 
 the public. 
 
 But, lest the reader should be too 
 eager to catch at the word vanity, and 
 should be unwilling to indulge me with 
 so sublime a gratification, for I think he 
 is not too apt to gratify me, I will take 
 my key a pitch lower, and will frankly 
 own that I had a stronger motive than 
 the love of the public to push me on : I 
 will therefore confess to him, that my 
 private affairs at the beginning of the 
 winter had but a gloomy aspect ; for I 
 had not plundered the public or the poor 
 of those sums which men, who are always 
 ready to plunder both as much as they 
 can, have been pleased to suspect me of 
 taking : on the contrary, by composing, 
 instead of inflaming, the quarrels of por- 
 ters and beggars (which I blush when I 
 say hath not been universally practised) 
 and by refusing to take a shilling from a 
 man who most undoubtedly would not 
 have had another left, I had reduced an 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 income of about £soo ' a year of the 
 dirtiest money upon earth, to little more 
 than ;£^300 ; a considerable proportion of 
 which remained with my clerk ; and in- 
 
 ' A predecessor of mine used to boast that he 
 made ;£iooo a year in his office : but how he did 
 this, if indeed he did it, is to me a secret. His 
 clerk, now mine, told me I had more business 
 than he had ever known there ; I am sure I 
 had as much as any man could do. The truth 
 is, the fees are so very low, when any are due, 
 and so much is done for nothing, that if a single 
 justice of peace had business enough to employ 
 twenty clerks, neither he nor they would get 
 much by their labour. The public will not there- 
 fore, I hope, think I betray a secret when I in- 
 form them, that I received from the government 
 a yearly pension out of the public service-money ; 
 which I believe indeed would have been larger, 
 had my great patron been convinced of an 
 error, which I have heard him utter more than 
 once, That he could not indeed say, that the 
 acting as a principal justice of peace in West- 
 minster was on all accounts very desirable, but 
 that all the world knew it was a very lucrative 
 office. Now to have shewn him plainly, that a 
 man must be a rogue to make a very little this 
 way, and that he could not make much by being 
 as great a rogue as he could be, would have 
 required more confidence than I believe he had 
 in me, and more of his conversation than he 
 chose to allow me ; I therefore resigned the 
 office, and the farther execution of my plan to 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 deed if the whole had done so, as it 
 ought, he would be but ill paid fpr sitting 
 almost sixteen hours in the twenty-four, 
 in the most unwholesome, as well as 
 nauseous air in the universe, and which 
 hath in his case corrupted a good consti- 
 tution without contaminating his morals. 
 But, not to trouble the reader with 
 anecdotes, contrary to my own rule laid 
 down in my preface, I assure him I 
 thought my family was very slenderly 
 provided for ; and that my health began 
 to decline so fast, that I had very little 
 more of life left to accomplish what I 
 had thought of too late. I rejoiced there- 
 fore greatly in seeing an opportunity, as 
 I apprehended, of gaining such merit in 
 the eye of the public, that if my life were 
 the sacrifice to it, my friends might think 
 they did a popular act in putting my 
 family at least beyond the reach of neces- 
 sity, which I myself began to despair of 
 doing. And tho' I disclaim all pretence 
 to that Spartan or Roman patriotism, 
 
 my brother, who had long been my assistant. 
 And now, lest the case between me and the 
 reader should be the same in both instances as 
 it was between me and the great man, I will 
 not add another word on the subject. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 which loved the public so well that it 
 was always ready to become a voluntary 
 sacrifice to the public good, I do solemnly 
 declare I have that love for my family. 
 
 After this concession therefore, that 
 the public was not the principal Deity 
 to which my life was offered a sacrifice, 
 and when it is farther considered what a 
 poor sacrifice this was, being indeed no 
 other than the giving up what I saw little 
 likelihood of being able to hold much 
 longer, and which, upon the terms I held 
 it, nothing but the weakness of human 
 nature could represent to me as worth 
 holding at all ; the world may, I believe, 
 without envy, allow me all the praise to 
 which I have any title. 
 
 My aim, in fact, was not praise, which 
 is the last gift they care to bestow ; at 
 least this was not my aim as an end, but 
 rather as a means, of purchasing some 
 moderate provision for my family, which, 
 tho' it should exceed my merit, must fall 
 infinitely short of my service, if I suc- 
 ceeded in my attempt. 
 
 To say the truth, the public never act 
 more wisely, than when they act most 
 liberally in the distribution of their re- 
 wards ; and here the good they receive 
 
32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is often more to be considered than the 
 motive from which they receive it. Ex- 
 ample alone is the end of all public 
 punishments and rewards. Laws never 
 inflict disgrace in resentment, nor confer 
 honour from gratitude. For it is very- 
 hard, my lord, said a convicted felon at 
 the bar to the late excellent judge Bur- 
 net, to hang a poor man for stealing a 
 horse. You are not to be hanged. Sir, 
 answered my ever-honoured and beloved 
 friend, for stealing a horse, but you are 
 to be hanged that horses may not be 
 stolen. In like manner it might have 
 been said to the late duke of Marl- 
 borough, when the parliament was so 
 deservedly liberal to him, after the battle 
 of Blenheim, You receive not these 
 honours and bounties on account of a vic- 
 tory past, but that other victories may be 
 obtained. 
 
 I was now, in the opinion of all men, 
 dying of a complication of disorders ; 
 and, were I desirous of playing the ad- 
 vocate, I have an occasion fair enough : 
 but I disdain such an attempt. I relate 
 facts plainly and simply as they are ; and 
 let the world draw from them what con- 
 clusions they please, taking with them 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 the following facts for their instruction. 
 The one is, That the proclamation offer- 
 ing ;£'ioo for the apprehending felons for 
 certain felonies committed in certain 
 places, which I prevented from being re- 
 vived, had formerly cost the government 
 several thousand pounds within a single 
 year. Secondly, That all such procla- 
 mations, instead of curing the evil, had 
 actually increased it ; had multiplied the 
 number of robberies ; had propagated 
 the worst and wickedest of perjuries ; 
 had laid snares for youth and ignorance ; 
 which, by the temptation of these re- 
 wards, had been sometimes drawn into 
 guilt ; and sometimes, which cannot be 
 thought on without the highest \horror, 
 had destroyed them without it. Thirdly, 
 That my plan had not put the govern- 
 ment to more than ;£"300 expence, and 
 had produced none of the ill consequences 
 above-mentioned ; but, lastly. Had ac- 
 tually suppressed the evil for a time, and 
 had plainly pointed out the means of 
 suppressing it for ever. This I would 
 myself have undertaken, had my health 
 permitted, at the annual expence of the 
 above-mentioned sum. 
 
 After having stood the terrible six 
 D 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 weeks which succeeded last Christ- 
 mas, and put a lucky end, if they had 
 known their own interests, to such num- 
 bers of aged and infirm valetudina- 
 rians, who might have gasped through 
 two or three mild winters more, I re- 
 turned to town in February, in a condi- 
 tion less despaired of by myself than by 
 any of my friends. I now became the 
 patient of Dr. Ward, who wished I had 
 taken his advice earlier. 
 
 By his advice I was tapped, and four- 
 teen quarts of water drawn from my belly. 
 The sudden relaxation which this caused, 
 added to my enervate, emaciated habit 
 of body, so weakened me, that within 
 two days I was thought to be falling into 
 the agonies of death. 
 
 I was at the worst on that memorable 
 day when the public lost Mr. Pelham. 
 From that day I began slowly, as it were, 
 to draw my feet out of the grave ; till in 
 two months time I had again acquired 
 some little degree of strength ; but was 
 again full of water. 
 
 During this whole time, I took Mr. 
 Ward's medicines, which had seldom any 
 perceptible operation. Those in parti- 
 cular of the diaphoretic kind, the work- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 ing of which is thought to require a great 
 strength of constitution to support, had 
 so little effect on me, that Mr. Ward de- 
 clared it was as vain to attempt sweating 
 me as a deal board. 
 
 In this situation I was tapped a second 
 time. I had one quart of water less taken 
 from me now than before ; but I bore all 
 the consequences of the operation much 
 better. This I attributed greatly to a 
 dose of laudanum prescribed by my sur- 
 geon. It first gave me the most de- 
 licious flow of spirits, and afterwards as 
 comfortable a nap. 
 
 The month of May, which was now 
 begun, it seemed reasonable to expect 
 would introduce the spring, and drive off 
 that winter which yet maintained its foot- 
 ing on the stage. I resolved therefore 
 to visit a little house of mine in the 
 country, which stands at Ealing, in the 
 county of Middlesex, in the best air, I 
 believe, in the whole kingdom, and far 
 superior to that of Kensington Gravel- 
 Pits ; for the gravel is here much wider 
 and deeper, the place higher and more 
 open towards the south, whilst it is 
 guarded from the north wind by a ridge 
 of hills, and from the smells and smoke 
 
36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of London by its distance ; which last is 
 not the fate of Kensington, when the 
 wind blows from any corner of the east. 
 
 Obligations to Mr. Ward I shall always 
 confess ; for I am convinced that he 
 omitted no care in endeavouring to serve 
 me, without any expectation or desire of 
 fee or reward. 
 
 The powers of Mr. Ward's remedies 
 want indeed no unfair puffs of mine to 
 give them credit ; and tho' this distemper 
 of the dropsy stands, I believe, first in 
 the list of those over which he is always 
 certain of triumphing; yet, possibly, there 
 might be something particular in my case, 
 capableof eluding that radical force which 
 had healed so many thousands. The same 
 distemper, in different constitutions, may 
 possibly be attended with such different 
 symptoms, that to find an infallible nos- 
 trum for the curing any one distemper in 
 every patient, may be almost as difficult 
 as to find a panacea for the cure of all. 
 
 But even such a panacea one of the 
 greatest scholars and best of men did 
 lately apprehend he had discovered. It 
 is true, indeed, he was no physician ; that 
 is, he had not by the forms of his educa- 
 tion acquired a right of applying his skill 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 in the art of physic to his own private ad- 
 vantage ; and yet, perhaps, it may be 
 truly asserted, that no other modern hath 
 contributed so much to make his physical 
 skill useful to the public ; at least, that 
 none hath undergone the pains of com- 
 municating this discovery in writing to 
 the world. The reader, I think, will scarce 
 need to be informed that the writer I mean 
 is the late bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland, 
 and the discovery, that of the virtues of 
 tar-water. 
 
 I then happened to recollect, upon a 
 hint given me by the inimitable author 
 of the Female Quixote, that I had 
 many years before, from curiosity only, 
 taken a cursory view of bishop Berkeley's 
 treatise on the virtues of tar-water, which 
 I had formerly observed he strongly con- 
 tends to be that real panacea whichSyden- 
 ham supposes to have an existence in 
 nature, tho' it yet remains undiscovered, 
 and, perhaps, will always remain so. 
 
 Upon the re-perusal of this book I 
 found the bishop only asserting his 
 opinion, that tar-water might be useful 
 in the dropsy, since he had known it to 
 have a surprizing success in the cure of a 
 most stubborn anasarca, which is indeed 
 
38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 no other than, as the word implies, the 
 dropsy of the flesh ; and this was, at that 
 time, a large part of my complaint. 
 
 After a short trial, therefore, of a milk 
 diet, which I presently found did not suit 
 with my case, I betook myself to the 
 bishop's prescription, and dosed myself 
 every morning and evening with half a 
 pint of tar-water. 
 
 It was no more than three weeks since 
 my last tapping, and my belly and limbs 
 were distended with water. This did not 
 give me the worse opinion of tar-water : 
 for I never supposed there could be any 
 such virtue in tar-water, as immediately 
 to carry off a quantity of water already 
 collected. For my delivery from this, I 
 well knew I must be again obliged to the 
 trochar ; and that if the tar-water did me 
 any good at all, it must be only by the 
 slowest degrees ; and that if it should 
 ever get the better of my distemper, it 
 must be by the tedious operation of 
 undermining, and not by a sudden attack 
 and storm. 
 
 Some visible effects, however, and far 
 beyond what my most sanguine hopes 
 could with any modesty expect, I very 
 soon experienced ; the tar-water having, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 from the very first, lessened my illness, 
 increased my appetite, and added, though 
 in a very slow proportion, to my bodily 
 strength. 
 
 But if my strength had increased a 
 little, my water daily increased much 
 more. So that, by the end of May, my 
 belly became again ripe for the trochar, 
 and I was a third time tapped ; upon 
 which two very favourable symptoms 
 appeared. I had three quarts of water 
 taken from me less than had been taken 
 the last time ; and I bore the relaxation 
 with much less (indeed with scarce any) 
 faintness. 
 
 Those of my physical friends, on whose 
 judgment I chiefly depended, seemed to 
 think my only chance of life consisted in 
 having the whole summer before me ; in 
 which I might hope to gather sufficient 
 strength to encounter the inclemencies 
 of the ensuing winter. But this chance 
 began daily to lessen. I saw the summer 
 mouldering away, or rather, indeed, the 
 year passing away without intending to 
 bring on any summer at all. In the 
 whole month of May the sun scarce ap- 
 peared three times. So that the early 
 fruits came to the fulness of their growth. 
 
40 INTRODUCTIOTsT. 
 
 and to some appearance of ripeness, with- 
 out acquiring any real maturity ; having 
 wanted the heat of the sun to soften and 
 meliorate their juices. I saw the dropsy 
 gaining rather than losing ground ; the 
 distance growing still shorter between the 
 tappings. I saw the asthma likewise 
 beginning again to become more trouble- 
 some. I saw the midsummer quarter 
 drawing towards a close. So that I con- 
 ceived, if the Michaelmas quarter should 
 steal off in the same manner, as it was, 
 in my opinion, very much to be appre- 
 hended it would, I should be delivered 
 up to the attacks of winter, before I re- 
 cruited my forces, so as to be any wise 
 able to withstand them. 
 
 I , now began to recal an intention, 
 which from the first dawnings of my 
 recovery I had conceiv'd, of removing to 
 a warmer climate ; and finding this to be 
 approv'd of by a very eminent physician, 
 I resolved to put it into immediate exe- 
 cution. 
 
 Aix in Provence was the place first 
 thought on ; but the difficulties of get- 
 ting thither were insuperable. The 
 journey by land, beside the expence of 
 it, was infinitely too long and fatiguing ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 4I 
 
 and I could hear of no ship that was 
 likely to set out from London, within 
 any reasonable time for Marseilles, or 
 any other port in that part of the Medi- 
 terranean. 
 
 Lisbon was presently fixed on in its 
 room. The air here, as it was near 
 four degrees to the south of Aix, must 
 be more mild and warm, and the winter 
 shorter and less piercing. 
 
 It was not difficult to find a ship bound 
 to a place with which we carry on so 
 immense a trade. Accordingly, my bro- 
 ther soon informed me of the excellent 
 accommodations for passengers, which 
 were to be found on board a ship that 
 was obliged to sail for Lisbon in three 
 days. 
 
 I eagerly embraced the offer, notwith- 
 standing the shortness of the time ; and 
 having given my brother full power to 
 contract for our passage, I began to pre- 
 pare my family for the voyage with the 
 utmost expedition. 
 
 But our great haste was needless ; for 
 the captain having twice put off his sail- 
 ing, I at length invited him to dinner 
 with me at Fordhook, a full week after 
 the time on which he had declared, and 
 
42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that with many asseverations, he must, 
 and would, weigh anchor. 
 
 He dined with me, according to his 
 appointment ; and when all matters were 
 settled between us, left me with positive 
 orders to be on board the Wednesday 
 following ; when he declared he would 
 fall down the river to Gravesend ; and 
 would not stay a moment for the greatest 
 man in the world. 
 
 He advised me to go to Gravesend by 
 land, and there wait the arrival of his 
 ship ; assigning many reasons for this, 
 every one of which was, as I well remem- 
 ber, among those that had before deter- 
 mined me to go on board near the 
 Tower. 
 
THE 
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 OF A 
 
 VOYAGE TO LISBON. 
 
 Wednesday, June 26, 1754. 
 On this day, the most melancholy sun 
 I had ever beheld arose, and found me 
 awake at my house at Fordhook. By 
 the light of this sun, I was, in my own 
 opinion, last to behold and take leave of 
 some of those creatures on whom I doated 
 with a mother-like fondness, guided by 
 nature and passion, and uncured and un- 
 hardened by all the doctrine of that phi- 
 losophical school where I had learnt to 
 bear pains and to despise death. 
 
 In this situation, as I could not con- 
 quer nature, I submitted entirely to her, 
 and she made as great fool of me as 
 she had ever done of any woman what- 
 soever : under pretence of giving me 
 leave to enjoy, she drew me in to suffer 
 
44 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 the company of my little ones, during 
 eight hours ; and I doubt not whether, in 
 that time, I did not undergo more than 
 in all my distemper. 
 
 At twelve precisely my coach was at 
 the door, which was no sooner told me 
 than I kiss'd my children round, and 
 went into it with some little resolution. 
 My wife, who behaved more like a 
 heroine and philosopher, tho' at the same 
 time the tenderest mother in the world, 
 and my eldest daughter, followed me ; 
 some friends went with us, and others 
 here took their leave ; and I heard my 
 behaviour applauded, with many mur- 
 murs and praises to which I well knew I 
 had no title ; as all other such philo- 
 sophers may, if they have any modesty, 
 confess on the like occasions. 
 
 In two hours we arrived in Redriffe, 
 and immediately went on board, and 
 were to have sailed the next morning ; 
 but as this was the king's proclamation- 
 day, and consequently a holiday at 
 the Custom-house, the captain could not 
 clear his vessel till the Thursday ; for 
 these holidays are as strictly observed 
 as those in the popish calendar, and are 
 almost as numerous. I might add, that 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 45 
 
 both are opposite to the genius of trade, 
 and consequently contra bonu7n publicum. 
 
 To go on board the ship it was neces- 
 sary first to go into a boat ; a matter of 
 no small difficulty, as I had no use of 
 my limbs, and was to be carried by men, 
 who tho' sufficiently strong for their bur- 
 deij, were, like Archimedes, puzzled to 
 find a steady footing. Of this, as few of 
 my readers have not gone into wherries 
 on the Thames, they will easily be able 
 to form to themselves an idea. However, 
 by the assistance of my friend Mr. 
 Welch, whom I never think or speak of 
 but with love and esteem, I conquered 
 this difficulty, as I did afterwards that of 
 ascending the ship, into which I was 
 hoisted with more ease by a chair lifted 
 with pullies. I was soon seated in a 
 great chair in the cabin, to refresh my- 
 self after a fatigue which had been more 
 intolerable, in a quarter of a mile's pas- 
 sage from my couch to the ship, than I 
 had before undergone in a land-journey 
 of twelve miles, which I had travelled 
 with the utmost expedition. 
 
 This latter fatigue was, perhaps, some- 
 what heightened by an indignation which 
 I could not prevent arising in my mind. 
 
46 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 I think, upon my entrance into the boat, 
 I presented a spectacle of the highest 
 horror. The total loss of limbs was ap- 
 parent to all who saw me, and my face 
 contained marks of a most diseased state, 
 if not of death itself. Indeed so ghastly 
 was my countenance, that timorous women 
 with child had abstained from my house, 
 for fear of the ill consequences of looking 
 at me. In this condition, I ran the gaunt- 
 lope, (so, I think I may justly call it) 
 through rows of sailors and watermen, 
 few of whom failed of paying their com- 
 pliments to me, by all manner of insults 
 and jests on my misery. No man who 
 knew me will think I conceived any per- 
 sonal resentment at this behaviour ; but 
 it was a lively picture of that cruelty and 
 inhumanity, in the nature of men, which 
 I have often contemplated with concern ; 
 and which leads the mind into a train 
 of very uncomfortable and melancholy 
 thoughts. It may be said, that this bar- 
 barous custom is peculiar to the English, 
 and of them only to the lowest degree ; 
 that it is an excrescence of an uncon- 
 troul'd licentiousness mistaken for liberty, 
 and never shews itself in men who are 
 polish'd and refin'd, in such manner as 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 47 
 
 human nature requires, to produce that 
 perfection of which it is susceptible, and 
 to purge away that malevolence of dis- 
 position, of which, at our birth, we par- 
 take in common with the savage creation. 
 
 This may be said, and this is all that 
 can be said ; and it is, I am afraid, but 
 little satisfactory to account for the in- 
 humanity of those, who, while they boast 
 of being made after God's own image, 
 seem to bear in their minds a resemblance 
 of the vilest species of brutes ; or rather, 
 indeed, of our idea of devils : for I don't 
 know that any brutes can be taxed witlT 
 such malevolence. 
 
 A surloin of beef was now placed on 
 the table, for which, tho' little better than 
 carrion, as much was charged by the 
 master of the little paltry alehouse who 
 dressed it, as would have been demanded 
 for all the elegance of the King's Arms, 
 or any other polite tavern, or eating- 
 house ; for indeed the difference between 
 the best house and the worst is, that at 
 the former you pay largely for luxury, at 
 the latter for nothing. 
 
 Thursday, June 27. This morning the 
 captain, who lay on shore at his own 
 house, paid us a visit in the cabin ; and 
 
48 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 after having express'd his concern at the 
 impossibility of sailing so soon as he ex- 
 pected, hoped we would excuse delay, 
 which he could not foresee, but assured 
 us he would certainly fall down the river 
 on Saturday. This indeed was no small 
 mortification to me ; for, besides the dis- 
 agreeable situation in which we then lay, 
 in the confines of Wapping and Redrifife, 
 tasting a delicious mixture of the air of 
 both these sweet places, and enjoying 
 the concord of sweet sounds of seamen, 
 watermen, fish-women, oyster- women, and 
 of all the vociferous inhabitants of both 
 shores, composing altogether a greater 
 variety of harmony than Hogarth's ima- 
 gination hath brought together in that 
 print of his, which is enough to make 
 a man deaf to look at ; I had a more 
 urgent cause to press our departure, which 
 was, that the dropsy, for which I had 
 undergone three tappings, seemed to 
 threaten me with a fourth discharge be- 
 fore I should reach Lisbon, and when I 
 should have no body on board capable 
 of performing the operation : but I was 
 obliged to hearken to the voice of reason, 
 if I may use the captain's own words, 
 and to rest myself contented. Indeed 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 49 
 
 there was no alternative within my reach, 
 but what would have cost me much too 
 dear. 
 
 There are many evils in society, from 
 which people of the highest rank are so 
 entirely exempt, that they have not the 
 least knowledge or idea of them ; nor 
 indeed of the characters which are formed 
 by them. Such, for instance, is the con- 
 veyance of goods and passengers from one 
 place to another. Now there is no such 
 thing as any kind of knowledge contemp- 
 tible in itself; and as the particular 
 knowledge I here mean is entirely neces- 
 sary to the well understanding and well 
 enjoying this journal ; and, lastly, as in 
 this case the most ignorant will be those 
 very readers whose amusement we chiefly 
 consult, and to whom we wish to be sup-? 
 posed principally to write, we will here 
 enter somewhat largely into the discus- 
 sion of this matter ; the rather, for that 
 no antient or modern author (if we can 
 trust the catalogue of Dr. Mead's library) 
 hath ever undertaken it ; but that it 
 seems (in the stile of Don Quixote) a task 
 reserved for my pen alone. 
 
 When I first conceived this intention, 
 I began to entertain thoughts of inquir- 
 E 
 
50 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 ing into the antiquity of travelling : and, 
 as many persons have performed in this 
 way (I mean have travelled) at the ex- 
 pence of the public, I flattered myself 
 that the spirit of improving arts and 
 sciences, and of advancing useful and 
 substantial learning, which so eminently 
 distinguishes this age, and hath given rise 
 to more speculative societies in Europe 
 than I at present can recollect the names 
 of ; perhaps indeed than I or any other, 
 besides their very near neighbours, ever 
 heard mentioned, would assist in pro- 
 moting so curious a work : A work 1 
 begun with the same views, calculated for 
 the same purposes, and fitted for the 
 same uses, with the labours which those 
 right honourable societies have so cheer- 
 fully undertaken themselves, and en- 
 couraged in others ; sometimes with the 
 highest honours, even with admission 
 into their colleges, and with inrolment 
 among their members. 
 
 From these societies I promised my- 
 self all assistance in their power, parti- 
 cularly the communication of such valu- 
 able manuscripts and records as they 
 must be supposed to have collected from 
 those obscure ages of antiquity, when 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. Si 
 
 history yields us such imperfect accounts 
 of the residence, and much more imper- 
 fect, of the travels of the human race ; 
 unless, perhaps, as a curious and learned 
 member of the young society of antiqua- 
 rians is said to have hinted his con- 
 jectures, that their residence and their 
 travels were one and the same ; and 
 this discovery (for such it seems to be) 
 he is said to have owed to the lighting by 
 accident on a book, which we shall have 
 occasion to mention presently, the con- 
 tents of which were then little known to 
 the society. 
 
 The King of Prussia, moreover, who, 
 from a degree of benevolence and taste 
 which in either case is a rare production 
 in so northern a climate, is the great 
 encourager of art and science, I was well 
 assured would promote so useful a de- 
 sign, and order his archives to be searched 
 in my behalf. 
 
 But, after well weighing all these ad- 
 vantages, and much meditation on the 
 order of my work, my whole design was 
 subverted in a moment, by hearing of the 
 discovery just mentioned to have been 
 made by the young antiquarian, who 
 from the most antient record in the 
 
52 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 world, (tho' I don't find the society are 
 all agreed in this point) one long pre- 
 ceding the date of the earliest modern 
 collections, either of books or butterflies, 
 none of which pretend to go beyond the 
 flood, shews us, that the first man was a 
 traveller, and that he and his family were 
 scarce settled in Paradise, before they 
 disliked their own home, and became 
 passengers to another place. Hence it 
 appears, that the humour of travelling is 
 as old as the human race, and that it was 
 their curse from the beginning. 
 
 By this discovery my plan became 
 much shortened, and I found it only 
 necessary to treat of the conveyance of 
 goods and passengers from place to place ; 
 which not being universally known, 
 seemed proper to be explained, before 
 we examined into its original. There 
 are, indeed, two different ways of tracing 
 all things, used by the historian and the 
 antiquary ; these are upwards, and down- 
 wards. The former shews you how 
 things are, and leaves to others to dis- 
 cover when they began to be so. The 
 latter shews you how things were, and 
 leaves their present existence to be ex- 
 amined by others. Hence the former is 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 53 
 
 more useful, the latter more curious. The 
 former receives the thanks of mankind, 
 the latter of that valuable part, the vir- 
 tuosi. 
 
 In explaining, therefore, this mystery 
 of carrying goods and passengers from 
 one place to another, hitherto so pro- 
 found a secret to the very best of our 
 readers, we shall pursue the historical 
 method, and endeavour to shew by what 
 means it is at present performed, re- 
 ferring the more curious enquiry either 
 to some other pen, or to some other 
 opportunity. 
 
 Now there are two general ways of 
 performing (if God permit) this convey- 
 ance ; viz. by land and water, both of 
 which have much variety ; that by land 
 being performed in different vehicles, 
 such as coaches, caravans, waggons, &c. 
 and that by water in ships, barges, and 
 boats, of various sizes and denomina- 
 tions. But as all these methods of con- 
 veyance are formed on the same princi- 
 ples, they agree so well together, that it 
 is fully sufficient to comprehend them all 
 in the general view, without descending 
 to such minute particulars as would dis- 
 tinguish one method from another. 
 
54 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 Common to all of these is one general 
 principle, that as the goods to be con- 
 veyed are usually the larger, so they are 
 to be chiefly considered in the convey- 
 ance ; the owner being indeed little more 
 than an appendage to his trunk, or box, 
 or bale, or at best a small part of his own 
 baggage, very little care is to be taken in 
 stowing or packing them up with con- 
 venience to himself : for the conveyance 
 is not of passengers and goods, but of 
 goods and passengers. 
 
 Secondly, From this conveyance arises 
 a new kind of relation, or rather of sub- 
 jection in the society ; by which the pas- 
 senger becomes bound in allegiance to 
 his conveyer. This allegiance is indeed 
 only temporary and local, but the most 
 absolute during its continuance of any 
 known in Great-Britain, and, to say 
 truth, scarce consistent with the liberties 
 of a free people ; nor could it be recon- 
 ciled with them, did it not move down- 
 wards, a circumstance universally appre- 
 hended to be incompatible to all kinds 
 of slavery. For Aristotle, in his Poli- 
 ticks, hath proved abundantly to my 
 satisfaction, that no men are born to be 
 slaves, except barbarians ; and these only 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 55 
 
 to such as are not themselves barbarians : 
 and indeed Mr. Montesquieu hath car- 
 ried it very little farther, in the case of 
 the Africans ; the real truth being, that 
 no man is born to be a slave, unless to him 
 who is able to make him so. 
 
 Thirdly, This subjection is absolute, 
 and consists of a perfect resignation both 
 of body and soul to the disposal of an- 
 other ; after which resignation, during a 
 certain time, his subject retains no more 
 power over his own will, than an Asiatic 
 slave, or an English wife, by the laws 
 of both countries, and by the customs of 
 one of them. If I should mention the 
 instance of a stage-coachman, many of 
 my readers would recognize the truth of 
 what I have here observed ; all indeed, 
 that ever have been under the dominion 
 of that tyrant, who, in this free country, 
 is as absolute as a Turkish Bashaw. In 
 two particulars only his power is defec- 
 tive ; he cannot press you into his ser- 
 vice, and if you enter yourself at one 
 place, on condition of being discharged 
 at a certain time at another, he is obliged 
 to perform his agreement, if God permit : 
 but, all the intermediate time, you are 
 absolutely under his government ; he 
 
S6 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 carries you how he will, when he will, 
 and whither he will, provided it be not 
 much out of the road ; you have nothing 
 to eat, or to drink, but what, and when, 
 and where he pleases. Nay, you cannot 
 sleep, unless he pleases you should ; for 
 he will order you sometimes out of bed 
 at midnight, and hurry you away at a 
 moment's warning : indeed, if you can 
 sleep in his vehicle, he cannot prevent it ; 
 nay, indeed, to give him his due, this he 
 is ordinarily disposed to encourage ; for 
 the earlier he forces you to rise in the 
 morning, the more time he will give you 
 in the heat of the day, sometimes even 
 six hours at an alehouse, or at their 
 doors, where he always gives you the 
 same indulgence which he allows him- 
 self; and for this he is generally very- 
 moderate in his demands. I have known 
 a whole bundle of passengers charged no 
 more than half a crown for being suffered 
 to remain quiet at an alehouse door, for 
 above a whole hour, and that even in the 
 hottest day in summer. 
 
 But as this kind of tyranny, tho' it 
 hath escaped our political writers, hath 
 been, I think, touched by our dramatic, 
 and is more trite among the generality of 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 57 
 
 readers ; and as this and all other kinds 
 of such subjection are alike unknown to 
 my friends, I will quit the passengers by 
 land, and treat of those who travel by 
 water : for whatever is said on this sub- 
 ject is applicable to both alike, and we 
 may bring them together as closely as 
 they are brought in the liturgy, when 
 they are recommended to the prayers of 
 all Christian congregations ; and (which 
 I have often thought very remarkable) 
 where they are joined with other miser- 
 able wretches, such as, women in labour, 
 people in sickness, infants just born, 
 prisoners and captives. 
 
 Goods and passengers are conveyed 
 by water in divers vehicles, the principal 
 of which being a ship, it shall suffice to 
 mention that alone. Here the tyrant 
 doth not derive his title, as the stage- 
 coachman doth, from the vehicle itself, 
 in which he stows his goods and passen- 
 gers, but he is called the captain ; a word 
 of such various use and uncertain signi- 
 fication, that it seems very difficult to fix 
 any positive idea to it : if indeed there 
 be any general meaning which may com- 
 prehend all its different uses, that of the 
 head, or chief, of any body of men, seems 
 
58 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 to be most capable of this comprehen- 
 sion ; for whether they be a company of 
 soldiers, a crew of sailors, or a gang of 
 rogues, he who is at the head of them is 
 always stiled the captain. 
 
 The captain, whose fortune it was to 
 stow us aboard, laid a farther claim to 
 this appellation than the bare command 
 of a vehicle of conveyance. He had been 
 the captain of a privateer, which he 
 looked upon as being in the king's ser- 
 vice ; and in this capacity he had gained 
 great honour, having distinguished his 
 bravery in some very warm engagements, 
 for which he had justly received public 
 thanks ; and from hence he derived a 
 right of hoisting the military ornament 
 of a cockade over the button of his hat, 
 and of wearing a sword of no ordinary 
 length. 
 
 Now, as I saw myself in danger from 
 these unavoidable delays, and as the 
 wind had been long nested, as it were, in 
 the south-west, where it constantly blew 
 hurricanes, I began with great reason to 
 apprehend that our voyage might be long, 
 and that my belly, which began already 
 to be much extended, would require the 
 water to be let out at a time when no 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 59 
 
 assistance was at hand ; though indeed, 
 the captain comforted me with assurances, 
 that he had a pretty young fellow on 
 board, who acted as his surgeon, as I 
 found he likewise did as steward, cook, 
 butler, sailor. In short, he had as many 
 offices as Scrub in the play, and went 
 through them all with great dexterity : 
 this of surgeon, was, perhaps, the only 
 one in which his skill was somewhat 
 deficient, at least that branch of tapping 
 for the dropsy ; for he very ingenuously 
 and modestly confessed, he had never 
 seen the operation performed, nor was 
 possessed of that chirurgical instrument 
 with which it is performed. 
 
 Friday, June 28. By way of prevention, 
 therefore, I this day sent for my friend 
 Mr. Hunter, the great surgeon and ana- 
 tomist of Covent-garden ; and, though 
 my belly was not yet very full and tight, 
 let out ten quarts of water, the young 
 sea-surgeon attending the operation, not 
 as a performer, but as a student. 
 
 I was now eased of the greatest appre- 
 hension which I had from the length of 
 the passage ; and I told the captain, I 
 was become indifferent as to the time of 
 his sailing. He expressed much satis- 
 
6o JOURNAL OF A 
 
 faction in this declaration, and at hearing 
 from me, that I found myself, since my 
 tapping, much lighter and better. In 
 this, I believe, he was sincere ; for he 
 was, as we shall have occasion to observe 
 more than once, a very good-natured 
 man ; and as he was a very brave one 
 too, I found that the heroic constancy, 
 with which I had born an operation that 
 is attended with scarce any degree of 
 pain, had not a little raised me in his 
 esteem. That he might adhere, there- 
 fore, in the most religious and rigorous 
 manner to his word, he ordered his ship 
 to fall down to Gravesend on Sunday 
 morning, and there to wait his arrival, 
 
 Sunday, June 30. Nothing worth notice 
 pass'd till that morning, when my poor 
 wife, after passing a night in the utmost 
 torments of the tooth-ach, resolved to 
 have it drawn. I dispatched, therefore, 
 a servant into Wapping, to bring, in 
 haste, the best toothdrawer he could find. 
 He soon found out a female of great 
 eminence in the art ; but when he brought 
 her to the boat, at the water-side, they 
 were informed that the ship was gone ; 
 for, indeed, she had set out a few minutes 
 after his quitting her ; nor did the pilot, 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 6 1 
 
 who well knew the errand on which I 
 had sent my servant, think fit to wait a 
 moment for his return, or to give me any 
 notice of his setting out. 
 
 But of all the petty bashaws, or tur- 
 bulent tyrants I ever beheld, this sour- 
 faced pilot was the worst tempered ; for, 
 during the time that he had the guidance 
 of the ship, which was till we arrived in 
 the Downs, he complied with no one's 
 desires, nor did he give a civil word, or, 
 indeed, a civil look to any on board. 
 
 The toothdrawer, who, as I said before, 
 was one of great eminence among her 
 neighbours, refused to follow the ship ; 
 so that my man made himself the best 
 of his way, and, with some difficulty, 
 came up with us before we were got 
 under full sail ; for, after that, as we had 
 both wind and tide with us, he would 
 have found it impossible to overtake the 
 ship, till she was come to an anchor at 
 Gravesend. 
 
 The morning was fair and bright, and 
 we had a passage thither, I think, as 
 pleasant as can be conceiv'd ; for, take 
 it with all its advantages, particularly the 
 number of fine ships you are always sure 
 of seeing by the way, there is nothing to 
 
62 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 equal it in all the rivers of the world. 
 The yards of Deptford and of Woolwich 
 are noble sights ; and give us a just idea 
 of the great perfection to which we are 
 arrived in building those floating castles, 
 and the figure which we may always 
 make in Europe among the other mari- 
 time powers. That of Woolwich, at 
 least, very strongly imprinted this idea 
 on my mind ; for, there was now on the 
 stocks there the Royal Anne, supposed 
 to be the largest ship ever built, and 
 which contains ten carriage guns more 
 than had ever yet equipped a first rate. 
 
 It is true, perhaps, that there is more 
 of ostentation than of real utility, in 
 ships of this vast and unwieldy burthen, 
 which are rarely capable of acting against 
 an enemy ; but if the building such con- 
 tributes to preserve, among other nations, 
 the notion of the British superiority in 
 naval affairs, the expence, though very 
 great, is well incurred, and the ostenta- 
 tion is laudable and truly political. In- 
 deed I should be sorry to allow that 
 Holland, France or Spain, possessed a 
 vessel larger and more beautiful than the 
 largest and most beautiful of ours ; for 
 this honour I would always administer 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 63 
 
 to the pride of our sailors, who should 
 challenge it from all their neighbours 
 with truth and success. And sure I am, 
 that not our honest tars alone, but every 
 inhabitant of this island, may exult in 
 the comparison, when he considers the 
 king of Great - Britain as a maritime 
 prince, in opposition to any other prince 
 in Europe ; but I am not so certain that 
 the same idea of superiority will result 
 from comparing our land-forces with 
 those of many other crowned heads. In 
 numbers, they all far exceed us, and in 
 the goodness and splendor of their troops, 
 many nations, particularly the Germans 
 and French, and perhaps the Dutch, cast 
 us at a distance ; for however we may 
 flatter ourselves with the Edwards and 
 Henrys of former ages, the change of 
 the whole art of war since those days, by 
 which the advantage of personal strength 
 is, in a manner, entirely lost, hath pro- 
 duced a change in military affairs to the 
 advantage of our enemies. As for our 
 successes in later days, if they were not 
 entirely owing to the superior genius of 
 our general, they were not a little due to 
 the superior force of his money. Indeed, 
 if we should arraign marshal Saxe of 
 
64 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 ostentation, when he shewed his army, 
 drawn up, to our captive general, the 
 day after the battle of La Val, we cannot 
 say that the ostentation was entirely 
 vain ; since he certainly shewed him an 
 army, which had not been often equalled, 
 either in the number or goodness of the 
 troops, and which, in those respects, so 
 far exceeded ours, that none can ever 
 cast any reflection on the brave young 
 prince who could not reap the laurels 
 of conquest in that day ; but his retreat 
 will be always mentioned as an addition 
 to his glory. 
 
 In our marine the case is entirely the 
 reverse, and it must be our own fault if 
 it doth not continue so ; for, continue so 
 it will, as long as the flourishing state of 
 our trade shall support it ; and this sup- 
 port it can never want, till our legislature 
 shall cease to give sufficient attention to 
 the protection of our trade, and our 
 magistrates want sufficient power, ability^ 
 and honesty to execute the laws : a cir- 
 cumstance not to be apprehended, as it 
 cannot happen, till our senates and our 
 benches shall be filled with the blindest 
 ignorance, or with the blackest corrup- 
 tion. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 65 
 
 Besides the ships in the docks, we saw 
 many on the water: the yachts are sights 
 of great parade, and the king's body 
 yacht is, I beHeve, unequalled in any 
 country, for convenience as well as mag- 
 nificence ; both which are consulted in 
 building and equipping her with the 
 most exquisite art and workmanship. 
 
 We saw likewise several Indiamen just 
 returned from their voyage. These are, 
 I believe, the largest and finest vessels 
 which are any where employed in com- 
 mercial affairs. The colliers, likewise, 
 which are very numerous, and even as- 
 semble in fleets, are ships of great bulk ; 
 and, if we descend to those used in the 
 American, African, and European trades, 
 and pass through those which visit our 
 own coasts, to the small craft that ly 
 between Chatham and the Tower, the 
 whole forms a most pleasing object to 
 the eye, as well as highly warming to the 
 heart of an Englishman, who has any 
 degree of love for his country, or can 
 recognize any effect of the patriot in his 
 constitution. 
 
 Lastly, the Royal Hospital of Green- 
 wich, which presents so delightful a front 
 to the water, and doth such honour at 
 F 
 
66 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 once to its builder and the nation, to the 
 great skill and ingenuity of the one, and 
 to the no less sensible gratitude of the 
 other, very properly closes the account 
 of this scene ; which may well appear 
 romantic to those who have not them- 
 selves seen, that, in this one instance, 
 truth and reality are capable, perhaps, of 
 exceeding the power of fiction. 
 
 When we had past by Greenwich, we 
 saw only two or three gentlemens houses, 
 all of very moderate account, till we 
 reached Gravesend ; these are all on the 
 Kentish shore, which affords a much 
 drier, wholsomer and pleasanter situa- 
 tion, than doth that of its opposite, 
 Essex. This circumstance, I own, is 
 somewhat surprising to me, when I re- 
 flect on the numerous villas that crowd 
 the river, from Chelsea upwards as far as 
 Shepperton, where the narrower channel 
 affords not half so noble a prospect, and 
 where the continual succession of the 
 small craft, like the frequent repetition 
 of all things, which have nothing in them 
 great, beautiful, or admirable, tire the 
 eye, and give us distaste and aversion 
 instead of pleasure. With some of these 
 situations, such as Barnes, Mortlake, &c. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 6j 
 
 even the shore of Essex might contend, 
 not upon very unequal terms ; but, on 
 the Kentish borders, there are many- 
 spots to be chosen by the builder, which 
 might justly claim the preference over 
 almost the very finest of those in Middle- 
 sex and Surry. 
 
 How shall we account for this de- 
 pravity in taste ? for, surely, there are 
 none so very mean and contemptible, as 
 to bring the pleasure of seeing a number 
 of little wherries, gliding along after one 
 another, in competition with what we 
 enjoy, in viewing a succession of ships, 
 with all their sails expanded to the winds, 
 bounding over the waves before us. 
 
 And here I cannot pass by another 
 observation on the deplorable want of 
 taste in our enjoyments, which we shew 
 by almost totally neglecting the pursuit 
 of what seems to me the highest degree 
 of amusement : this is, the sailing our- 
 selves in little vessels of our own, con- 
 trived only for our ease and accommoda- 
 tion, to which such situations of our 
 villas, as I have recommended, would be 
 so convenient and even necessary. 
 
 This amusement, I confess, if enjoyed 
 in any perfection, would be of the ex- 
 
68 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 pensive kind ; but such expence would 
 not exceed the reach of a moderate for- 
 tune, and would fall very short of the 
 prices which are daily paid for pleasures 
 of a far inferior rate. The truth, I be- 
 lieve, is, that sailing in the manner I 
 have just mentioned, is a pleasure rather 
 unknown, or unthought of, than rejected 
 by those who have experienced it ; un- 
 less, perhaps, the apprehension of danger, 
 or sea-sickness, may be supposed, by the 
 timorous and delicate, to make too large 
 deductions ; insisting, that all their en- 
 joyments shall come to them pure and 
 unmixed, and being ever ready to cry 
 out, 
 
 " Nocet empt4 dolore voluptas." 
 
 This, however, was my present case ; 
 for the ease and lightness which I felt 
 from my tapping, the gaiety of the 
 morning, the pleasant sailing with wind 
 and tide, and the many agreeable objects 
 with which I was constantly entertained 
 during the whole way, were all sup- 
 pressed and overcome by the single con- 
 sideration of my wife's pain, which con- 
 tinued incessantly to torment her till we 
 came to an anchor, when I dispatched a 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 6g 
 
 messenger in great haste, for the best 
 reputed operator in Gravesend. A sur- 
 geon of some eminence now appeared, 
 who did not decline tooth-drawing, tho' 
 he certainly would have been offended 
 with the appellation of tooth-drawer, no 
 less than his brethren, the members of 
 that venerable body, would be with that 
 of barber, since the late separation be- 
 tween those long united companies, by 
 which, if the surgeons have gained much, 
 the barbers are supposed to have lost 
 very little. 
 
 This able and careful person (for so I 
 sincerely believe he is) after examining 
 the guilty tooth, declared, that it was 
 such a rotten shell, and so placed at the 
 very remotest end of the upper jaw, 
 where it was, in a manner, covered and 
 secured by a large, fine, firm tooth, that 
 he despaired of his power of drawing it. 
 
 He said, indeed, more to my wife, and 
 used more rhetoric to dissuade her from 
 having it drawn, than is generally em- 
 ployed to persuade young ladies, to pre- 
 fer a pain of three moments to one of 
 three months continuance ; especially, if 
 those young ladies happen to be past 
 forty or fifty years of age, when, by sub- 
 
70 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 mitting to support a racking torment, 
 the only good circumstance attending 
 which is, 'tis so short, that scarce one in 
 a thousand can cry out, I feel it, they 
 are to do a violence to their charms, and 
 lose one of those beautiful holders, with 
 which alone Sir Courtly Nice declares, 
 a lady can ever lay hold of his heart. 
 
 He said at last so much, and seemed 
 to reason so justly, that I came over to 
 his side, and assisted him in prevailing 
 on my wife (for it was no easy matter) 
 to resolve on keeping her tooth a little 
 longer, and to apply to palliatives only 
 for relief. These were opium applied to 
 the tooth, and blisters behind the ears. 
 
 Whilst we were at dinner this day, in 
 the cabin, on a sudden the window on 
 one side was beat into the room, with a 
 crash, as if a twenty-pounder had been 
 discharged among us. We were all 
 alarmed at the suddenness of the acci- 
 dent, for which, however, we were soon 
 able to account : for the sash, which was 
 shivered all to pieces, was pursued into 
 the middle of the cabin by the bowsprit 
 of a little ship, called a cod-smack, the 
 master of which made us amends for 
 running (carelesly at best) against us, 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 7 1 
 
 and injuring the ship, in the sea way ; 
 that is to say, by damning us all to hell, 
 and uttering several pious wishes that it 
 had done us much more mischief. All 
 which were answered in their own kind 
 and phrase by our men ; between whom, 
 and the other crew, a dialogue of oaths 
 and scurrility was carried on, as long as 
 they continued in each other's hearing. 
 
 It is difficult, I think, to assign a satis- 
 factory reason why sailors in general 
 should, of all others, think themselves 
 entirely discharged from the common 
 bands of humanity, and should seem to 
 glory in the language and behaviour of 
 savages ? They see more of the world, 
 and have, most of them, a more erudite 
 education, than is the portion of land 
 men of their degree. Nor do I believe 
 that in any country they visit (Holland 
 itself not excepted) they can ever find a 
 parallel to what daily passes on the river 
 Thames. Is it that they think true 
 courage (for they are the bravest fellows 
 upon earth) inconsistent . with all the 
 gefitleness of a humane carriage, and 
 that the contempt of civil order springs 
 up in minds but little cultivated at the 
 same time, and from the same principles. 
 
72 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 with the contempt of danger and death ? 
 
 Is it ? In short, it is so ; and how 
 
 it comes to be so, I leave to form a 
 question in the Robin Hood society, or 
 to be propounded for solution among 
 the senigmas in the Woman's Almanack 
 for the next year. 
 
 Monday, July i. This day Mr. Welch 
 took his leave of me after dinner, as did 
 a young lady of her sister, who was 
 proceeding with my wife to Lisbon. 
 They both set out together in a post- 
 chaise for London 
 
 Soon after their departure, our cabin, 
 where my wife and I were sitting to- 
 gether, was visited by two ruffians, whose 
 appearance greatly corresponded with 
 that of the sheriff's, or rather the knight 
 marshal's bailiffs. One of these, espe- 
 cially, who seemed to affect a more than 
 ordinary degree of rudeness and inso- 
 lence, came in without any kind of cere- 
 mony, with a broad gold lace on his hat, 
 which was cocked with much military 
 fierceness on his head. An inkhorn at 
 his button-hole, and some papers in his 
 hand, sufficiently assured me what he 
 was, and I asked him if he and his com- 
 panion were not custom-house officers ; 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 73 
 
 he answered with sufficient dignity, that 
 they were, as an information which he 
 seemed to conclude would strike the 
 hearer with awe, and suppress all further 
 inquiry ; but, on the contrary I proceeded 
 to ask of what rank he was in the Cus- 
 tom-house, and receiving an answer from 
 his companion, as I remember, that the 
 gentleman was a riding surveyor ; I re- 
 plied that he might be a riding surveyor, 
 but could be no gentleman, for that none 
 who had any title to that denomination, 
 would break into the presence of a lady, 
 without any apology, or even moving his 
 hat. He then took his covering from his 
 head, and laid it on the table, saying, he 
 asked pardon, and blamed the mate, who 
 should, he said, have informed him if any 
 persons of distinction were below. I 
 told him, he might guess by our appear- 
 ance (which, perhaps, was rather more 
 than could be said with the strictest 
 adherence to truth) that he was before a 
 gentleman and lady, which should teach 
 him to be very civil in his behaviour, 
 the' we should not happen to be of that 
 number whom the world calls people of 
 fashion and distinction. However, I said, 
 that as he seemed sensible of his error. 
 
74 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 and had asked pardon, the lady would 
 permit him to put his hat on again, if he 
 chose it. This he refused with some 
 degree of surliness, and failed not to 
 convince me that, if I should condescend 
 to become more gentle, he would soon 
 grow more rude. 
 
 I now renewed a reflection, which I 
 have often seen occasion to make, that 
 there is nothing so incongruous in nature 
 as any kind of power, with lowness of 
 mind and of ability ; and that there is no- 
 thing more deplorable than the want of 
 truth in the whimsical notion of Plato ; 
 who tells us that " Saturn, well knowing 
 the state of human affairs, gave us kings 
 and rulers, not of human, but divine 
 original : for as we make not shepherds 
 of sheep, nor oxherds of oxen, nor goat- 
 herds of goats ; but place some of our 
 own kind over all, as being better and 
 fitter to govern them : in the same man- 
 ner, were demons by the Divine Love, 
 set over us, as a race of beings of a 
 superior order to men ; and who with 
 great ease to themselves, might regulate 
 our affairs, and establish peace, modesty, 
 freedom and justice ; and, totally de- 
 stroying all sedition, might complete the 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 75 
 
 happiness of the human race. So far, at 
 least, may even now be said with truth, 
 that in all states which are under the 
 government of mere man, without any- 
 divine assistance, there is nothing but 
 labour and misery to be found. From 
 what I have said, therefore, we may at 
 least learn, with our utmost endeavours 
 to imitate the Saturnian institution ; bor- 
 rowing all assistance from our immortal 
 part, while we pay to this the strictest 
 obedience, we should form both our pri- 
 vate ceconomy, and public policy, from 
 its dictates. By this dispensation of our 
 immortal minds, we are to establish a 
 law, and to call it by that name. But if 
 any government be in the hands of a 
 single person, of the few, or of the many ; 
 and such governor or governors shall 
 abandon himself or themselves to the 
 unbridled pursuit of the wildest pleasures 
 or desires, unable to restrain any passion, 
 but possessed with an insatiable bad 
 disease ; if such shall attempt to govern, 
 and at the same time to trample on all 
 laws, there can be no means of preserva- 
 tion left for the wretched people." Plato 
 de Leg. lib. 4./. 713. c. yi/\. edit. Serrani. 
 It is true that Plato is here treating 
 
^(> JOURNAL OF A 
 
 of the highest or sovereign power in a 
 state ; but it is as true, that 'his observa- 
 tions are general, and may be applied to 
 all inferior powers : and, indeed, every 
 subordinate degree is immediately de- 
 rived from the highest ; and as it is 
 equally protected by the same force, and 
 sanctified by the same authority, is alike 
 dangerous to the well-being of the subject. 
 
 Of all powers, perhaps, there is none 
 so sanctified and protected, as this which 
 is under our present consideration. So 
 numerous, indeed, and strong are the 
 sanctions given to it by many acts of 
 parliament, that having once established 
 the laws of customs on merchandize, it 
 seems to have been the sole view of the 
 legislature to strengthen the hands, and 
 to protect the persons of the officers, who 
 became established by those laws ; many 
 of whom are so far from bearing any re- 
 semblance to the Saturnian institution, 
 and to be chosen from a degree of beings 
 superior to the rest of human race, that 
 they sometimes seem industriously picked 
 out of the lowest and vilest orders of 
 mankind. 
 
 There is, indeed, nothing so useful to 
 man in general, nor so beneficial to par- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. "JJ 
 
 ticular societies and individuals, as trade. 
 This is that alma mater, at whose plenti- 
 ful breast all mankind are nourished. It 
 is true, like other parents, she is not 
 always equally indulgent to all her chil- 
 dren ; but the' she gives to her favourites 
 a vast proportion of redundancy and 
 superfluity, there are very few whom she 
 refuses to supply with the conveniencies, 
 and none with the necessaries of life. 
 
 Such a benefactress as this must natu- 
 rally be beloved by mankind in general ; 
 it would be wonderful, therefore, if her 
 interest was not considered by them, and 
 protected from the fraud and violence of 
 some of her rebellious offspring, who 
 coveting more than their share, or more 
 than she thinks proper to allow them, are 
 daily employed in meditating mischief 
 against her, and in endeavouring to steal 
 from their brethren those shares which 
 this great alma mater had allowed them. 
 
 At length our Governor came on 
 board, and about six in the evening we 
 weighed anchor, and fell down to the 
 Nore, whither our passage was extremely 
 pleasant, the evening being very delight- 
 ful, the moon just past the full, and both 
 wind and tide favourable to us. 
 
78 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 Tuesday, July 2. This morning we 
 again set sail, under all the advantages 
 we had enjoy'd the evening before : this 
 day we left the shore of Essex, and 
 coasted along Kent, passing by the 
 pleasant island of Thanet, which is an 
 island, and that of Sheppey, which is not 
 an island ; and about three o'clock, the 
 wind being now full in our teeth, we came 
 to an anchor in the Downs, within two 
 miles of Deal. My wife, having suiifered 
 intolerable pain from her tooth, again re- 
 newed her resolution of having it drawn, 
 and another surgeon was sent for from 
 Deal, but with no better success than the 
 former. He likewise declined the opera- 
 tion, for the same reason which had been 
 assigned by the former : however, such 
 was her resolution, backed with pain, 
 that he was obliged to make the attempt, 
 which concluded more in honour of his 
 judgment, than of his operation ; for 
 after having put my poor wife to inex- 
 pressible torment, he was obliged to leave 
 her tooth in statu quo; and she had 
 now the comfortable prospect of a long 
 fit of pain, which might have lasted her 
 her whole voyage, without any possibility 
 of relief. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 79 
 
 In these pleasing sensations, of which 
 I had my just share, nature, overcome 
 with fatigue, about eight in the evening 
 resign'd her to rest ; a circumstance 
 which would have given me some happi- 
 ness, could I have known how to employ 
 those spirits which were raised by it : 
 but unfortunately for me, I was left in a 
 disposition of enjoying an agreeable 
 hour, without the assistance of a com- 
 panion, which has always appeared to 
 me necessary to such enjoyment ; my 
 daughter and her companion were both 
 retired sea-sick to bed ; the other pas- 
 sengers were a rude schoolboy of four- 
 teen years old, and an illiterate Portu- 
 guese friar, who understood no language 
 but his own, in which I had not the least 
 smattering. The captain was the only 
 person left, in whose conversation I might 
 indulge myself; but unluckily for me, 
 besides his knowledge being chiefly con- 
 fined to his profession, he had the mis- 
 fortune of being so deaf, that to make 
 him hear my words, I must run the 
 risque of conveying them to the ears of 
 my wife, who, tho' in another room 
 (called, I think, the state-room ; being in- 
 deed a most stately apartment capable 
 
80 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 of containing one human body in length, 
 if not very tall, and three bodies in 
 breadth) lay asleep within a yard of me. 
 In this situation necessity and choice 
 were one and the same thing ; the cap- 
 tain and I sat down together to a small 
 bowl of punch, over which we both soon 
 fell fast asleep, and so concluded the 
 evening. 
 
 Wednesday, July 3. This morning I 
 awaked at four o'clock, for my distemper 
 seldom suffered me to sleep later. I 
 presently got up. and had the pleasure 
 of enjoying the sight of what I thought 
 a tempestuous sea for four hours before 
 the captain was stirring ; for he loved to in- 
 dulge himself in morning slumbers, which 
 were attended with a wind music, much 
 more agreeable to the performers than to 
 the hearers, especially such as have, as I 
 had, the privilege of sitting in the orchestra. 
 At eight o'clock the captain rose, and 
 sent his boat on shore. I ordered my 
 man likewise to go in it, as my distemper 
 was not of that kind which entirely de- 
 prives us of appetite. Now tho' the cap- 
 tain had well victualled his ship with all 
 manner of salt provisions for the voyage, 
 and had added great quantities of fresh 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 8 1 
 
 stores, particularly of vegetables, at 
 Gravesend, such as beans and peas, which 
 had been on board only two days, and 
 had, possibly, not been gathered above 
 two more, I apprehended I could provide 
 better for myself at Deal, than the ship's 
 ordinary seemed to promise. I- accord- 
 ingly sent for fresh provisions of all kinds 
 from the shore, in order to put off the 
 evil day of starving as long as possible. 
 My man returned with most of the 
 articles I sent for, and I now thought 
 myself in a condition of living a week on 
 my own provisions. I therefore ordered 
 my own dinner, which I wanted nothing 
 but a cook to dress, and a proper fire to 
 dress it at ; but those were not to be had, 
 nor, indeed, any addition to my roast 
 mutton, except the pleasure of the cap- 
 tain's company, with that of the other 
 passengers ; for my wife continued the 
 whole day in a state of dozing ; and my 
 other females, whose sickness did not 
 abate by the rolling of the ship at anchor, 
 seemed more inclined to empty their 
 stomachs than to fill them. Thus I 
 pass'd the whole day (except about an 
 hour at dinner) by myself, and the even- 
 ing concluded with the captain, as the pre- 
 G 
 
82 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 ceding one had done : one comfortable 
 piece of news he communicated to me, 
 which was, that he had no doubt of a 
 prosperous wind in the morning ; but as 
 he did not divulge the reasons of this 
 confidence, and as I saw none myself, 
 besides the wind being directly oppo- 
 site, my faith in this prophecy was not 
 strong enough to build any great hopes 
 upon. 
 
 Thursday, July 4. This morning, how- 
 ever, the captain seem'd resolved to fulfil 
 his own predictions, whether the wind 
 would or no; he accordingly weighed 
 anchor, and taking the advantage of the 
 tide, when the wind was not very bois- 
 terous, he hoisted his sails, and, as if his 
 power had been no less absolute over 
 Eolus than it was over Neptune, he 
 forced the wind to blow him on in its 
 own despight. 
 
 But as all men who have ever been at 
 sea well know how weak such attempts 
 are, and want no authorities of Scripture 
 to prove, that the most absolute power 
 of a captain of a ship is very contemp- 
 tible in the wind's eye, so did it befal our 
 noble commander ; who having struggled 
 with the wind three or four hours, was 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 83 
 
 obliged to give over, and lost, in a few 
 minutes, all that he had been so long a 
 gaining ; in short, we returned to our 
 former station, and once more cast anchor 
 in the neighbourhood of Deal. 
 
 Here, though we lay near the shore, 
 that we might promise ourselves all the 
 emolument which could be derived from 
 it, we found ourselves deceived, and that 
 we might with as much conveniency be 
 out of the sight of land ; for, except when 
 the captain launch'd forth his own boat, 
 which he did always with great reluc- 
 tance, we were incapable of procuring 
 any thing from Deal, but at a price too 
 exorbitant, and beyond the reach even 
 of modern luxury ; the fare of a boat 
 from Deal, which lay at two miles dis- 
 tance, being at least three half crowns, 
 and if we had been in any distress for it, 
 as many half guineas ; for these good 
 people consider the sea as a large com- 
 mon, appendant to their manor, in which 
 when they find any of their fellow crea- 
 tures impounded, they conclude, that 
 they have a full right of making them 
 pay at their own discretion for their de- 
 liverance : to say the truth, whether it 
 be that men, who live on the sea-shore, 
 
84 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 are of an amphibious kind, and do not 
 entirely partake of human nature, or 
 whatever else may be the reason, they 
 are so far from taking any share in the 
 distresses of mankind, or of being moved 
 with any compassion for them, that they 
 look upon them as blessings shower'd 
 down from above ; and which the more 
 they improve to their own use, the 
 greater is their gratitude and piety. 
 Thus at Gravesend, a sculler requires a 
 shilling for going less way than he would 
 row in London for three-pence ; and, at 
 Deal, a boat often brings more profit in 
 a day, than it can produce in London in 
 a week, or, perhaps, in a month : in both 
 places, the owner of the boat founds his 
 demand on the necessity and distress of 
 one, who stands more or less in absolute 
 want of his assistance ; and with the 
 urgency of these, always rises in the 
 exorbitancy of his demand, without ever 
 considering, that, from these very cir- 
 cumstances, the power or ease of gratify- 
 ing such demand is in like proportion 
 lessened. Now, as I am unwilling that 
 some conclusions, which may be, I am 
 aware, too justly drawn from these obser- 
 vations, should be imputed to human 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 85 
 
 nature in general, I have endeavoured to 
 account for them in a way more con- 
 sistent with the goodness and dignity of 
 that nature : however it be, it seems a 
 httle to reflect on the governors of such 
 monsters, that they do not take some 
 means to restrain these impositions, and 
 prevent them from triumphing any longer 
 in the miseries of those, who are, in 
 many circumstances at least, their fellow- 
 creatures, and considering the distresses 
 of a wretched seaman, from his being 
 wrecked to his being barely wind-bound, 
 as a blessing sent among them from 
 above, and calling it by that blasphe- 
 mous name. 
 
 Friday, July 5. This day I sent a ser- 
 vant on board a man of war, that was 
 stationed here, with my compliments to 
 the captain, to. represent to him the dis- 
 tress of the ladies, and to desire the 
 favour of his long-boat to conduct us to 
 Dover, at about seven miles distance ; 
 and, at the same time, presumed to 
 make use of a great lady's name, who 
 would, I told him, be pleased with any 
 kindness shewn by him towards us in 
 our miserable condition. And this I am 
 convinced was true, from the humanity 
 
86 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 of the lady, though she was entirely un- 
 known to me. 
 
 The captain returned a verbal answer 
 to a long letter ; acquainting me, that 
 what I desired could not be complied 
 with, it being a favour not in his power 
 to grant. This might be, and I suppose 
 was true ; but it is as true, that if he was 
 able to write, and had pen, ink, and 
 paper aboard, he might have sent a 
 written answer ; and that it was the part 
 of a gentleman so to have done ; but 
 this is a character seldom maintained 
 on the watery element, especially by 
 those who exercise any power on it. 
 Every commander of a vessel here seems 
 to think himself entirely free from all 
 those rules of decency and civility, which 
 direct and restrain the conduct of the 
 members of a society on shore ; and 
 each, claiming absolute dominion in his 
 little wooden world, rules by his own 
 laws and his own discretion. I do not, 
 indeed, know so pregnant an instance of 
 the dangerous consequences of absolute 
 power, and its aptness to intoxicate the 
 mind, as that of those petty tyrants, who 
 become such in a moment, from very 
 well-disposed and social members of that 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 8/ 
 
 communion, in which they affect no 
 superiority, but live in an orderly state of 
 legal subjection with their fellow-citizens. 
 Saturday, July 6. This morning, our 
 commander, declaring he was of opinion 
 that the wind would change, he took the 
 advantage of an ebbing tide, and weighed 
 his anchor. His hopes, however, had the 
 same completion, and his endeavours the 
 same success, with his former trial ; and 
 he was soon obliged to return once more 
 to his old quarters. Just before we let 
 go our anchor, a small sloop, rather than 
 submit to yield us an inch of way, ran 
 foul of our ship, and carried off her bow- 
 sprit. This obstinate frolic would have 
 cost those aboard the sloop very dear, if 
 our steersman had not been too generous 
 to exert his superiority, the certain con- 
 sequence of which would have been the 
 immediate sinking of the other. This 
 contention of the inferior, with a might 
 capable of crushing it in an instant, may 
 seem to argue no small share of folly or 
 madness, as well as of impudence ; but I 
 am convinced there is very little danger 
 in it : contempt is a port to which the 
 pride of man submits to fly with reluc- 
 tance, but those who are within it are 
 
88 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 always in a place of the most assured 
 security ; for whosoever throws away his 
 sword, prefers, indeed, a less honourable, 
 but much safer means of avoiding danger, 
 than he who defends himself with it. 
 And here we shall offer another distinc- 
 tion, of the truth of which much reading 
 and experience have well convinced us, 
 that as in the most absolute govern- 
 ments, there is a regular progression of 
 slavery downwards, from the top to the 
 bottom, the mischief of which is seldom 
 felt with any great force and bitterness, 
 but by the next immediate degree ; so in 
 the most dissolute and anarchical states, 
 there is as regular an ascent of what is 
 called rank or condition, which is always 
 laying hold of the head of him who is 
 advanced but one step higher on the 
 ladder, who might, if he did not too 
 much despise such efforts, kick his pur- 
 suer headlong to the bottom. We will 
 conclude this digression with one general 
 and short observation, which will, per- 
 haps, set the whole matter in a clearer 
 light than the longest and most laboured 
 harangue. Whereas envy of all things 
 most exposes us to danger from others ; 
 so, contempt of all things best secures us 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 89 
 
 from them. And thus, while the dung- 
 cart and the sloop are always meditating 
 mischief against the coach and the ship, 
 and throwing themselves designedly in 
 their way, the latter consider only their 
 own security, and are not ashamed to 
 break the road, and let the other pass by 
 them. 
 
 Monday, July 8. Having past our 
 Sunday without any thing remarkable, 
 unless the catching a great number of 
 whitings in the afternoon may be thought 
 so ; we now set sail on Monday at six 
 o'clock, with a little variation of wind ; 
 but this was so very little, and the breeze 
 itself so small, that the tide was our best, 
 and, indeed, almost our only friend. 
 This conducted us along the short re- 
 mainder of the Kentish shore. Here we 
 past that cliff of Dover, which makes so 
 tremendous a figure in Shakespear, and 
 which whoever reads without being giddy, 
 must, according to Mr. Addison's obser- 
 vation, have either a very good head, 
 or a very bad one ; but which whoever 
 contracts any such ideas from the sight 
 of, must have, at least, a poetic, if not a 
 Shakespearian genius. In truth, moun- 
 tains, rivers, heroes, and gods, owe great 
 
90 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 part of their existence to the poets ; and 
 Greece and Italy do so plentifully abound 
 in the former, because they furnished so 
 glorious a number of the latter; who, 
 while they bestowed immortality on 
 every little hillock and blind stream, left 
 the noblest rivers and mountains in the 
 world to share the same obscurity with 
 the eastern and western poets, in which 
 they are celebrated. 
 
 This evening we beat the sea off 
 Sussex, in sight of Dungeness, with much 
 more pleasure than progress ; for the 
 weather was almost a perfect calm, and 
 the moon, which was almost at the full, 
 scarce suffered a single cloud to veil her 
 from our sight. 
 
 Tuesday, Wednesday, July g,io. These 
 two days we had much the same fine 
 weather, and made much the same way; 
 but, in the evening of the latter day, a 
 pretty fresh gale sprung up, at N.N.W. 
 which brought us by the morning in 
 sight of the Isle of Wight. 
 
 Thursday, July ii. This gale con- 
 tinued till towards noon ; when the east 
 end of the island bore but little a-head 
 of us. The captain, being unwilling to 
 come to anchor, declared he would keep 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 9 1 
 
 the sea ; but the wind got the better of 
 him, so that about three he gave up the 
 victory, and, making a sudden tack, 
 stood in for the shore, passed by Spit- 
 head and Portsmouth, and came to an 
 anchor at a place called Ryde on the 
 island ; as did a great number of mer- 
 chant ships, who attended our commo- 
 dore from the Downs, and watched his 
 motions so narrowly, that they seemed 
 to think themselves unsafe when they 
 did not regulate their motions by his. 
 
 A most tragical incident fell out this 
 day at sea. While the ship was under 
 sail, but making, as will appear, no great 
 way, a kitten, one of four of the feline 
 inhabitants of the cabin, fell from the 
 window into the water : an alarm was 
 immediately given to the captain, who 
 was then upon deck, and received it with 
 the utmost concern. He immediately 
 gave orders to the steersman in favour 
 of the poor thing, as he called it ; the 
 sails were instantly slackened, and all 
 hands, as the phrase is, employed to re- 
 cover the poor animal. I was, I own, 
 extremely surprised at all this ; less, in- 
 deed, at the captain's extreme tender- 
 ness, than at his conceiving any possi- 
 
92 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 bility of success ; for, if puss had had 
 nine thousand, instead of nine lives, I 
 concluded they had been all lost. The 
 boatswain, however, had more sanguine 
 hopes ; for, having stript himself of his 
 jacket, breeches, and shirt, he leapt boldly 
 into the water, and, to my great astonish- 
 ment, in a few minutes, returned to the 
 ship, bearing the motionless animal in 
 his mouth. Nor was this, I observed, a 
 matter of such great difficulty as it ap- 
 peared to my ignorance, and possibly 
 may seem to that of my fresh-water 
 reader : the kitten was now exposed to 
 air and sun on the deck, where its life, of 
 which it retained no symptoms, was des- 
 paired of by all. 
 
 The captain's humanity, if I may so 
 call it, did not so totally destroy his 
 philosophy, as to make him yield himself 
 up to affliction on this melancholy occa- 
 sion. Having felt his loss like a man, he 
 resolved to shew he could bear it like 
 one ; and, having declared, he had rather 
 have lost a cask of rum or brandy, 
 betook himself to threshing at back- 
 gammon with the Portuguese friar, in 
 which innocent amusement they passed 
 their leisure hours. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 93 
 
 But as I have, perhaps, a little too 
 wantonly endeavoured to raise the tender 
 passions of my readers, in this narrative, 
 I should think myself unpardonable if I 
 concluded it, without giving them the 
 satisfaction of hearing that the kitten at 
 last recovered, to the great joy of the 
 good captain ; but to the great disap- 
 pointment of some of the sailors, who 
 asserted, that the drowning a cat was 
 the very surest way of raising a favour- 
 able wind : a supposition of which, though 
 we have heard several plausible accounts, 
 we will not presume to assign the true 
 original reason. 
 
 Friday, July 1 2. This day our ladies 
 went a-shore at Ryde, and drank their 
 afternoon tea at an alehouse there with 
 great satisfaction : here they were re- 
 galed with fresh cream, to which they 
 had been strangers since they left the 
 Downs. 
 
 Saturday, July 1 3. The wind seeming 
 likely to continue in the same corner, 
 where it had been almost constantly for 
 two months together, I was persuaded 
 by my wife to go ashore, and stay at 
 Ryde till we sailed. I approved the 
 motion much ; for, though I am a great 
 
94 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 lover of the sea, I now fancied there was 
 more pleasure in breathing the fresh air 
 of the land ; but, how to get thither was 
 the question : for, being really that dead 
 luggage which I considered all passen- 
 gers to be in the beginning of this narra- 
 tive, and incapable of any bodily motion 
 without external impulse, it was in vain 
 to leave the ship, or to determine to do 
 it, without the assistance of others. In 
 one instance, perhaps, the living luggage 
 is more difficult to be moved, or re- 
 moved, than an equal or much superior 
 weight of dead matter ; which, if of the 
 brittle kind, may indeed be liable to be 
 broken through negligence ; but this, by 
 proper care, may be almost certainly 
 prevented ; whereas the fractures to which 
 the living lumps are exposed, are some- 
 times by no caution avoidable, and often 
 by no art to be amended. 
 
 I was deliberating on the means of 
 conveyance, not so much out of the ship 
 to the boat, as out of a little tottering 
 boat to the land. A matter which, as I 
 had already experienced in the Thames, 
 was not extremely easy, when to be per- 
 formed by any other limbs than your 
 own. Whilst I weighed all that could 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 95 
 
 suggest itself on this head, without strictly 
 examining the merit of the several 
 schemes which were advanced by the 
 captain and sailors, and, indeed, giving 
 no very deep attention even to my wife, 
 who, as well as her friend and my 
 daughter, were exerting their tender con- 
 cern for my ease and safety ; fortune, for 
 I am convinced she had a hand in it, 
 sent me a present of a buck ; a present 
 welcome enough of itself, but more wel- 
 come on account of the vessel in which 
 it came, being a large hoy, which in 
 some places would pass for a ship, and 
 many people would go some miles to see 
 the sight. I was pretty easily conveyed 
 on board this hoy, but to get from hence 
 to the shore was not so easy a task ; for, 
 however strange it may appear, the water 
 itself did not extend so far ; an instance 
 which seems to explain those lines of 
 Ovid, 
 
 " Omnia Pontus erant, deerant quoque littora 
 Ponto," 
 
 in a less tautological sense, than hath 
 generally been imputed to them. 
 
 In fact, between the sea and the shore, 
 there was, at low water, an impassable 
 
96 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 gulph, if I may so call it, of deep mud, 
 which could neither be traversed by 
 walking nor swimming, so that for near 
 one half of the twenty-four hours, Ryde 
 was inaccessible by friend or foe. But 
 as the magistrates of this place seemed 
 more to desire the company of the for- 
 mer, than to fear that of the latter, they 
 had begun to make a small causeway to 
 the low water mark, so that foot passen- 
 gers might land whenever they pleased ; 
 but as this work was of a public kind, 
 and would have cost a large sum of 
 money, at least ten pounds, and the 
 magistrates, that is to say, the church- 
 wardens, the overseers, constable and 
 tithingman, and the principal inhabi- 
 tants, had every one of them some sepa- 
 rate scheme of private interest to advance 
 at the expence of the public, they fell 
 out among themselves ; and after having 
 thrown away one half of the requisite 
 sum, resolved, at least, to save the other 
 half, and rather be contented to sit down 
 losers themselves, than to enjoy any 
 benefit which might bring in a greater 
 profit to another. Thus that unanimity, 
 which is so necessary in all public affairs, 
 became wanting, and every man, from the 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 97 
 
 fear of being a bubble to another, was, 
 in reality, a bubble to himself. 
 
 However, as there is scarce any diffi- 
 culty, to which the strength of men, 
 assisted with the cunning of art, is not 
 equal, I was at last hoisted into a small 
 boat, and being rowed pretty near the 
 shore, was taken up by two sailors, who 
 waded with me through the mud, and 
 placed me in a chair on the land, whence 
 they afterwards conveyed me a quarter 
 of a mile farther, and brought me to a 
 house, which seemed to bid the fairest 
 for hospitality of any in Ryde. 
 
 We brought with us our provisions 
 from the ship, so that we wanted nothing 
 but a fire to dress our dinner, and a room 
 in which we might eat it. In neither of 
 these had we any reason to apprehend 
 a disappointment, our dinner consisting 
 only of beans and bacon, and the worst 
 apartment in his majesty's dominions 
 being fully sufficient to answer our pre- 
 sent ideas of delicacy. 
 
 Unluckily, however, we were disap- 
 pointed in both ; for when we arrived 
 about four at our inn, exulting in the 
 hopes of immediately seeing our beans 
 smoking on the table, we had the morti- 
 H 
 
98 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 fication of seeing them on the table 
 indeed, but without that circumstance 
 which would have made the sight agree- 
 able, being in the same state in which 
 we had dispatched them from our ship. 
 
 In excuse for this delay, tho' we had 
 exceeded, almost purposely, the time 
 appointed, and our provision had arrived 
 three hours before, the mistress of the 
 house acquainted us, that it was not for 
 want of time to dress them that they 
 were not ready, but for fear of their 
 being cold or over-done before we should 
 come ; which she assured us was much 
 worse than waiting a few minutes for 
 our dinner. An observation so very just, 
 that it is impossible to find any objection 
 in it ; but indeed it was not altogether 
 so proper at this time : for we had given 
 the most absolute orders to have them 
 ready at four, and had been ourselves, 
 not without much care and difficulty, 
 most exactly punctual in keeping to the 
 very minute of our appointment. But 
 tradesmen, inn-keepers, and servants 
 never care to indulge us in matters 
 contrary to our true interest, which they 
 always know better than ourselves, nor 
 can any bribes corrupt them to go out 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 99 
 
 of their way, whilst they are consulting 
 our good in our own despight. 
 
 Our disappointment in the other par- 
 ticular, in defiance of our humility, as it 
 was more extraordinary, was more pro- 
 voking. In short, Mrs. Humphrys no 
 sooner received the news of our intended 
 arrival, than she considered more the gen- 
 tility than the humanity of her guests, 
 and applied herself not to that which 
 kindles, but to that which extinguishes 
 fire, and forgetting to put on her pot, fell 
 to washing her house. 
 
 As the messenger who had brought my 
 venison was impatient to be dispatched, 
 I ordered it to be brought and laid on 
 the table, in the room where I was seated ; 
 and the table not being large enough, one 
 side, and that a very bloody one, was laid 
 on the brick floor. I then ordered Mrs. 
 Humphrys to be called in, in order to 
 give her instructions concerning it ; in 
 particular, what I would have roasted, 
 and what baked ; concluding that she 
 would be highly pleased with the pros- 
 pect of so much money being spent in 
 her house, as she might have now reason 
 to expect, if the wind continued only a 
 few days longer to blow from the same 
 
lOO JOURNAL OF A 
 
 points whence it had blown for several 
 weeks past. 
 
 I soon saw good cause, I must con- 
 fess, to despise my own sagacity. Mrs. 
 Humphrys having received her orders, 
 without making any answer, snatched 
 the side from the floor, which remained 
 stained with blood, and bidding a ser- 
 vant take up that on the table, left the 
 room with no pleasant countenance, mut- 
 tering to herself, that had she known the 
 litter which was to have been made, she 
 would not have taken such pains to wash 
 her house that morning. " If this was 
 gentility, much good may it do such gen- 
 tlefolks, for her part she had no notion 
 of it ! " 
 
 From these murmurs I received two 
 hints. The one, that it was not from a 
 mistake of our inclination that the good 
 woman had starved us, but from wisely 
 consulting her own dignity, or rather, 
 perhaps, her vanity, to which our hunger 
 was offered up as a sacrifice. The other, 
 that I was now sitting in a damp room ; 
 a circumstance, which, the' it had hitherto 
 escaped my notice, from the colour of the 
 bricks, was by no means to be neglected 
 in a valetudinary state. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. lOI 
 
 My wife, who, besides discharging ex- 
 cellently well her own, and all the tender 
 offices becoming the female character ; 
 who besides being a faithful friend, an 
 amiable companion, and a tender nurse, 
 could likewise supply the wants of a 
 decrepit husband, and occasionally per- 
 form his part, had, before this, discovered 
 the immoderate attention to neatness in 
 Mrs. Humphrys, and provided against 
 its ill consequences. She had found, tho' 
 not under the same roof, a very snug 
 apartment belonging to Mr. Humphrys, 
 and which had escaped the mop, by his 
 wife's being satisfied it could not pos- 
 sibly be visited by gentlefolks. 
 
 This was a dry, warm, oaken floored 
 barn, lined on both sides with wheaten 
 straw, and opening at one end into a 
 green field, and a beautiful prospect. 
 Here, without hesitation, she ordered the 
 cloth to be laid, and came hastily to 
 snatch me from worse perils by water 
 than the common dangers of the sea. 
 
 Mrs. Humphrys, who could not trust 
 her own ears, or could not believe a foot- 
 man in so extraordinary a phaenomenon, 
 followed my wife, and asked her if she 
 had indeed ordered the cloth to be laid in 
 
I02 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 the barn : she answered in the affirmative ; 
 upon which Mrs. Humphrys declared she 
 would not dispute her pleasure, but it 
 was the first time, she believed, that 
 quality had ever preferred a barn to a 
 house. She shewed at the same time the 
 most pregnant marks of contempt, and 
 again lamented the labour she had under- 
 gone, through her ignorance of the absurd 
 taste of her guests. 
 
 At length we were seated in one of 
 the most pleasant spots, I believe, in 
 the kingdom, and were regaled with our 
 beans and bacon, in which there was 
 nothing deficient but the quantity. This 
 defect was, however, so deplorable, that 
 we had consumed our whole dish, before 
 we had visibly lessened our hunger. We 
 now waited with impatience the arrival 
 of our second course, which necessity 
 and not luxury had dictated. This was 
 a joint of mutton, which Mrs. Humphrys 
 had been ordered to provide ; but when, 
 being tired with expectation, we ordered 
 our servants to see for something else, we 
 were informed that there was nothing 
 else ; on which Mrs. Humphrys being 
 summoned, declared there was no such 
 thing as mutton to be had at Ryde. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. IO3 
 
 When I expressed some astonishment 
 at their having no butcher in a village 
 so situated, she answered they had a 
 very good one, and one that killed all 
 sorts of meat in season, beef two or three 
 times a year, and mutton the whole year 
 round ; but that it being then beans and 
 pease time, he killed no meat, by reason 
 he was sure of not selling it. This she 
 had not thought worthy of communica- 
 tion, any more than that there lived a 
 fisherman at next door, who was then 
 provided with plenty of soals, and whit- 
 ings, and lobsters, far superior to those 
 which adorn a city-feast. This discovery 
 being made by accident, we completed 
 the best, the pleasantest, and the merriest 
 meal, with more appetite, more real, solid 
 luxury, and more festivity, than was ever 
 seen in an entertainment at White's. 
 
 It may be wondered at, perhaps, that 
 Mrs. Humphrys should be so negligent 
 of providing for her guests, as she may 
 seem to be thus inattentive to her own 
 interest : but this was not the case ; for 
 having clapt a poll-tax on our heads at 
 our arrival, and determined at what price 
 to discharge our bodies from her house, 
 the less she suffered any other to share 
 
104 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 in the levy, the clearer it came into her 
 own pocket ; and it was better to get 
 twelve-pence in a shilling than ten-pence, 
 which latter would be the case if she 
 afforded us fish at any rate. 
 
 Thus we past a most agreeable day, 
 owing to good appetites and good 
 humour ; two hearty feeders, which will 
 devour with satisfaction whatever food 
 you place before them : whereas, with- 
 out these, the elegance of St. James's, 
 the charde, the Perigord-pye, or the 
 ortolan, the venison, the turtle, or the 
 custard, may titillate the throat, but will 
 never convey happiness to the heart, or 
 chearfulness to the countenance. 
 
 As the wind appeared still immove- 
 able, my wife proposed my lying on 
 shore. I presently agreed, tho' in de- 
 fiance of an act of parliament, by which 
 persons wandering abroad, and lodging 
 in alehouses, are decreed to be rogues 
 and vagabonds ; and this too after having 
 been very singularly officious in putting 
 that law in execution. 
 
 My wife having reconnoitred the house, 
 reported, that there was one room in 
 which were two beds. It was concluded, 
 therefore, that she and Harriot should 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 105 
 
 occupy one, and myself take possession 
 of the other. She added likewise an in- 
 genious recommendation of this room, 
 to one who had so long been in a cabin, 
 which it exactly resembled, as it was 
 sunk down with age on one side, and 
 was in the form of a ship with gun- 
 nels to. 
 
 For my own part, I make little doubt 
 but this apartment was an ancient tem- 
 ple, built with the materials of a wreck, 
 and, probably, dedicated to Neptune, in 
 honour of THE BLESSING sent by him to 
 the inhabitants, such blessings having, in 
 all ages, been very common to them. 
 The timber employed in it confirms this 
 opinion, being such as is seldom used by 
 any but ship-builders. I do not find, 
 indeed, any mention of this matter in 
 Hearne ; but, perhaps, its antiquity was 
 too modern to deserve his notice. Cer- 
 tain it is, that this island of Wight was 
 not an early convert to Christianity ; nay, 
 there is some reason to doubt whether it 
 was ever entirely converted. But I have 
 only time to touch slightly on things of 
 this kind, which, luckily for us, we have 
 a society whose peculiar profession it is 
 to discuss and develope. 
 
io6 
 
 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 Sunday, July 19. This morning early 
 I summoned Mrs. Humphrys, in order to 
 pay her the preceding day's account. As 
 I could recollect only two or three articles, 
 I thought there was no necessity of pen 
 and ink. In a single instance only we 
 had exceeded what the law allows gratis 
 to a foot soldier on his march, viz. vine- 
 gar, salt, &c. and dressing his meat. I 
 found, however, I was mistaken in my 
 calculation ; for when the good woman 
 attended with her bill, it contained as 
 follow. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 Bread and beer 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Wind . 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Rum 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Dressing dinner 
 
 . 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Tea 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Firing 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 Lodging . 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Servants lodging 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 £0 13 10 
 
 Now that five people, and two servants, 
 should live a day and night at a public 
 house for so small a sum, will appear in- 
 credible to any person in London above 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 107 
 
 the degree of a chimney-sweeper ; but 
 more astonishing will it seem, that these 
 people should remain so long at such 
 a house, without tasting any other deli- 
 cacy than bread, small beer, a tea cup 
 full of milk called cream, a glass of rum 
 converted into punch by their own mate- 
 rials, and one bottle of wind, of which we 
 only tasted a single glass, tho' possibly, 
 indeed, our servants drank the remainder 
 of the bottle. 
 
 This wind is a liquor of English manu- 
 facture, and its flavour is thought very 
 delicious by the generality of the English, 
 who drink it in great quantities. Every 
 seventh year is thought to produce as 
 much as the other six. It is then drank 
 so plentifully, that the whole nation are 
 in a manner intoxicated by it, and con- 
 sequently very little business is carried 
 on at that season. 
 
 It resembles in colour the red wine 
 which is imported from Portugal, as it 
 doth in its intoxicating quality ; hence, 
 and from this agreement in the ortho- 
 graphy, the one is often confounded with 
 the other, tho' both are seldom esteemed 
 by the same person. It is to be had in 
 every parish in the kingdom, and a pretty 
 
I08 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 large quantity is consumed in the metro- 
 polis, where several taverns are set apart 
 solely for the vendition of this liquor, the 
 masters never dealing in any other. 
 
 The disagreement in our computation 
 produced some small remonstrance to 
 Mrs. Humphrys on my side ; but this 
 received an immediate answer, " She 
 scorned to overcharge gentlemen : her 
 house had been always frequented by 
 the very best gentry of the island ; and 
 she had never had a bill found fault with 
 in her life, tho' she had lived upwards of 
 forty years in the house, and within that 
 time the greatest gentry in Hampshire 
 had been at it, and that Lawyer Willis 
 never went to any other, when he came 
 to those parts. That for her part she did 
 not get her livelihood by travellers, who 
 were gone and away, and she never ex- 
 pected to see them more, but that her 
 neighbours might come again ; where- 
 fore, to be sure, they had the only right 
 to complain." 
 
 She was proceeding thus, and from her 
 volubility of tongue seemed likely to 
 stretch the discourse to an immoderate 
 length, when I suddenly cut all short by 
 paying the bill. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 109 
 
 This morning our ladies went to church, 
 more, I fear, from curiosity than religion ; 
 they were attended by the captain in a 
 most military attire, with his cockade in 
 his hat, and his sword by his side. So 
 unusual an appearance in this little 
 chappel drew the attention of all pre- 
 sent, and probably disconcerted the wo- 
 men, who were in dishabille, and wished 
 themselves drest, for the sake of the 
 curate, who was the greatest of their 
 beholders. 
 
 While I was left alone, I received a 
 visit from Mr. Humphrys himself, who 
 was much more considerable as a farmer, 
 than as an innholder. Indeed he left the 
 latter entirely to the care of his wife, and 
 he acted wisely, I believe, in so doing. 
 
 As nothing more remarkable past on 
 this day, I will close it with the account 
 of these two characters, as far as a few 
 days residence could inform me of them. 
 If they should appear as new to the reader 
 as they did to me, he will not be dis- 
 pleased at finding them here. 
 
 This amiable couple seemed to border 
 hard on their grand climacteric ; nor in- 
 deed were they shy of owning enough to 
 fix their ages within a year or two of that 
 
no JOURNAL OF A 
 
 time. They appeared to be rather proud 
 of having employed their time well, than 
 ashamed of having lived so long ; the 
 only reason which I could ever assign, 
 why some fine ladies, and fine gentlemen 
 too, should desire to be thought younger 
 than they really are by the cotemporaries 
 of their grandchildren. Some, indeed, 
 who too hastily credit appearances, might 
 doubt whether they had made so good a 
 use of their time as I would insinuate, 
 since there was no appearance of any 
 thing but poverty, want, and wretched- 
 ness about their house ; nor could they 
 produce any thing to a customer in ex- 
 change for his money, but a few bottles 
 of wind, and spirituous liquors, and some 
 very bad ale, to drink ; with rusty bacon, 
 and worse cheese, to eat. But then it 
 should be considered, on the other side, 
 that whatever they received was almost 
 as entirely clear profit as the blessing of 
 a wreck itself; such an inn being the 
 very reverse of a coffee-house : for here 
 you can neither sit for nothing, nor have 
 any thing for your money. 
 
 Again, as many marks of want abounded 
 every where, so were the marks of antiquity 
 visible. Scarce any thing was to be seen 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. Ill 
 
 which had not some scar upon it, made 
 by the hand of time ; not an utensil, it 
 was manifest, had been purchased within 
 a dozen years last past ; so that whatever 
 money had come into the house during 
 that period, at least, must have remained 
 in it, unless it had been sent abroad for 
 food, or other perishable commodities ; 
 but these were supplied by a small por- 
 tion of the fruits of the farm, in which 
 the farmer allowed he had a very good 
 bargain. In fact, it is inconceivable what 
 sums may be collected by starving only, 
 and how easy it is for a man to die 
 rich, if he will but be contented to live 
 miserable. 
 
 Nor is there in this kind of starving 
 any thing so terrible as some apprehend. 
 It neither wastes a man's flesh, nor robs 
 him of his chearfulness. The famous 
 Cornaro's case well proves the contrary ; 
 and so did farmer Humphrys, who was of 
 a round stature, had a plump round face, 
 with a kind of smile on it, and seemed 
 to borrow an air of wretchedness, rather 
 from his coat's age, than from his own. 
 
 The truth is, there is a certain diet 
 which emaciates men more than any 
 possible degree of abstinence ; tho' I do 
 
112 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 not remember to have seen any caution 
 against it, either in Cheney, Arbuth- 
 not, or in any other modern writer on 
 regimen. Nay, the very name is not, I 
 believe, in the learned Dr. James's dic- 
 tionary. All which is the more extra- 
 ordinary, as it is a very common food in 
 this kingdom. 
 
 But though it should not be found 
 among our English physical writers, we 
 may be assured of meeting with it among 
 the Greeks : for nothing considerable in 
 nature escapes their notice ; though many 
 things considerable in them, it is to be 
 feared, have escaped the notice of their 
 readers. The Greeks then, to all such as 
 feed too voraciously on this diet, give the 
 name of Heautofagi, which our phy- 
 sicians will, I suppose, translate men that 
 eat themselves. 
 
 As nothing is so destructive to the body 
 as this kind of food, so nothing is so plenti- 
 ful and cheap ; but it was, perhaps, the 
 only cheap thing the farmer disliked. Pro- 
 bably living much on fish might produce 
 this disgust ; for Diodorus Siculus attri- 
 butes the same aversion in a people of 
 ^Ethiopia to the same cause : he calls 
 them the fish-eaters ; and asserts, that 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON II3 
 
 they cannot be brought to eat a single 
 meal with the Heautofagi by any persua- 
 sion, threat, or violence whatever, not even 
 though they should kill their children be- 
 fore their faces. 
 
 What hath puzzled our physicians, and 
 prevented them from setting this matter 
 in the clearest light, is possibly one simple 
 mistake, arising from a very excusable 
 ignorance, that the passions of men are 
 capable of swallowing food as well as their 
 appetites ; that the former, in feeding, re- 
 semble the state of those animals who 
 chew the cud ; and therefore such men, 
 in some sense, may be said to prey on 
 themselves, and as it were, to devour their 
 own entrails. And hence ensues a meagre 
 aspect, and thin habit of body, as surely 
 as from what is called a consumption. 
 
 Our farmer was none of these. He had 
 no more passion than an Ichthuofagus or 
 Ethiopian fisher. He wished not for any 
 thing, thought not of any thing ; indeed, 
 he scarce did any thing, or said any thing. 
 Here I cannot be understood strictly, for 
 then I must describe a non-entity; whereas 
 I would rob him of nothing but that free- 
 agency which is the cause of all the cor- 
 ruption, and of all the misery of human 
 I 
 
114 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 nature. No man, indeed, ever did more 
 than the farmer, for he was an absolute 
 slave to labour all the week ; but, in truth, 
 as my sagacious reader must have at first 
 apprehended, when I said, he resigned 
 the care of the house to his wife, I meant 
 more than I then expressed ; even the 
 house and all that belonged to it ; for he 
 was really a farmer, only under the direc- 
 tion of his wife. In a word, so composed, 
 so serene, so placid a countenance I never 
 saw ; and he satisfied himself by answer- 
 ing to every question he was asked ; " I 
 don't know any thing about it, sir, I leaves 
 all that to my wife." 
 
 Now as a couple of this kind would, 
 like two vessels of oil, have made no com- 
 position in life, and for want of all savour 
 must have palled every taste ; nature or 
 fortune, or both of them, took care to pro- 
 vide a proper quantity of acid, in the ma- 
 terials that formed the wife, and to render 
 her a perfect Helpmate for so tranquil a 
 husband. She abounded in whatsoever 
 he was defective ; that is to say, in almost 
 every thing. She was, indeed, as vinegar 
 to oil, or a brisk wind to a standing-pool, 
 and preserved all from stagnation and 
 corruption. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. IIS 
 
 Quin the player, on taking a nice and 
 severe survey of a fellow-comedian, burst 
 forth into this exclamation, " If that fellow 
 be not a rogue, the Creator doth not write 
 a legible hand." Whether he guessed 
 right or no, is not worth my while to 
 examine. Certain it is, that the latter, 
 having wrought his features into a proper 
 harmony to become the characters of 
 I ago, Shy lock, and others of the same 
 cast, gave a semblance of truth to the 
 observation, that was sufficient to con- 
 firm the wit of it. Indeed, we may 
 remark, in favour of the physiognomist, 
 though the law hath made him a rogue 
 and vagabond, that nature is seldom 
 curious in her works within, without 
 employing some little pains on the out- 
 side ; and this more particularly in mis- 
 chievous characters, in forming which, as 
 Mr. Derham observes, in venomous in- 
 sects, as the sting or saw of a wasp, she 
 is sometimes wonderfully industrious. 
 Now, when she hath thus completely 
 armed her hero, to carry on a war with 
 man, she never fails of furnishing that 
 innocent lambkin with some means of 
 knowing his enemy, and foreseeing his 
 designs. Thus she hath been observed 
 
Il6 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 to act in the case of a rattle-snake, which 
 never meditates a human prey without 
 giving warning of his approach. 
 
 This observation will, I am convinced, 
 hold most true, if applied to the most 
 venomous individuals of human insects. 
 A tyrant, a trickster, and a bully, gene- 
 rally wear the marks of their several dis- 
 positions in their countenances ; so do 
 the vixen, the shrew, the scold, and all 
 other females of the like kind. But, per- 
 haps, nature had never afforded a stronger 
 example of all this, than in the case of 
 Mrs. Humphrys. She was a short, squat 
 woman ; her head was closely joined to 
 her shoulders, where it was fixed some- 
 what awry ; every feature of her counte- 
 nance was sharp and pointed ; her face 
 was furrowed with the small-pox ; and 
 her complexion, which seemed to be able 
 to turn milk to curds, not a little re- 
 sembled in colour such milk as had already 
 undergone that operation. She appeared 
 indeed to have many symptoms of a deep 
 jaundice in her look ; but the strength 
 and firmness of her voice over-balanced 
 them all : the tone of this was a sharp 
 treble at a distance ; for, I seldom heard it 
 on the same floor ; but was usually waked 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 11/ 
 
 with it in the morning, and entertained 
 with it almost continually through the 
 whole day. 
 
 Though vocal be usually put in opposi- 
 tion to instrumental music, I question 
 whether this might not be thought to 
 partake of the nature of both ; for she 
 played on two instruments, which she 
 seemed to keep for no other use from 
 morning till night ; these were two maids, 
 or rather scolding-stocks, who, I suppose, 
 by some means or other, earned their 
 board, and she gave them their lodging 
 gratis, or for no other service than to 
 keep her lungs in constant exercise. 
 
 She differed, as I have said, in every 
 particular from her husband ; but very 
 remarkably in this, that as it was impos- 
 sible to displease him, so it was as im- 
 possible to please her; and as no art 
 could remove a smile from his counte- 
 nance, so could no art carry it into hers. 
 If her bills were remonstrated against, 
 she was offended with the censure of 
 her fair-dealing ; if they were not, she 
 seemed to regard it as a tacit sarcasm on 
 her folly, which might have set down 
 larger prices with the same success. On 
 this latter hint she did indeed improve ; 
 
Il8 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 for she daily raised some of her articles. 
 A pennyworth of fire was to-day rated 
 at a shilling, to-morrow at eighteen- 
 pence ; and if she drest us two dishes 
 for two shillings on Saturday, we paid 
 half a crown for the cookery of one on 
 the Sunday ; and wherever she was paid, 
 she never left the room without lamenting 
 the small amount of her bill ; saying, she 
 knew not how it was that others got 
 their money by gentlefolks, but, for her 
 part, she had not the art of it. When 
 she was asked why she complained, when 
 she was paid all she demanded, she 
 answered, she could not deny that, nor 
 did she know she omitted any thing, but 
 that it was but a poor bill for gentlefolks 
 to pay. 
 
 I accounted for all this by her having 
 heard, that it is a maxim with the princi- 
 pal inn-holders on the continent, to levy 
 considerable sums on their guests, who 
 travel with many horses and servants, 
 though such guests should eat little or 
 nothing in their houses ; the method 
 being, I believe, in such cases, to lay a 
 capitation on the horses, and not on their 
 masters. But she did not consider, that 
 in most of these inns a very great degree 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. II9 
 
 of hunger, without any degree of deUcacy, 
 may be satisfied ; and that in all such 
 inns there is some appearance, at least, 
 of provision, as well as of a man cook to 
 dress it, one of the hostlers being always 
 furnished with a cook's cap, waistcoat 
 and apron, ready to attend gentlemen 
 and ladies on their summons; that the 
 case therefore of such inns differed from 
 hers, where there was nothing to eat or 
 to drink ; and in reality no house to in- 
 habit, no chair to sit upon, nor any bed 
 to lie in ; that one third or fourth part 
 therefore of the levy imposed at inns 
 was, in truth, a higher tax than the whole 
 was when laid on in the other, where, 
 in order to raise a small sum, a man is 
 obliged to submit to pay as many various 
 ways for the same thing as he doth a 
 taylor's bill, such are the articles of bread 
 and beer, firing, eating, and dressing 
 dinner. 
 
 The foregoing is a very imperfect 
 sketch of this extraordinary couple ; for 
 every thing is here lowered, instead of 
 being heightened. Those who would see 
 them set forth in more lively colours, and 
 with the proper ornaments, may read 
 the descriptions of the furies in some of 
 
I20 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 the classical poets, or of the stoic philoso- 
 phers in the works of Lucian. 
 
 Monday,- July 20. This day nothing 
 remarkable passed ; Mrs. Humphrys 
 levied a tax of fourteen shillings for the 
 Sunday. We regaled ourselves at dinner 
 with venison and good claret of our own ; 
 and, in the afternoon, the women, at- 
 tended by the captain, walked to see a 
 delightful scene two miles distant, with 
 the beauties of which they declared 
 themselves most highly charmed, at their 
 return, as well as with the goodness of 
 the lady of the mansion, who had slipt 
 out of the way, that my wife and her 
 company might refresh themselves with 
 the flowers and fruits with which her 
 garden abounded. 
 
 Tuesday, July 21. This day, having 
 paid our taxes of yesterday, we were 
 permitted to regale ourselves with more 
 venison. Some of this we would willingly 
 have exchanged for mutton ; but no such 
 flesh was to be had nearer than Ports- 
 mouth, from whence it would have cost 
 more to convey a joint to us, than the 
 freight of a Portugal ham from Lisbon 
 to London amounts to : for tho' the 
 water-carriage be somewhat cheaper here 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 121 
 
 than at Deal, yet can you find no water- 
 man who will go on board his boat, un- 
 less by two or three hours rowing he can 
 get drunk for the residue of the week. 
 
 And here I have an opportunity, which 
 possibly may not offer again, of publish- 
 ing some observations on that political 
 ceconomy of this nation, which, as it con- 
 cerns only the regulation of the mob, is 
 below the notice of our great men ; tho', 
 on the due regulation of this order depend 
 many emoluments which the great men 
 themselves, or, at least, many who tread 
 close on their heels, may enjoy, as well 
 as some dangers, which may some time 
 or other arise from introducing a pure 
 state of anarchy among them. I will 
 represent the case as it appears to me, 
 very fairly and impartially, between the 
 mob and their betters. 
 
 The whole mischief which infects this 
 part of our ceconomy, arises from the 
 vague and uncertain use of a word called 
 Liberty, of which, as scarce any two men 
 with whom I have ever conversed, seem 
 to have one and the same idea, I am in- 
 clined to doubt whether there be any 
 simple universal notion represented by 
 this word, or whether it conveys any 
 
122 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 clearer or more determinate idea, than 
 some of those old Punic compositions of 
 syllables, preserved in one of the comedies 
 of Plautus, but at present, as I conceive, 
 not supposed to be understood by any 
 one. 
 
 By liberty, however, I apprehend, is 
 commonly understood the power of 
 doing what we please : not absolutely ; 
 for then it would be inconsistent with 
 law, by whose controul the liberty of the 
 freest people, except only the Hottentots 
 and wild Indians, must always be re- 
 strained. 
 
 But, indeed, however largely we extend, 
 or however moderately we confine the 
 sense of the word, no politician will, I 
 presume, contend that it is to pervade in 
 an equal degree, and be with the same 
 extent enjoyed by every member of 
 society ; no such polity having been ever 
 found, unless among those vile people 
 just before commemorated. Among the 
 Greeks and Romans, the servile and free 
 conditions were opposed to each other ; 
 and no man who had the misfortune to 
 be enrolled under the former, could lay 
 any claim to liberty, 'till the right was 
 conveyed to him by that master whose 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 23 
 
 slave he was, either by the means of con- 
 quest, of purchase, or of birth. 
 
 This was the state of all the free 
 nations in the world ; and this, 'till very 
 lately, was understood to be the case of 
 our own. 
 
 I will not indeed say this is the case 
 at present, the lowest class of our people 
 having shaken off all the shackles of 
 their superiors, and become not only as 
 free, but even freer, than most of their 
 superiors. I believe it cannot be doubted, 
 tho' perhaps we have no recent instance 
 of it, that the personal attendance of 
 every man who hath £}po per annum, in 
 parliament, is indispensibly his duty ; 
 and that, if the citizens and burgesses of 
 any city or borough shall chuse such a 
 one, however reluctant he appear, he 
 may be obliged to attend, and be forcibly 
 brought to his duty by the Serjeant at 
 arms. 
 
 Again, there are numbers of subordi- 
 nate offices, some of which are of burthen, 
 and others of expence in the civil govern- 
 ment : all of which, persons who are 
 qualified are liable to have imposed on 
 them, may be obliged to undertake and 
 properly execute, notwithstanding any 
 
124 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 bodily labour, or even danger, to which 
 they may subject themselves, under the 
 penalty of fines and imprisonment ; nay, 
 and what may appear somewhat hard, 
 may be compelled to satisfy the losses 
 which are eventually incident, to that 
 of sheriff in particular, out of their own 
 private fortunes ; and tho' this should 
 prove the ruin of a family, yet the public, 
 to whom the price is due, incurs no 
 debt or obligation to preserve its officer 
 harmless, let his innocence appear ever 
 so clearly. 
 
 I purposely omit the mention of those 
 military or militiary duties, which our old 
 constitution laid upon its greatest mem- 
 bers. These might, indeed, supply their 
 posts with some other able-bodied men ; 
 but, if no such could have been found, 
 the obligation nevertheless remained, and 
 they were compellable to serve in their 
 own proper persons. 
 
 The only one, therefore, who is pos- 
 sessed of absolute liberty, is the lowest 
 member of the society, who, if he prefers 
 hunger or the wild product of the fields, 
 hedges, lanes, and rivers, with the indul- 
 gence of ease and laziness, to a food a 
 little more delicate, but purchased at the 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 12$ 
 
 expence of labour, may lay himself under 
 a shade ; nor can be forced to take the 
 other alternative from that which he hath, 
 I will not affirm whether wisely or 
 foolishly, chosen. 
 
 Here I may, perhaps, be reminded of 
 the last vagrant act, where all such per- 
 sons are compellable to work for the 
 usual and accustomed wages allowed in 
 the place ; but this is a clause little known 
 to the justices of the peace, and least 
 likely to be executed by those who do 
 know it, as they know likewise that it is 
 formed on the antient power of the jus- 
 tices to fix and settle these wages every 
 year, making proper allowances for the 
 scarcity and plenty of the times, the 
 cheapness and dearness of the place ; and 
 that the usual and accustomed wages, are 
 words without any force or meaning, 
 when there are no such ; but every man 
 spunges and raps whatever he can get ; 
 and will haggle as long and struggle as 
 hard to cheat his employer of two pence 
 in a day's labour, as an honest tradesman 
 will to cheat his customers of the same 
 sum in a yard of cloth or silk. 
 
 It is a great pity then that this power, 
 or rather this practice, was not revived ; 
 
126 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 but this having been so. long omitted, 
 that it is become obsolete, will be best 
 done by a new law, in which this power, 
 as well as the consequent power of 
 forcing the poor to labour at a moderate 
 and reasonable rate, should be well con- 
 sidered, and their execution facilitated : 
 for gentlemen who give their time and 
 labour gratis, and even voluntarily, to the 
 public, have a right to expect that all 
 their business be made as easy as pos- 
 sible ; and to enact laws without doing 
 this, is to fill our statute-books, much too 
 full already, still fuller with dead letter, 
 of no use but to the printer of the acts of 
 parliament. 
 
 That the evil which I have here pointed 
 at is of itself worth redressing, is, I ap- 
 prehend, no subject of dispute : for why 
 should any persons in distress be de- 
 prived of the assistance of their fellow- 
 subjects, when they are willing amply to 
 reward them for their labour ? or, why 
 should the lowest of the people be per- 
 mitted to exact ten times the value of 
 their work ? For those exactions in- 
 crease with the degrees of necessity in 
 their object, insomuch that on the former 
 side many are horribly imposed upon. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 12/ 
 
 and that often in no trifling matters. I 
 was very well assured, that at Deal no 
 less than ten guineas was required, and 
 paid by the supercargo of an Indiaman, 
 for carrying him on board two miles 
 from the shore, when she was just ready 
 to sail ; so that his necessity, as his 
 pillager well understood, was absolute. 
 Again, many others whose indignation 
 will not submit to such plunder, are 
 forced to refuse the assistance, tho' they 
 are often great sufferers by so doing. 
 On the latter side, the lowest of the 
 people are encouraged in laziness and 
 idleness ; while they live by a twentieth 
 part of the labour that ought to maintain 
 them, which is diametrically opposite to 
 the interest of the public ; for that re- 
 quires a great deal to be done, not to be 
 paid, for a little. And moreover, they are 
 confirm'd in habits of exaction, and are 
 taught to consider the distresses of their 
 superiors as their own fair emolument. 
 
 But enough of this matter, of which I 
 at first intended only to convey a hint to 
 those who are alone capable of applying 
 the remedy, tho' they are the last to 
 whom the notice of those evils would 
 occur, without some such monitor as 
 
128 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 myself, who am forced to travel about 
 the world in the form of a passenger. I 
 cannot but say I heartily wish our gover- 
 nors would attentively consider this 
 method of fixing the price of labour, and 
 by that means of compelling the poor to 
 work, since the due execution of such 
 powers will, I apprehend, be found the 
 true and only means of making them 
 useful, and of advancing trade, from its 
 present visibly declining state, to the 
 height to which Sir William Petty, in his 
 Political Arithmetic, thinks it capable of 
 being carried. 
 
 In the afternoon the lady of the above- 
 mentioned mansion called at our inn, and 
 left her compliments to us with Mrs. 
 Humphrys, with an assurance, that while 
 we continued wind-bound in that place, 
 where she feared we could be but indif- 
 ferently accommodated, we were ex- 
 tremely welcome to the use of any thing 
 which her garden or her house afforded. 
 So polite a message convinced us, in 
 spite of some arguments to the contrary, 
 that we were not on the coast of Africa, 
 or on some island, where the few savage 
 inhabitants have little of human in them 
 besides their form. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 29 
 
 And here I mean nothing less than to 
 derogate from the merit of this lady, who 
 is not only extremely polite in her be- 
 haviour to strangers of her own rank, 
 but so extremely good and charitable to 
 all her poor neighbours, who stand in 
 need of her assistance, that she hath the 
 universal love and praises of all who live 
 near her. But, in reality, how little doth 
 the acquisition of so valuable a character, 
 and the full indulgence of so worthy a 
 disposition, cost those who possess it ? 
 Both are accomplished by the very offals 
 which fall from a table moderately plen- 
 tiful. That they are enjoyed therefore 
 by so few, arises truly from their being 
 so few who have any such disposition 
 to gratify, or who aim at any such 
 character. 
 
 Wednesday, July 22. This morning, 
 after having been mulcted as usual, we 
 dispatched a servant with proper acknow- 
 ledgments of the lady's goodness ; but 
 confined our wants entirely to the pro- 
 ductions of her garden. He soon re- 
 turned, in company with the gardener, 
 both richly laden with almost every par- 
 ticular which a garden at this most fruit- 
 ful season of the year produces. 
 K 
 
I30 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 While we were regaling ourselves with 
 these, towards the close of our dinner, 
 we received orders from our commander, 
 who had dined that day with some 
 officers on board a man of war, to return 
 instantly to the ship ; for that the wind 
 was become favourable, and he should 
 weigh that evening. These orders were 
 soon followed by the captain himself, 
 who was still in the utmost hurry, tho' 
 the occasion of it had long since ceased : 
 for the wind had, indeed, a little shifted 
 that afternoon, but was before this very 
 quietly set down in its old quarters. 
 
 This last was a lucky hit for me : for, 
 as the captain, to whose orders we re- 
 solved to pay no obedience, unless de- 
 livered by himself, did not return till past 
 six, so much time seemed requisite to put 
 up the furniture of our bed-chamber or 
 dining-room, (for almost every article, 
 even to some of the chairs, were either 
 our own or the captain's property) so 
 much more in conveying it as well as 
 myself, as dead a luggage as any, to the 
 shore, and thence to the ship, that the 
 night threatened first to overtake us. A 
 terrible circumstance to me, in my de- 
 cayed condition ; especially as very 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I3I 
 
 heavy showers of rain, attended with 
 a high wind, continued to fall inces- 
 santly ; the being carried thro' which 
 two miles in the dark, in a wet and 
 open boat, seemed little less than cer- 
 tain death. 
 
 However, as my commander was ab- 
 solute, his orders peremptory, and my 
 obedience necessary, I resolved to avail 
 myself of a philosophy which hath been 
 of notable use to me in the latter part of 
 my life, and which is contained in this 
 hemistich of Virgil. 
 
 " Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est." 
 
 The meaning of which, if Virgil had 
 any, I think I rightly understand and 
 rightly applied. 
 
 As I was therefore to be entirely pas- 
 sive in my motion, I resolved to abandon 
 myself to the conduct of those who were 
 to carry me into a cart, when it returned 
 from unloading the goods. 
 
 But before this, the captain perceiving 
 what had happened in the clouds, and 
 that the wind remained as much his 
 enemy as ever, came up stairs to me, 
 with a reprieve till the morning. This 
 was, I own, very agreeable news, and 
 
132 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 I little regretted the trouble of refurnish- 
 ing my apartment, by sending back for 
 the goods. 
 
 Mrs. Humphrys was not well pleased 
 with this. As she understood the re- 
 prieve to be only till the morning, she 
 saw nothing but lodging to be possibly 
 added, out of which she was to deduct 
 fire and candle, and the remainder, she 
 thought, would scarce pay her for her 
 trouble. She exerted therefore all the 
 ill humour of which she was mistress, 
 and did all she could to thwart and 
 perplex every thing during the whole 
 evening. 
 
 Thursday, July 23. Early in the 
 morning the captain came to visit us, 
 and to press us to make haste on board. 
 " I am resolved," says he, " not to lose a 
 moment, now the wind is coming about 
 fair : for my own part, I never was surer 
 of a wind in all my life." I use his very 
 words ; nor will I presume to interpret 
 or comment upon them farther, than by 
 observing that they were spoke in the 
 utmost hurry. 
 
 We promised to be ready as soon as 
 breakfast was over ; but this was not so 
 soon as was expected : for in removing 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 33 
 
 our goods the evening before, the tea- 
 chest was unhappily lost. 
 
 Every place was immediately searched, 
 and many where it was impossible for it 
 to be ; for this was a loss of much greater 
 Consequence, than it ijiay at first seem to 
 many of my readers. Ladies and vale- 
 tudinarians do not easily dispense with 
 the use of this sovereign cordial, in a 
 single instance ; but to undertake a long 
 voyage without any probability of being 
 supplied with it the whole way, was above 
 the reach of patience. And yet, dread- 
 ful as this calamity was, it seemed un- 
 avoidable. The whole town of Ryde 
 could not supply a single leaf; for as to 
 what Mrs. Humphrys and the shop called 
 by that name, it was not of Chinese 
 growth. It did not indeed in the least 
 resemble tea, either in smell or taste, or 
 in any particular, unless in being a leaf : 
 for it was in truth no other than a tobacco 
 of the mundungus species. And as for 
 the hopes of relief in any other port, they 
 were not to be depended upon ; for the 
 captain had positively declared he was 
 sure of a wind, and would let go his 
 anchor no more till he arrived in the 
 Tajo. 
 
134 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 When a good deal of time had been 
 spent, most of it indeed wasted on this 
 occasion, a thought occurred, which every- 
 one wondered at its not having presented 
 itself the first moment. This was to 
 apply to the good lady, who could not 
 fail of pitying and relieving such dis- 
 tress. A messenger was immediately 
 dispatched, with an account of our mis- 
 fortune, till whose return we employed 
 ourselves in preparatives for our depar- 
 ture, that we might have nothing to do 
 but to swallow our breakfast when it 
 arrived. The tea-chest, tho' of no less 
 consequence to us than the military 
 chest to a general, was given up as lost, 
 or rather as stolen ; for tho' I would not, 
 for the world, mention any particular 
 name, it is certain we had suspicions, 
 and all, I am afraid, fell on the same 
 person. 
 
 The man returned from the worthy 
 lady with much expedition, and brougTit 
 with him a canister of tea, dispatched 
 with so true a generosity, as well as 
 politeness, that if our voyage had been 
 as long again, we should have incurred 
 no danger of being brought to a short 
 allowance in this most important article. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I35 
 
 At the very same instant likewise arrived 
 William the footman, with our own tea^ 
 chest. It had been, indeed, left in the 
 hoy, when the other goods were re- 
 landed, as William, when he first heard 
 it was missing, had suspected ; and 
 whence, had not the owner of the hoy- 
 been unluckily out of the way, he had 
 retrieved it [soon enough to have pre- 
 vented our giving the lady an oppor- 
 tunity of displaying some part of her 
 goodness. 
 
 To search the hoy was, indeed, too 
 natural a suggestion to have escaped any 
 one, nor did it escape being mentioned 
 by many of us ; but we were dissuaded 
 from it by my wife's maid, who per- 
 fectly well remembered she had left the 
 chest in the bed-chamber ; for that she 
 had never given it out of her hand in her 
 way to or from the hoy ; but William, 
 perhaps, knew the maid better, and best 
 understood how far she was to be be- 
 lieved ; for otherwise he would hardly of 
 his own accord, after hearing her de- 
 clarations, have hunted out the hoyman, 
 with much pains and difficulty. 
 
 Thus ended this scene, which begun 
 with such appearance of distress, and 
 
136 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 ended with becoming the subject of 
 mirth and laughter. 
 
 Nothing now remained but to pay our 
 taxes, which were indeed laid with in- 
 conceivable severity. Lodging was raised 
 six-pence, fire in the same proportion, 
 and even candles, which had hitherto 
 escaped, were charged with a wantonness 
 of imposition, from the beginning, and 
 placed under the style of oversight. We 
 were raised a whole pound, whereas we 
 had only burnt ten, in five nights, and the 
 pound consisted of twenty-four. 
 
 Lastly, an attempt was made, which 
 almost as far exceeds human credulity to 
 believe, as it did human patience to sub- 
 mit to. This was to make us pay as 
 much for existing an hour or two as for 
 existing a whole day ; and dressing 
 dinner was introduced as an article, tho' 
 we left the house before either pot or spit 
 had approached the fire. Here I own 
 my patience failed me, and I became an 
 example of the truth of the observation. 
 That all tyranny and oppression may be 
 carried too far, and that a yoke may be 
 made too intolerable for the neck of the 
 tamest slave. When I remonstrated 
 with some warmth against this grievance, 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 37 
 
 Mrs. Humphrys gave me a look, and left 
 the room, without making any answer. 
 She returned in a minute, running to me 
 with pen, ink, and paper in her hand, 
 and desired me to make my own bill ; 
 for she hoped, she said, I did not expect 
 that her house was to be dirtied, and her 
 goods spoiled and consumed for nothing. 
 " The whole is but thirteen shillings. 
 Can gentlefolks lie a whole night at a 
 public house for less ? If they can, I am 
 sure it is time to give off being a land- 
 lady : but pay me what you please ; I 
 would have people know that I value 
 my money as little as other folks. But 
 I was always a fool, as I says to my hus- 
 band, and never knows which side my 
 bread is buttered of. And yet, to be 
 sure, your honour shall be my warning 
 not to be bit so again. Some folks 
 knows better than others some, how to 
 make their bills. Candles ! why, yes, to 
 be sure ; why should not travellers pay 
 for candles ? I am sure I pays for my 
 candles, and the chandler pays the King's 
 Majesty for them ; and if he did not, I 
 must, so as it comes to the same thing in 
 the end. To be sure I am out of six- 
 teens at present, but these burn as white 
 
138 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 and as clear, tho' not quite so large. I 
 expects my chandler here soon, or I 
 would send to Portsmouth, if your honour 
 was to stay any time longer. But when 
 folks stays only for a wind, you knows 
 there can be no dependance on such ! " 
 Here she put on a little slyness of aspect, 
 and seemed willing to submit to inter- 
 ruption. I interrupted her, accordingly, 
 by throwing down half a guinea, and 
 declared I had no more English money, 
 which was indeed true ; and as she could 
 not immediately change the thirty-six 
 shilling pieces, it put a final end to the 
 dispute. Mrs. Humphrys soon left the 
 room, and we soon after left the house ; 
 nor would this good woman see us, or 
 wish us a good voyage. 
 
 I must not, however, quit this place, 
 where we had been so ill-treated, without 
 doing it impartial justice, and recording 
 what may with the strictest truth be said 
 in its favour. 
 
 First then, as to its situation, it is, I 
 think, most delightful, and in the most 
 pleasant spot in the whole island. It is 
 true it wants the advantage of that beau- 
 tiful river, which leads from Newport to 
 Cowes : but the prospect here extending 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 39 
 
 to the sea, and taking in Portsmouth, 
 Spithead, and St. Helen's, would be more 
 than a recompence for the loss of the 
 Thames itself, even in the most delight- 
 ful part of Berkshire or Buckingham- 
 shire, tho' another Denham, or another 
 Pope, should unite in celebrating it. For 
 my own part, I confess myself so entirely 
 fond of a sea prospect, that I think no- 
 thing on the land can equal it ; and if it 
 be set off with shipping, I desire to bor- 
 row no ornament from the terra firma. 
 A fleet of ships is, in my opinion, the 
 noblest object which the art of man hath 
 ever produced ; and far beyond the power 
 of those architects who deal in brick, in 
 stone, or in marble. 
 
 When the late Sir Robert Walpole, 
 one of the best of men and of ministers, 
 used to equip us a yearly fleet at Spit- 
 head, his enemies of taste must have 
 allowed that he, at least, treated the na- 
 tion with a fine sight for their money. A 
 much finer, indeed, than the same ex- 
 pence in an encampment could have pro- 
 duced. For what, indeed, is the best 
 idea which the prospect of a number of 
 huts can furnish to the mind, but of a 
 number of men forming themselves into 
 
I40 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 a society, before the art of building more 
 substantial houses was known? This, 
 perhaps, would be agreeable enough ; but, 
 in truth, there is a much worse idea ready 
 to step in before it, and that is of a body 
 of cut-throats, the supports of tyranny, 
 the invaders of the just liberties and pro- 
 perties of mankind, the plunderers of the 
 industrious, the ravishers of the chaste, 
 the murderers of the innocent ; and, in 
 a word, the destroyers of the plenty, the 
 peace, and the safety of their fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 And what, it may be said, are these 
 men of war, which seem so delightful an 
 object to our eyes ? Are they not alike 
 the support of tyranny, and oppression 
 of innocence, carrying with them desola- 
 tion and ruin wherever their masters 
 please to send them. This is, indeed, too 
 true ; and however the ship of war may, 
 in its bulk and equipment, exceed the 
 honest merchant-man, I heartily wish 
 there was no necessity for it ; for, tho' I 
 must own the superior beauty of the ob- 
 ject on one side, I am more pleased with 
 the superior excellence of the idea, which 
 I can raise in my mind on the other ; 
 while I reflect on the art and industry of 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 141 
 
 mankind, engaged in the daily improve- 
 ments of commerce, to the mutual benefit 
 of all countries, and to the establishment 
 and happiness of social life. 
 
 This pleasant village is situated on a 
 gentle ascent from the water, whence it 
 affords that charming prospect I have 
 above describe"d. Its soil is a gravel, 
 which assisted with its declivity, pre- 
 serves it always so dry, that immediately 
 after the most violent rain, a fine lady 
 may walk without wetting her silken 
 shoes. The fertility of the place is ap- 
 parent from its extraordinary verdure, 
 and it is so shaded with large and flourish- 
 ing elms, that its narrow lanes are a 
 natural grove or walk, which in the regu- 
 larity of its plantation vies with the power 
 of art, and in its wanton exuberancy 
 greatly exceeds it. 
 
 In a field, in the ascent of this hill, 
 about a quarter of a mile from the sea, 
 stands a neat little chapel. It is very 
 small, but adequate to the number of in- 
 habitants : for the parish doth not seem 
 to contain above thirty houses. 
 
 At about two miles distant from this 
 parish, lives that polite and good lady to 
 whose kindness we were so much obliged. 
 
142 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 It is placed on a hill, whose bottom is 
 washed by the sea, and which from its 
 eminence at top, commands a view of 
 great part of the island, as well as it 
 does that of the opposite shore. This 
 house was formerly built by one Boyce, 
 who, from a blacksmith at Gosport, be- 
 came possessed, by great success in 
 smuggling, of ;^40,ooo. With part of this 
 he purchased an estate here, and by 
 chance, probably, fixed on this spot for 
 building a large house. Perhaps the 
 convenience of carrying on his business, 
 to which it is so well adapted, might dic- 
 tate the situation to him. We can hardly, 
 at least, attribute it to the same taste 
 with which he furnished his house, or at 
 least his library, by sending an order to 
 a bookseller in London, to pack him up 
 500 pounds worth of his handsomest 
 books. They tell here several almost 
 incredible stories of the ignorance, the 
 folly, and the pride which this poor man 
 and his wife discovered during the short 
 continuance of his prosperity ; for he did 
 not long escape the sharp eyes of the 
 revenue-solicitors, and was, by extents 
 from the Court of Exchequer, soon re- 
 duced below his original state, to that of 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I43 
 
 confinement in the Fleet. All his effects 
 were sold, and, among the rest, his books, 
 by an auction at Portsmouth, for a very- 
 small price ; for the bookseller was now 
 discovered to have been perfectly a 
 master of his trade, and relying on Mr. 
 Boyce's finding little time to read, had 
 sent him not only the most lasting wares 
 of his shop, but duplicates of the same, 
 under different titles. 
 
 His estate and house were purchased 
 by a gentleman of these parts, whose 
 widow now enjoys them, and who hath 
 improved them, particularly her gardens, 
 with so elegant a taste, that the painter 
 who would assist his imagination in the 
 composition of a most exquisite land- 
 scape, or the poet, who would describe 
 an earthly paradise, could no where fur- 
 nish themselves with a richer pattern. 
 
 We left this place about eleven in the 
 morning, and were again conveyed with 
 more sunshine than wind aboard our 
 ship. 
 
 Whence our captain had acquired his 
 power of prophecy, when he promised us 
 and himself a prosperous wind, I will not 
 determine ; it is sufficient to observe, 
 that he was a false prophet, and that 
 
144 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 the weathercocks continued to point as 
 before. 
 
 He would not, however, so easily give 
 up his skill in prediction. He persevered 
 in asserting that the wind was changed, 
 and, having weighed his anchor, fell 
 down that afternoon to St. Helen's, which 
 was at about the distance of five miles ; 
 and whither his friend the tide, in defiance 
 of the wind, which was most manifestly 
 against him, softly wafted him in as many 
 hours. 
 
 Here about seven in the evening, before 
 which time we could not procure it, we 
 sat down to regale ourselves with some 
 roasted venison, which was much better 
 drest than we imagined it would be, and 
 an excellent cold pasty which my wife 
 had made at Ryde, and which we had 
 reserved uncut to eat on board our ship, 
 whither we all cheerfully exulted in being 
 returned from the presence of Mrs. Hum- 
 phrys, who, by the exact resemblance she 
 bore to a fury, seemed to have been with 
 no great propriety settled in Paradise. 
 
 Friday, July 24. As we passed by 
 Spithead on the preceding evening, we 
 saw the two regiments of soldiers who 
 were just returned from Gibraltar and 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 4$ 
 
 Minorca ; and this day a lieutenant be- 
 longing to one of them, who was the 
 captain's nephew, came to pay a visit to 
 his uncle, and entertained the ladies with 
 a description of those countries, the man- 
 ners, dress, and diversions of the inhabi- 
 tants of Minorca, to which he added an 
 account of an officer's life in garrison, 
 which, tho' it might be tolerable for three 
 or four years, must, I think, be insup- 
 portable for a longer time. And I found, 
 indeed, by his discourse, that the troops 
 in general embarked from England to 
 these garrisons, since they had been 
 changed every third year, with the ut- 
 most chearfulness ; but that, before this 
 time, they looked upon going to Gib- 
 ralter and Port Mahon in the light of 
 banishment ; which made many of them 
 melancholy, and some of the soldiers, it 
 is said, had such a strong desire of re- 
 visiting their native country, that they 
 absolutely pined away, which I am much 
 inclined to believe ; for a brother of 
 mine, who was at Minorca about four- 
 teen years ago, inform'd me that he came 
 to England in the same ship with a 
 soldier who shot himself thro' the hand, 
 merely that he might be sent home, 
 L 
 
146 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 having been in that island for many 
 years. But now the north wind, dearer 
 to our captain even than the company 
 of his nephew for whom he express'd the 
 highest regard, sprung suddenly up, and 
 called aloud to him to weigh his anchor. 
 While this ceremony was performing, 
 the sea-captain ordered out his boat to 
 row the land-captain to shore. 
 
 It appeared now, that the captain had 
 been only mistaken in the date of his 
 prediction, by placing the event a day 
 earlier than it happened ; for the wind 
 which now arose, was not only favour- 
 able but brisk, and was no sooner in 
 reach of our sails, than it swept us away 
 by the back of the Isle of Wight, and 
 having in the night carried us by Christ- 
 church and Peveral-point, brought us 
 the next noon, Saturday, July 29, off 
 the island of Portland, so famous for the 
 smallness and sweetness of its mutton, 
 of which a leg seldom weighs four pounds. 
 We would have bought a sheep, but our 
 captain would not permit it ; for I must 
 do him the justice to say, that whether 
 the wind was fair or foul, he always 
 made the most of it, for he never let go 
 his anchor but with a manifest concern. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 147 
 
 and was generally out of humour for an 
 hour or two upon these occasions, the' 
 he needed not have been in such a hurry, 
 for presently the wind, I will not posi- 
 tively assert in resentment of his bold- 
 ness, shewed him a dog's trick, and slily 
 slipt back again to his summer-house in 
 the south-west. 
 
 The captain now grew outrageous, and 
 declaring open war with the wind, took 
 a resolution, rather more bold than wise, 
 of sailing in defiance of it, and in its 
 teeth. He declared he would let go his 
 anchor no more, but would beat the sea 
 while he had either yard or sail left. He 
 accordingly stood from the shore, and 
 made so large a tack, that before night, 
 though he seemed to advance but little on 
 his way, he was got out of sight of land. 
 
 Towards the evening, the wind began, 
 in the captain's own language, to freshen ; 
 and indeed it freshned so much, that 
 before ten it blew a perfect hurricane. 
 The captain having got, as he supposed, 
 to a safe distance, tacked again towards 
 the English shore ; and now the wind 
 veered a point only in his favour, and 
 continued to blow with such violence, 
 that the ship ran above eight knots or 
 
148 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 miles an hour, during this whole day and 
 tempestuous night, till bed-time. I was 
 obliged to betake myself once more to 
 my solitude ; for my women were again 
 all down in their sea-sickness, and the 
 captain was busy on deck. 
 
 Having contracted no great degree of 
 good humour, by living a whole day 
 alone, without a single soul to converse 
 with, I took but ill physic to purge it off", 
 by a bed-conversation with the captain ; 
 who, amongst many bitter lamentations 
 of his fate, and protesting he had more 
 patience than a Job, frequently inter- 
 mixed summons to the commanding- 
 officer on the deck, who now happened 
 to be one Morrison, of whom he inquired 
 every quarter of an hour concerning the 
 state of aff"airs ; the wind, the care of the 
 ship, and other matters of navigation. 
 The frequency of these summons, as well 
 as the solicitude with which they were 
 made, gave me to understand, that we 
 were not totally free from danger, and 
 would have given no small alarm to a 
 man, who had either not learnt what it 
 is to die, or known what it is to be 
 miserable. And my dear wife and child 
 must pardon me, if what I did not con- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I49 
 
 ceive to be any great evil to myself, 1 
 was not much terrified with the thoughts 
 of happening to them : in truth, I have 
 often thought they are both too good, 
 and too gentle, to be trusted to the 
 power of any man. 
 
 Can I say then I had no fear ; indeed 
 I cannot, reader, I was afraid for thee, 
 lest thou shouldst have been deprived of 
 that pleasure thou art now enjoying. 
 
 From all these fears we were relieved, 
 at six in the morning, by the arrival of 
 Mr. Morrison, who acquainted us that 
 he was sure he beheld land very near ; 
 for he could not see half a mile, by 
 reason of the haziness of the weather. 
 This land, he said, was, he believed, the 
 Berry-head, which forms one side of 
 Torbay : the captain much surprized at 
 this news, for he did not believe he was 
 so near land, whipped on his night-gown, 
 and regardless of every other dress, ran 
 upon deck, saying, that if that was true 
 he would give him his mother for a 
 maid, a forfeiture which afterwards be- 
 came due, for within half an hour, he 
 returning into the cabin, wished me joy 
 of our lying safe at anchor in the bay. 
 
 Sunday, July 26. Things now began 
 
ISO JOURNAL OF A 
 
 to put on an aspect very different from 
 \vhat they had lately worn : the news 
 that the ship had almost lost its mizen, 
 and that we had procured very fine 
 clouted cream and fresh bread and butter 
 from the shore, restored health and spirits 
 to our women, and we all sat down to a 
 very chearful breakfast. 
 
 But however pleasant our stay pro- 
 mised to be here, we were all desirous 
 it should be short : I resolved imme- 
 diately to dispatch my man into the 
 country, to purchase a present of cyder 
 for my friends of that which is called 
 Southam, as well as to take with me a 
 hogshead of it to Lisbon ; for it is, in 
 my opinion, much more delicious than 
 that which is the growth of Hereford- 
 shire. I purchased three hogsheads for 
 five pounds ten shillings, all which I 
 should have scarce thought worth men- 
 tioning, had I not believed it might be 
 of equal service to the honest farmer 
 who sold it me, and who is by the neigh- 
 bouring gentlemen reputed to deal in 
 the very best, and to the reader, who 
 from ignorance of the means of providing 
 better for himself, swallows at a dearer 
 rate the juice of Middlesex turnip, in- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. IJI 
 
 Stead of that Vinum Pomonse which 
 Mr. Giles Leverance of Cheeshurst, near 
 Dartmouth in Devon, will, at the price 
 of forty shillings per hogshead, send in 
 double casks to any part of the world. 
 Had the wind been very sudden in 
 shifting, I had lost my cyder, by an 
 attempt of a boatman to exact, accord- 
 ing to custom. He required five shillings 
 for conveying my man a mile and half 
 to the shore, and four more if he staid 
 to bring him back. This I thought to 
 be such insufferable impudence, that I 
 ordered him to be immediately chased 
 from the ship, without any answer. In- 
 deed, there are few inconveniencies that 
 I would not rather encounter, than en- 
 courage the insolent demands of these 
 wretches, at the expence of my own 
 indignation, of which I own they are not 
 the only objects, but rather those who 
 purchase a paultry convenience by en- 
 couraging them. But of this I have 
 already spoken very largely. I shall 
 conclude, therefore, with the leave which 
 this fellow took of our ship, saying, he 
 should know it again, and would not 
 put off from the shore to relieve it in 
 any distress whatever. 
 
152 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 It will, doubtless, surprize many of 
 my readers to hear, that when we lay 
 at anchor within a mile or two of a 
 town, several days together, and even in 
 the most temperate weather, we should 
 frequently want fresh provisions and 
 herbage, and other emoluments of the 
 shore, as much as if we had been an 
 hundred leagues from land. And this 
 too, while numbers of boats were in our 
 sight, whose owners get their livelihood 
 by rowing people up and down, and could 
 be at any time summoned by a signal 
 to our assistance, and while the captain 
 had a little boat of his own with men 
 always ready to row it at his command. 
 
 This, however, hath been partly ac- 
 counted for already, by the imposing 
 disposition of the people ; who asked so 
 much more than the proper price of their 
 labour. And as to the usefulness of the 
 captain's boat, it requires to be a little 
 expatiated upon, as it will tend to lay 
 open some of the grievances which de- 
 mand the utmost regard of our legisla- 
 ture, as they affect the most valuable 
 part of the king's subjects, those by 
 whom the commerce of the nation is 
 carried into execution. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I S3 
 
 Our captain then, who was a very 
 good and experienced seaman, having 
 been above thirty years the master of a 
 vessel, part of which he had served, as 
 hath been before noticed, as commander 
 of a privateer ; and had discharged him- 
 self with great courage and conduct, and 
 with as great success, discovered the 
 utmost aversion to the sending his boat 
 ashore, whenever we lay wind-bound in 
 any of our harbours. This aversion did 
 not arise from any fear of wearing out 
 his boat by using it, but was, in truth, 
 the result of experience, that it was easier 
 to send his men on shore than to recal 
 them. They acknowledged him to be 
 their master while they remained on 
 ship-board, but did not allow his power 
 to extend to the shores, where they had 
 no sooner set their foot, than every man 
 became sui juris, and thought himself 
 at full liberty to return when he pleased. 
 Now it is not any delight that these fel- 
 lows have in the fresh air, or verdant 
 fields on the land. Every one of them 
 would prefer his ship and his hammock 
 to all the sweets of Arabia the happy ; 
 but unluckily for them, there are in 
 every sea-port in England certain houses, 
 
154 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 whose chief livelihood depends on pro- 
 viding entertainment for the gentlemen 
 of the jacket. For this purpose, they are 
 always well-furnished with those cordial 
 liquors, which do immediately inspire 
 the heart with gladness, banishing all 
 careful thoughts, and indeed all others 
 from the mind, and opening the mouth 
 with songs of chearfulness and thanks- 
 giving, for the many wonderful blessings 
 with which a sea-faring life overflows. 
 
 For my own part, however whimsical 
 it may appear, I confess, I have thought 
 the strange story of Circe in the Odyssey, 
 no other than an ingenious allegory ; in 
 which Homer intended to convey to his 
 countrymen the same kind of instruc- 
 tion, which we intend to communicate 
 to our own in this digression. As teaching 
 the art of war to the Greeks, was the 
 plain design of the Iliad ; so was teaching 
 them the art of navigation the no less 
 manifest intention of the Odyssey. For 
 the improvement of this, their situation 
 was most excellently adapted ; and ac- 
 cordingly we find Thucydides, in the 
 beginning of his history, considers the 
 Greeks as a set of pirates, or privateers, 
 plundering each other by sea. This 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I 55 
 
 being probably the first institution of 
 commerce before the Ars Cauponaria 
 was in\'ented, and merchants, instead of 
 robbing, began to cheat and outwit each 
 other, and by degrees changed the Meta- 
 bletic, the only kind of traffic allowed 
 by Aristotle in his Politicks, into the 
 Chrematistic. 
 
 By this allegory then I suppose Ulysses 
 to have been the captain of a merchant- 
 ship, and Circe some good ale-wife, who 
 made his crew drunk with the spirituous 
 liquors of those days. With this the 
 transformation into swine, as well as all 
 other incidents of the fable, will notably 
 agree ; and thus a key will be found out 
 for unlocking the whole mystery, and 
 forging, at least, some meaning to a story 
 which, at present, appears very strange 
 and absurd. 
 
 Hence, moreover, will appear the very 
 near resemblance between the sea-faring 
 men of all ages and nations ; and here 
 perhaps may be established the truth 
 and justice of that observation, which will 
 occur oftener than once in this voyage, 
 that all human flesh is not the same 
 flesh, but that there' is one kind of flesh 
 of landmen, and another of seamen. 
 
IS6 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 Philosophers, divines, and others, who 
 have treated the gratification of human 
 appetites with contempt, have, among 
 other instances, insisted very strongly on 
 that satiety which is so apt to overtake 
 them, even in the very act of enjoyment. 
 And here they more particularly deserve 
 our attention, as most of them may be 
 supposed to speak from their own ex- 
 perience ; and very probably gave us 
 their lessons with a full stomach. Thus 
 hunger and thirst, whatever delight they 
 may afford while we are eating and 
 drinking, pass both away from us with 
 the plate and the cup ; and though we 
 should imitate the Romans, if indeed 
 they were such dull beasts, which I can 
 scarce believe, to unload the belly like a 
 dung-pot, in order to fill it again with 
 another load, yet would the pleasure be 
 so considerably lessened, that it would 
 scarce repay us the trouble of purchasing 
 it with swallowing a bason of camomile 
 tea. A second haunch of venison, or a 
 second dose of turtle, would hardly allure 
 a city glutton with its smell. Even the 
 celebrated Jew himself, when well filled 
 with Calipash and Calipee, goes con- 
 tentedly home to tell his money, and 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 157 
 
 expects no more pleasure from his throat, 
 during the next twenty -four hours. 
 Hence I suppose Dr. South took that 
 elegant comparison of the joys of a 
 speculative man to the solemn silence of 
 an Archimedes over a problem, and those 
 of a glutton to the stillness of a sow at 
 her wash. A simile, which, if it became 
 the pulpit at all, could only become it in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 Whereas, in those potations which the 
 mind seems to enjoy, rather than the 
 bodily appetite, there is happily no such 
 satiety ; but the more a man drinks the 
 more he desires ; as if, like Mark Anthony 
 in Dryden, his appetite increased with 
 feeding, and this to such an im- 
 moderate degree, ut nullus sit desiderio 
 aut pudor aut modus. Hence, as with 
 the gang of Captain Ulysses, ensues so 
 total a transformation, that the man no 
 more continues what he was. Perhaps 
 he ceaises for a time to be at all ; or, tho' 
 he may retain the same outward form 
 and figure he had before, yet is his 
 nobler part, as we are taught to call it, 
 so changed, that, instead of being the 
 same man, he scarce remembers what he 
 was a few hours before. And this trans- 
 
IS8 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 formation being once obtained, is so 
 easily preserved by the same potations, 
 which induce no satiety, that the captain 
 in vain sends or goes in quest of his 
 crew. They know him no longer ; or, if 
 they do, they acknowledge not his power, 
 having indeed as entirely forgotten them- 
 selves, as if they had taken a large draught 
 of the river of Lethe. 
 
 Nor is the captain always sure of even 
 finding out the place to which Circe hath 
 conveyed them. There are many of 
 those houses in every ;"port-town. Nay, 
 there are some where the sorceress doth 
 not trust only to her drugs ; but hath in- 
 struments of a different kind to execute 
 her purposes, by whose means the tar is 
 effectually secreted from the knowledge 
 and pursuit of his captain. This would, 
 indeed, be very fatal, was it not for one 
 circumstance ; that the sailor is seldom 
 provided with the proper bait for these 
 harpies. However, the contrary some- 
 times happens, as these harpies will bite 
 at almost any thing, and will snap at 
 a pair of silver buttons or buckles, as 
 surely as at the specie itself. Nay, 
 sometimes they are so voracious, that 
 the very naked hook will go down, and 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 59 
 
 the jolly young sailor is sacrificed for his 
 own sake. 
 
 In vain, at such a season as this, would 
 the vows of a pious heathen have pre- 
 vailed over Neptune, ^olus, or any 
 other marine deity. In vain would the 
 prayers of a Christian captain be attended 
 with the like success. The wind may 
 change, how it pleases, while all hands 
 are on shore ; the anchor would remain 
 firm in the ground, and the ship would 
 continue in durance, unless, like other 
 forcible prison-breakers, it forcibly got 
 loose for no good purpose. 
 
 Now, as the favour of winds and courts, 
 and such like, is always to be laid hold 
 on at the very first motion, for within 
 twenty-four hours all may be changed 
 again ; so in the former case, the loss of 
 a day may be the loss of a voyage : for, 
 tho' it may appear to some persons not 
 well skilled in navigation, who see ships 
 meet and sail by each other, that the 
 wind blows sometimes east and west, 
 north and south, backwards and for- 
 wards, at the same instant ; yet, certain 
 it is, that the land is so contrived, that 
 even the same wind will not, like the 
 same horse, alv/ays bring a man to the 
 
l6o JOURNAL OF A 
 
 end of his journey ; but, that the gale 
 which the mariner prayed heartily for 
 yesterday, he may as heartily deprecate 
 to-morrow ; while all use and benefit, 
 which would have arisen to him from 
 the westerly wind of to-morrow, may be 
 totally lost and thrown away, by neglect- 
 ing the offer of the easterly blast which 
 blows to-day. 
 
 Hence ensues grief and disreputation 
 to the innocent captain, loss and dis- 
 appointment to the worthy merchant, 
 and not seldom great prejudice to the 
 trade of a nation, whose manufactures 
 are thus liable to lye unsold in a foreign 
 warehouse, the market being forestall'd 
 by some rival whose sailors are under a 
 better discipline. To guard against these 
 inconveniencies.the prudent captain takes 
 every precaution in his power : he makes 
 the strongest contracts with his crew, and 
 thereby binds them so firmly, that none 
 but the greatest or least of men can break 
 through them with impunity : but for 
 one of these two reasons, which I will 
 not determine, the sailor, like his brother 
 fish the eel, is too slippery to be held, 
 and plunges into his element with perfect 
 impunity. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. l6l 
 
 To Speak a plain truth, there is no 
 trusting to any contract with one whom 
 the wise citizens of London call a bad 
 man ; for, with such a one, tho' your 
 bond be ever so strong, it will prove in 
 the end good for nothing. 
 
 What then is to be done in this case ? 
 What, indeed ! but to call in the assis- 
 tance of that tremendous magistrate, the 
 justice of peace, who can, and often doth 
 lay good and bad men in equal durance ; 
 and, tho' he seldom cares to stretch his 
 bonds to what is great, never finds any 
 thing too minute for their detention, but 
 will hold the smallest reptile alive so fast 
 in his noose, that he can never get out 
 'till he is let drop through it. 
 
 Why, therefore, upon the breach of 
 those contracts, should not an imme- 
 diate application be made to the nearest 
 magistrate of this order, who should be 
 empower'd to convey the delinquent, 
 either to ship or to prison, at the election 
 of the captain, to be fettered by the leg 
 in either place. 
 
 But, as the case now stands, the con- 
 dition of this poor captain, without any 
 commission, and of this absolute com- 
 mander without any power, is much 
 
 M 
 
l62 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 worse than we have hitherto shewn it to 
 be ; for notwithstanding all the aforesaid 
 contracts to sail in the good ship the 
 Elizabeth, if the sailor should, for better 
 wages, find it more his interest to go on 
 board the better ship, the Mary, either 
 before their setting out, or on their 
 speedy meeting in some port, he may 
 prefer the latter without any other 
 danger, than that of "doing what he 
 ought not to have done," contrary to a 
 rule which he is seldom Christian enough 
 to have much at heart, while the captain 
 is generally too good a Christian to punish 
 a man out of revenge only, when he is 
 to be at a considerable expence for so 
 doing. There are many other deficiencies 
 in our laws, relating to maritime affairs, 
 and which would probably have been 
 long since corrected, had we any seamen 
 in the House of Commons. Not that I 
 would insinuate that the legislature wants 
 a supply of many gentlemen in the sea- 
 service : but, as these gentlemen are, by 
 their attendance in the House, unfor- 
 tunately prevented from ever going to 
 sea, and there learning what they might 
 communicate to their landed brethren, 
 these latter remain as ignorant in that 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 63 
 
 branch of knowledge, as they would be 
 if none but courtiers and fox-hunters 
 had been elected into parliament, without 
 a single fish among them. The following 
 seems to me to be an effect of this kind, 
 and it strikes me the stronger, as I re- 
 member the case to have happened, and 
 remember it to have been dispunish- 
 able. A captain of a trading vessel, of 
 which he was part-owner, took in a large 
 freight of oats at Liverpool, consign'd to 
 the market at Bear-key : this he carried 
 to a port in Hampshire, and there sold 
 it as his own, and freighting his vessel 
 with wheat for the port of Cadiz in 
 Spain, dropt it at Oporto in his way, 
 and there selling it for his own use, took 
 in a lading of wine, with which he sailed 
 again, and having converted it in the 
 same manner, together with a large sum 
 of money with which he was entrusted, 
 for the benefit of certain merchants, sold 
 the ship and cargo in another port, and 
 then wisely sat down contented with the 
 fortune he had made, and returned to 
 London to enjoy the remainder of his 
 days, with the fruits of his former labours 
 and a good conscience. 
 
 The sum he brought home with him, 
 
1 64 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 consisted of near six thousand pounds, 
 all in specie, and most of it in that coin 
 which Portugal distributes so liberally 
 over Europe. 
 
 He was not yet old enough to be past 
 all sense of pleasure, nor so puff'd up 
 with the pride of his good fortune, as 
 to overlook his old acquaintances the 
 journeymen taylors, from among whom 
 he had been formerly press'd into the 
 sea-service, and having there laid the 
 foundation of his future success, by his 
 shares in prizes, had afterwards become 
 captain of a trading vessel, in which he 
 purchased an interest, and had soon be- 
 gun to trade in the honourable manner 
 above-mentioned. 
 
 The captain now took up his resi- 
 dence at an alehouse in Drury-lane, 
 where, having all his money by him in a 
 trunk, he spent above five pounds a day 
 among his old friends the gentlemen and 
 ladies of those parts. 
 
 The merchant of Liverpool having 
 luckily had notice from a friend, during 
 the blaze of his fortune, did, by the 
 assistance of a justice of peace, without 
 the assistance of the law, recover his 
 whole loss. The captain, however, wisely 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 65 
 
 chose to refund no more ; but perceiving 
 with what hasty strides envy was pur- 
 suing his fortune, he took speedy means 
 to retire out of her reach, and to enjoy 
 the rest of his wealth in an inglorious 
 obscurity ; nor could the same justice 
 overtake him time enough to assist a 
 second merchant, as he had done the 
 first. 
 
 This was a very extraordinary case, 
 and the more so, as the ingenious gentle- 
 man had steered entirely clear of all 
 crimes in our law. 
 
 Now, how it comes about that a rob- 
 bery so very easy to be committed, and 
 to which there is such immediate temp- 
 tation always before the eyes of these 
 fellows, should receive the encouragement 
 of impunity, is to be accounted for only 
 from the oversight of the legislature, as 
 that oversight can only be, I think, de- 
 rived from the reasons I have assigned 
 for it. 
 
 But I will dwell no longer on this 
 subject. If what I have here said should 
 seem of sufficient consequence to engage 
 the attention of any man in power, and 
 should thus be the means of applying 
 any remedy, to the most inveterate evils 
 
l66 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 at least, I have obtained my whole de- 
 sire, and shall have lain so long wind- 
 bound in the ports of this kingdom to 
 some purpose. I would indeed have this 
 work, which, if I should live to finish it, 
 (a matter of no great certainty, if indeed 
 of any great hope to me,) will be probably 
 the last I shall ever undertake, to produce 
 some better end than the mere diversion 
 of the reader. 
 
 Monday. This day our captain went 
 ashore, to dine with a gentleman who 
 lives in these parts, and who so exactly 
 resembles the character given by Homer 
 of Axylus, that the only difference I can 
 trace between them is, the one living 
 by the highway, erected his hospitality 
 chiefly in favour of land travellers ; and 
 the other living by the water-side, grati- 
 fies his humanity by accommodating the 
 wants of the mariner. 
 
 In the evening our commander re- 
 ceived a visit from a brother captain, 
 who lay wind-bound in the same har- 
 bour. This latter captain was a Swiss. 
 He was then master of a vessel bound 
 to Guinea, and had formerly been a 
 privateering, when our own hero was 
 employed in the same laudable service. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 67 
 
 The honesty and freedom of the Switzer, 
 his vivacity, in which he was in no re- 
 spect inferior to his near neighbours the 
 French, the aukward and affected polite- 
 ness, which was likewise of French ex- 
 traction, mixed with the brutal rough- 
 ness of the English tar (for he* had 
 served under the colours of this nation, 
 and his crew had been of the same) 
 made such an odd variety, such a hotch- 
 potch of character, that I should have 
 been much diverted with him, had not 
 his voice, which was as loud as a speak- 
 ing trumpet, unfortunately made my 
 head ake. The noise which he conveyed 
 into the ears of his brother captain, who 
 sat on one side of him, the soft addresses, 
 with which, mixed with aukward bows, 
 he saluted the ladies on the other, were 
 so agreeably contrasted, that a man must 
 not only have been void of all taste of 
 humour, and insensible of mirth, but 
 duller than Cibber is represented in the 
 Dunciad, who could be unentertained 
 with him a little while : for, I confess, 
 such entertainments should always be 
 very short, as they are very liable to 
 pall. But he suffered not this to happen 
 at present ; for having given us his com- 
 
1 68 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 pany a quarter of an hour only, he re- 
 tired, after many apologies for the short- 
 ness of his visit. 
 
 Tuesday. The wind being less bois- 
 terous than it had hitherto been since 
 our arrival here, several fishing boats, 
 which the tempestuous weather yester- 
 day had prevented from working, came 
 on board us with fish. This was so fresh, 
 so good in kind, and so very cheap, that 
 we supplied ourselves with great num- 
 bers, among which were very large soals 
 at four-pence a pair, and whitings, of 
 almost a preposterous size, at nine-pence 
 a score. 
 
 The only fish which bore any price 
 was a John dor^e, as it is called. I 
 bought one of at least four pounds 
 weight for as many shillings. It re- 
 sembles a turbut in shape, but exceeds it 
 in firmness and flavour. The price had 
 the appearance of being considerable, 
 when opposed to the extraordinary 
 cheapness of others of value ; but was, 
 in truth, so very reasonable, when esti- 
 mated by its goodness, that it left me 
 under no other surprize, than how the 
 gentlemen of this country, not greatly 
 eminent for the delicacy of their taste. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 69 
 
 had discovered the preference of the 
 dor^e to all other fish : but I was in- 
 formed that Mr. Quin, whose distin- 
 guishing tooth hath been so justly cele- 
 brated, had lately visited Plymouth, and 
 had done those honours to the dorde, 
 which are so justly due to it from that 
 sect of modem philosophers, who with 
 Sir Epicure Mammon, or Sir Epicure 
 Quin, their head, seem more to delight 
 in a fish-pond than in a garden, as the 
 old Epicureans are said to have done. 
 
 Unfortunately for the fishmongers of 
 London, the dorde resides only in those 
 seas ; for could any of this company but 
 convey one to the temple of luxury under 
 the Piazza, where Macklin the high 
 priest daily serves up his rich offerings 
 to that goddess, great would be the 
 reward of that fishmonger in blessings 
 poured down upon him from the god- 
 dess ; as great would his merit be to- 
 wards the high priest, who could never 
 be thought to over-rate such valuable 
 incense. 
 
 And here having mentioned the ex- 
 treme cheapness of fish in the Devon- 
 shire sea, and given some little hint of 
 the extreme deamess with which this 
 
I70 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 commodity is dispensed by those who 
 deal in it in London, I cannot pass on 
 without throwing forth an observation 
 or two, with the same view with which 
 I have scattered my several remarks 
 through this voyage, sufficiently satisfied 
 in having finished my life, as I have 
 probably lost it, in the service of my 
 country, from the best of motives, tho' it 
 should be attended with the worst of 
 success. Ends are always in our power ; 
 means are very seldom so. 
 
 Of all the animal foods with which 
 man is furnished, there are none so 
 plenty as fish. A little rivulet, that 
 glides almost unperceived through a vast 
 tract of rich land, will support more 
 hundreds with the flesh of its inhabitants 
 than the meadow will nourish individuals. 
 But if this be true of rivers, it is much 
 truer of the sea shores, which abound 
 with such immense variety of fish, that 
 the curious fisherman, after he hath made 
 his draught, often culls only the daintiest 
 part, and leaves the rest of his prey to 
 perish on the shore. 
 
 If this be true, it would appear, I 
 think, that there is nothing which might 
 be had in such abundance, and conse- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 17I 
 
 quently so cheap, as fish, of which nature 
 seems to have provided such inexhaus- 
 tible stores with some peculiar design. 
 In the production of terrestrial animals, 
 she proceeds with such slowness, that in 
 the larger kind, a single female seldom 
 produces more than one a year, and this 
 again requires three, four, or five years 
 more to bring it to perfection. And tho' 
 the lesser quadrupeds, those of the wild 
 kind particularly, with the birds, do mul- 
 tiply much faster, yet can none of these 
 bear any proportion with the aquatic 
 animals, of whom every female matrix is 
 furnished with an annual offspring, almost 
 exceeding the power of numbers, and 
 which, in many instances at least, a 
 single year is capable of bringing to 
 some degree of maturity. 
 
 What then ought in general to be so 
 plentiful, what so cheap as fish ? What 
 then so properly the food of the poor ? 
 So in many places they are, and so might 
 they always be in great cities, which are 
 always situated near the sea, or on the 
 conflux of large rivers. How comes it 
 then, to look no farther abroad for in- 
 stances, that in our city of London 
 the case is so far otherwise, that except 
 
172 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 that of sprats, there is not one poor 
 palate in a hundred that knows the taste 
 of fish. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that this taste is 
 generally of such excellent flavour, that 
 it exceeds the power of French cookery 
 to treat the palates of the rich with any 
 thing more exquisitely delicate ; so that 
 was fish the common food of the poor, it 
 might put them too much upon an 
 equality with their betters, in the great 
 article of eating, in which, at present, in 
 the opinion of some, the great difference 
 in happiness between man and man con- 
 sists. But this argument I shall treat 
 with the utmost disdain : for if ortolans 
 were as big as bustards, and at the same 
 time as plenty as sparrows, I should hold 
 it yet reasonable to indulge the poor 
 with the dainty, and that for this cause 
 especially, that the rich would soon find 
 a sparrow, if as scarce as an ortolan, to 
 be much the greater, as it would certainly 
 be the rarer dainty of the two. 
 
 Vanity or scarcity will be always the 
 favourite of luxury, but honest hunger 
 will be satisfied with plenty. Not to 
 search deeper into the cause of the evil, 
 I shall think it abundantly sufficient to 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 73 
 
 propose the remedies of it. And, first, I 
 humbly submit the absolute necessity of 
 immediately hanging all the fishmongers 
 within the bills of mortality ; and how- 
 ever it might have been some time ago 
 the opinion of mild and temporizing 
 men, that the evil complained of might 
 be removed by gentler methods, I sup- 
 pose at this day there are none who do 
 not see the impossibility of using such 
 with any effect. Cuncta prius tentanda 
 might have been formerly urged with 
 some plausibility, but Cuncta prius ten- 
 tata may now be replied : for surely if a 
 few monopolizing fishmongers could de- 
 feat that excellent scheme of the West- 
 minster market, to the erecting which 
 so many justices of peace, as well as 
 other wise and learned men, did so vehe- 
 mently apply themselves, that they might 
 be truly said not only to have laid the 
 whole strength of their heads, but of 
 their shoulders too, to the business, it 
 would be a vain endeavour for any other 
 body of men to attempt to remove so 
 stubborn a nuisance. 
 
 If it should be doubted, whether we 
 can bring this case within the letter of 
 any capital law now subsisting ? I am 
 
174 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 ashamed to own it cannot ; for surely no 
 crime better deserves such punishment ; 
 but the remedy may, nevertheless, be 
 immediate, and if a law was made the 
 beginning of next sessions, to take place 
 immediately, by which the starving 
 thousands of poor was declared to be 
 felony, without benefit of clergy, the fish- 
 mongers would be hanged before the end 
 of the sessions. 
 
 A second method of filling the mouths 
 of the poor, if not with loaves, at least 
 with fishes, is to desire the magistrates to 
 carry into execution one, at least, out of 
 near a hundred acts of parliament, for 
 preserving the small fry of the river of 
 Thames, by which means as few fish 
 would satisfy thousands, as may now be 
 devoured by a small number of indi- 
 viduals. But while a fisherman can break 
 through the strongest meshes of an act 
 of parliament, we may be assured he will 
 learn so to contrive his own meshes, that 
 the smallest fry will not be able to swim 
 through them. 
 
 Other methods may, we doubt not, be 
 suggested by those who shall attentively 
 consider the evil here hinted at ; but we 
 have dwelt too long on it already, and 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 175 
 
 shall conclude with observing, that it is 
 difficult to affirm, whether the atrocity 
 of the evil itself, the facility of curing 
 it, or the shameful neglect of the cure, 
 be the more scandalous, or more asto- 
 nishing. 
 
 After having, however, gloriously re- 
 galed myself with this food, I was wash- 
 ing it down with some good claret, with 
 my wife and her friend in the cabin, 
 when the captain returned from his visit 
 a little elevated with some champaign, 
 which, as it cost his Swiss brother little or 
 nothing, he dispensed at his table more 
 liberally than our hospitable English 
 nobleman put about those bottles, which 
 the ingenious Peter Taylor) teaches a 
 led captain to avoid, by distinguishing 
 by the name of that generous liquor, 
 which all humble companions are taught 
 to postpone to the flavour of Methuen, 
 or honest Port. 
 
 However, our commander being, as I 
 observed, in great spirits, we spent the 
 rest of this day with much chearfulness, 
 the ladies being a little recovered from 
 their sea-sickness. 
 
 Wednesday ttie 20th. This morning 
 the captain drest himself in scarlet, in 
 
176 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 order to pay a visit to a Devonshire 
 squire, to whom a captain of a ship is a 
 guest of no ordinary consequence, as he 
 is a stranger and a gentleman who hath 
 seen a great deal of the world in foreign 
 parts and knows all the news of the 
 times. 
 
 The squire, therefore, was to send his 
 boat for the captain ; but a most unfor- 
 tunate accident happened : for, as the 
 wind was extremely rough, and against 
 the hoy, while this was endeavouring to 
 avail itself of great seamanship, in bawl- 
 ing up against the wind, a sudden squall 
 carried off sail and yard ; or, at least, so 
 disabled them, that they were no longer 
 of any use, and unable to reach the ship : 
 but the captain, from the deck, saw his 
 hopes of venison disappointed, and was 
 forced either to stay on board his ship, 
 or to hoist forth his own long-boat, which 
 he could not prevail with himself to 
 think of, tho' the smell of the venison 
 had had twenty times its attraction. He 
 did, indeed, love his ship as his wife, and 
 his boats as children, and never willingly 
 trusted the latter, poor things ! to the 
 dangers of the seas. 
 
 To say truth, notwithstanding the strict 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 7/ 
 
 rigour with which he preserved the dig- 
 nity of his station, and the hasty im- 
 patience with which he resented any 
 affront to his person or orders, disobe- 
 dience to which he could in no instance 
 brook in any person on board, he was 
 one of the best natur'd fellows alive. He 
 acted the part of a father to his sailors ; 
 he expressed great tenderness for any of 
 them when ill, and never suffered any 
 the least work of supererogation to go 
 unrewarded by a glass of gin. He even 
 extended his humanity, if I may so call 
 it, to animals, and even his cats and 
 kittens had large shares in his affections. 
 An instance of which we saw this 
 evening, when the cat, which had shewn 
 it could not be drowned, was found 
 suffocated under a feather-bed in the 
 cabin, upon which occasion he exprest a 
 concern which testified great goodness 
 of heart. Nay, he carried his fondness 
 even to inanimate objects, of which we 
 have above set down a pregnant example, 
 in his demonstration of love and tender- 
 ness towards his boats and ship. He 
 spoke of a ship which he had commanded 
 formerly, and which was long since no 
 more, which he had called the Princess 
 N 
 
1 78 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 of Brazil, as a widower of a deceased 
 wife. , This ship, after having followed the 
 honest business of carrying goods and 
 passengers for hire many years, did at 
 last take to evil courses and turn priva- 
 teer, in which service, to use his own 
 words, she received many dreadful 
 wounds, which he himself had felt, as if 
 they had been his own. 
 
 Thursday. As the wind did not yester- 
 day discover any purpose of shifting, and 
 the water in my belly grew troublesome, 
 and rendered me short-breathed ; I be- 
 gan a second time to have apprehensions 
 of wanting the assistance of a trochar, 
 when none was to be found : I therefore 
 concluded to be tapped again, by way of 
 precaution ; and accordingly I this morn- 
 ing summoned on board a surgeon from 
 a neighbouring parish, one whom the 
 captain greatly recommended, and who 
 did indeed perform his office with much 
 dexterity. He was, I believe likewise, a 
 man of great judgment and knowledge 
 in the profession ; but of this I cannot 
 speak with perfect certainty ; for when 
 he was going to open on the dropsy at 
 large, and on the particular degree of the 
 distemper under which I laboured, I was 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 79 
 
 obliged to stop him short, for the wind 
 was changed, and the captain in the 
 utmost hurry to depart ; and to desire 
 him, instead of his opinion, to assist me 
 with his execution. 
 
 I was now once more delivered from 
 my burthen, which was not indeed so 
 great as I had apprehended, wanting two 
 quarts of what was let out at the last 
 operation. 
 
 While the surgeon was drawing away 
 my water, the sailors were drawing up 
 the anchor; both were finished at the 
 same time, we unfurled our sails, and 
 soon passed the Berry-head, which forms 
 the mouth of the bay. 
 
 We had not however sailed far, when 
 the wind, which had, tho' with a slow 
 pace, kept us company about six miles, 
 suddenly turned about, and offered to 
 conduct us back again : a favour, which, 
 tho' sorely against the grain, we were 
 obliged to accept. 
 
 Nothing remarkable happened this 
 day ; for as to the persuasion of the 
 captain, that he was under the spell of 
 witchcraft, I would not repeat it too 
 often, lest any one should imagine, that 
 he had real faith in witches : but the 
 
l8o JOURNAL OF A 
 
 truth was, his patience, which he had 
 before compared to that of Job, was wore 
 out, tho' indeed he talked of nothing 
 else, and seemed not only to be satisfied 
 in general of his being bewitched, but 
 actually to have fixed, with good cer- 
 tainty, on the person of the witch, whom, 
 if he had lived in the days of Sir Mat- 
 thew Hale, he would have infallibly in- 
 dicted, and very possibly have hanged 
 for the detestable sin of witchcraft. But 
 that law, and the whole doctrine that 
 supported it, are now out of fashion ; 
 and witches, as a learned divine once 
 chose to express himself, are put down 
 by act of parliament. This witch, in the 
 captain's opinion, was no other than Mrs. 
 Humphrys, of Ryde, who, as he in- 
 sinuated, out of anger to me, for not 
 spending more money in her house than 
 she could produce any thing to exchange 
 for, or any pretence to charge for, had 
 laid this spell on his ship. 
 
 Tho' we were again got near our har- 
 bour by three in the afternoon, yet it 
 seemed to require a full hour or more, 
 before we could come to our former 
 place of anchoring, or berth, as the cap- 
 tain called it. On this occasion we exem- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. l8l 
 
 plified one of the few advantages, which 
 the travellers by water have over the 
 travellers by land. What would the latter 
 often give for the sight of one of those 
 hospitable mansions, where he is assured, 
 that there is good entertainment for man 
 and horse ; and where both may conse- 
 quently promise themselves to assuage 
 that hunger which exercise is so sure to 
 raise in a healthy constitution. 
 
 At their arrival at this mansion, how 
 much happier is the state of the horse 
 than that of the master ? The former is 
 immediately led to his repast, such as it 
 is, and whatever it is, he falls to it with 
 appetite. But the latter is in a much 
 worse situation. His hunger, however 
 violent, is always in some degree deli- 
 cate, and his food must have some kind 
 of ornament, or as the more usual 
 phrase is, of dressing, to recommend it. 
 Now all dressing requires time ; and 
 therefore, tho' perhaps, the sheep might 
 be just killed before you came to the 
 inn, yet in cutting him up, fetching the 
 joint, which the landlord by mistake said 
 he had in the house, from the butcher at 
 two miles distance, and afterwards warm- 
 ing it a little by the fire, two hours at 
 
1 82 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 least must be consumed, while hunger, 
 for want of better food, preys all the 
 time on the vitals of the man. 
 
 How different was the case with us? 
 we carried our provision, our kitchen, 
 and our cook with us, and we were at 
 one and the same time travelling on 
 our road, and sitting down to a repast 
 of fish, with which the greatest table 
 in London can scarce at any rate be 
 supplied. 
 
 Friday. As we were disappointed of 
 our wind, and obliged to return back the 
 preceding evening, we resolved to extract 
 all the good we could out of our mis- 
 fortune, and to add considerably to our 
 fresh stores of meat and bread, with 
 which we were very indifferently pro- 
 vided when we hurried away yesterday. 
 By the captain's advice we likewise laid 
 in some stores of butter, which we salted 
 and potted ourselves, for our use at Lis- 
 bon, and we had great reason afterwards 
 to thank him for his advice. 
 
 In the afternoon, I persuaded my wife, 
 whom it was no easy matter for me to 
 force from my side, to take a walk on 
 shore, whither the gallant captain declared 
 he was ready to attend her. Accordingly, 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 83 
 
 the ladies set out, and left me to enjoy a 
 sweet and comfortable nap after the 
 operation of the preceding day. 
 
 Thus we enjoyed our separate plea- 
 sures full three hours, when we met 
 again ; and my wife gave the foregoing 
 account of the gentleman, whom I have 
 before compared to Axylus, and of his 
 habitation, to both which she had been 
 introduced by the captain, in the stile of 
 an old friend and acquaintance. 
 
 Saturday. Early this morning the wind 
 seemed inclined to change in our favour. 
 Our alert captain snatched its very first 
 motion, and got under sail with so very 
 gentle a breeze, that as the tide was 
 against him, he recommended to a fish- 
 ing-hoy to bring after him a vast salmon, 
 and some other provisions which lay 
 ready for him on shore. 
 
 Our anchor was up at six, and before 
 nine in the morning we had doubled the 
 Berry-head, and were arrived off Dart- 
 mouth, having gone full three miles in as 
 many hours, in direct opposition to the 
 tide, which only befriended us out of our 
 harbour ; and tho' the wind was, perhaps, 
 our friend, it was so very silent, and 
 exerted itself so little in our favour, that. 
 
1 84 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 like some cool partisans, it was difficult 
 to say whether it was with us or against 
 us. The captain, however, declared the 
 former to be the case, during the whole 
 three hours ; but at last he perceived 
 his error ; or rather, perhaps, this friend, 
 which had hitherto wavered in chusing 
 his side, became now more determined. 
 The captain then suddenly tacked about, 
 and asserting that he was bewitched, 
 submitted to return to the place from 
 whence he came. Now, though I am as 
 free from superstition as any man breath- 
 ing, and never did believe in witches, not- 
 withstanding all the excellent arguments 
 of my Lord Chief Justice Hale in their 
 favour, and long before they were put 
 down by act of parliament, yet by what 
 power a ship of burthen should sail three 
 miles against both wind and tide, I can- 
 not conceive ; unless there was some 
 supernatural interposition in the case : 
 nay, could we admit that the wind stood 
 neuter, the difficulty would still remain. 
 So that we' must of necessity conclude, 
 that the ship was either bewinded or 
 bewitched. 
 
 The captain, perhaps, had another 
 meaning. He imagined himself, I believe. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I85 
 
 bewitched, because the wind, instead of 
 persevering in its change in his favour, 
 for change it certainly did that morning, 
 should suddenly return to its favourite 
 station, and blow him back towards the 
 bay. But if this was his opinion, he soon 
 saw cause to alter ; for he had not mea- 
 sured half the way back, when the wind 
 again declared in his favour, and so 
 loudly that there was no possibility of 
 being mistaken. 
 
 The orders for the second tack were 
 given, and obeyed with much more 
 alacrity, than those had been for the 
 first. We were all of us indeed in high 
 spirits on the occasion ; though some of 
 us a little regretted the good things we 
 were likely to leave behind us by the 
 fisherman's neglect : I might give it a 
 worse name, for he faithfully promised 
 to execute the commission, which he 
 had had abundant opportunity to do ; 
 but Nautica fides deserves as much to 
 be proverbial, as ever Punica fides could 
 formerly have done. Nay, when we con- 
 sider that the Carthaginians came from 
 the Phenicians, who are supposed to have 
 produced the first mariners, we may pro- 
 bably see the true reason of the adage, 
 
1 86 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 and it may open a field of very curious 
 discoveries to the antiquarian. 
 
 We were, however, too eager to pur- 
 sue our voyage, to suffer any thing we 
 left behind us to interrupt our happi- 
 ness, which indeed many agreeable cir- 
 cumstances conspired to advance. The 
 weather was inexpressibly pleasant, and 
 we were all seated on the deck, when 
 our canvas began to swell with the wind. 
 We had likewise in our view above thirty 
 other sail around us, all in the same 
 situation. Here an observation occurred 
 to me which, perhaps, though extremely 
 obvious, did not offer itself to every indi- 
 vidual in our little fleet : when I perceived 
 with what different success we proceeded, 
 under the influence of a superior power, 
 which while we lay almost idle our- 
 selves, pushed us forward on our intended 
 voyage, and compared this with the slow 
 progress which we had made in the morn- 
 ing, of ourselves and without any such 
 assistance, I could not help reflecting 
 how often the greatest abilities lie wind- 
 bound as it were in life ; or if they ven- 
 ture out, and attempt to beat the seas, 
 they struggle in vain against wind and 
 tide ; and if they have not sufficient pru- 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 87 
 
 dence to put back, are most probably 
 cast away on the rocks and quicksands, 
 which are every day ready to devour 
 them. 
 
 It was now our fortune to set out 
 melioribus avibus. The wind freshened 
 so briskly in our poop, that the shore 
 appeared to move from us, as fast as we 
 did from the shore. The captain de- 
 clared he was sure of a wind, meaning 
 its continuance ; but he had disappointed 
 us so often, that he had lost all credit. 
 However, he kept his word a little better 
 now, and we lost sight of our native 
 land, as joyfully, at least, as it is usual 
 to regain it. 
 
 Sunday. The next morning, the cap- 
 tain told me he thought himself thirty 
 miles to the westward of Plymouth, and 
 before evening declared that the Lizard 
 point, which is the extremity of Corn- 
 wall, bore several leagues to leeward. 
 Nothing remarkable past this day, ex- 
 cept the captain's devotion, who, in his 
 own phrase, summoned all hands to 
 prayers, which were read by a common 
 sailor upon deck, with more devout force 
 and address, than they are commonly 
 read by a country curate, and received 
 
1 88 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 with more decency and attention by the 
 sailors than are usually preserved in city 
 congregations. I am, indeed, assured 
 that if any such affected disregard of 
 the solemn office in which they were 
 engaged, as I have seen practised by 
 fine gentlemen and ladies, expressing a 
 kind of apprehension lest they should 
 be suspected of being really in earnest 
 in their devotion, had been shewn here, 
 they would have contracted the con- 
 tempt of the whole audience. To say 
 the truth, from what I observed in the 
 behaviour of the sailors in this voyage, 
 and on comparing it with what I have 
 formerly seen of them at sea and on 
 shore, I am convinced that on land there 
 is nothing more idle and dissolute ; in 
 their own element, there are no persons 
 near the level of their degree, who live 
 in the constant practice of half so many 
 good qualities. They are, for much the 
 greater part, perfect masters of their 
 business, and always extremely alert, 
 and ready in executing it, without any 
 regard to fatigue or hazard. The soldiers 
 themselves are not better disciplined, nor 
 more obedient to orders than these whilst 
 aboard ; they submit to every difficulty 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 89 
 
 which attends their caUing with chear- 
 fulness, and no less virtues than patience 
 and fortitude are exercised by them 
 every day of their lives. 
 
 All these good qualities, however, they 
 always leave behind them on shipboard : 
 the sailor out of water is, indeed, as 
 wretched an animal as the fish out of 
 water ; for tho' the former hath in com- 
 mon with amphibious animals the bare 
 power of existing on the land, yet if he 
 be kept there any time, he never fails to 
 become a nuisance. 
 
 The ship having had a good deal of 
 motion since she was last under sail, our 
 women returned to their sickness, and I 
 to my solitude ; having, for twenty-four 
 hours together, scarce opened my lips to 
 a single person. This circumstance of 
 being shut up within the circumference 
 of a few yards, with a score of human 
 creatures, with not one of whom it was 
 possible to .converse, was perhaps so rare, 
 as scarce ever to have happened before, 
 nor could it ever happen to one who 
 disliked it more than myself, or to my- 
 self at a season when I wanted more 
 food for my social disposition. To this 
 accident, which fortune opened to me in 
 
I90 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 the Downs, was owing the first serious 
 thought which I ever entertained of en- 
 roling myself among the voyage- writers ; 
 some of the most amusing pages, if in- 
 deed there be any which deserve that 
 name, were possibly the production of 
 the most disagreeable hours which ever 
 haunted the author. 
 
 Monday. At noon the captain took an 
 observation, by which it appeared that 
 Ushant bore some leagues northward of 
 us, and that we were just entering the bay 
 of Biscay. We had advanced a very few 
 miles in this bay before we were entirely 
 becalmed ; we furl'd our sails, as being of 
 no use to us, while we lay in this most 
 disagreeable situation, more detested by 
 the sailors than the most violent tem- 
 pest : we were alarmed with the loss of 
 a fine piece of salt beef, which had been 
 hung in the sea to freshen it ; this being, 
 it seems, the strange property of salt 
 water. The thief was immediately sus- 
 pected, and presently afterwards taken 
 by the sailors. He was indeed no 
 other than a huge shark, who, not know- 
 ing when he was well off, swallowed 
 another piece of beef, together with a 
 great iron crook on which it was hung, 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. I9I 
 
 and by which he was dragged into the 
 ship. 
 
 I should scarce have mentioned the 
 catching this shark, though so exactly- 
 conformable to the rules and practice of 
 voyage-writing, had it not been for a 
 strange circumstance that attended it. 
 This was the recovery of the stolen beef 
 out of the shark's maw, where it lay 
 unchewed and undigested, and whence 
 being conveyed into the pot, the flesh, 
 and the thief that had stoln it, joined 
 together in furnishing variety to the 
 ship's crew. 
 
 During this calm we likewise found 
 the mast of a large vessel, which the 
 captain had thought had lain at least 
 three years in the sea. It was stuck all 
 over with a little shell-fish or reptile 
 called a barnacle, and which probably 
 are the prey of the rock-fish, as our 
 captain calls it, asserting that it is the 
 finest fish in the world ; for which we 
 are obliged to confide entirely in his 
 taste ; for, though he struck the fish with 
 a kind of harping iron, and wounded 
 him, I am convinced, to death, yet he 
 could not possess himself of his body ; 
 but the poor wretch escaped to linger 
 
192 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 out a few hours, with probably great 
 torments. 
 
 In the evening our wind returned, 
 and so briskly, that we ran upwards of 
 twenty leagues before the next day's 
 [Tuesday's] Observation, which brought 
 us to lat. 47°. 42'. The captain promised 
 us a very speedy passage through the 
 bay ; but he deceived us, or the wind 
 deceived him, for it so slackened at sun- 
 set, that it scarce carried us a mile in an 
 hour during the whole succeeding night. 
 
 Wednesday. A gale struck up a little 
 after sun-rising, which carried us between 
 three or four knots or miles an hour. We 
 were this day at noon about the middle 
 of the bay of Biscay, when the wind once 
 more deserted us, and we were so entirely 
 becalmed, that we did not advance a mile 
 in many hours. My fresh-water reader 
 will perhaps conceive no unpleasant idea 
 from this calm ; but it affected us much 
 more than a storm could have done ; for 
 as the irascible passions of men are apt 
 to swell with indignation long after the 
 injury which first raised them is over, so 
 fared it with the sea. It rose mountains 
 high, and lifted our poor ship up and down, 
 backwards and forwards, with so violent 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 93 
 
 an emotion, that there was scarce a man 
 in the ship better able to stand than 
 myself. Every utensil in our cabin rolled 
 up and down, as we should have rolled 
 ourselves, had not our chairs been fast 
 lashed to the floor. In this situation, 
 with our tables likewise fastened by 
 ropes, the captain and myself took our 
 meal with some difficulty, and swallowed 
 a little of our broth, for we spilt much 
 the greater part. The remainder of our 
 dinner being an old lean, tame duck 
 roasted, I regretted but little the loss of, 
 my teeth not being good enough to have 
 chewed it. 
 
 Our women, who began to creep out 
 of their holes in the morning, retired 
 again within the cabin to their beds, and 
 were no more heard of this day, in which 
 my whole comfort was to find, by the 
 captain's relation, that the swelling was 
 sometimes much worse ; he did, indeed, 
 take this occasion to be more communi- 
 cative than ever, and informed me of 
 such misadventures that had befallen 
 him within forty-six years at sea, as 
 might frighten a very bold spirit from 
 undertaking even the shortest voyage. 
 Were these indeed but universally known, 
 O 
 
194 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 our matrons of quality would possibly be 
 deterred from venturing their tender off- 
 spring at sea ; by which means our navy 
 would lose the honour of many a young 
 commodore, who at twenty -two is better 
 versed in maritime affairs than real sea- 
 men are made by experience at sixty. 
 
 And this may, perhaps, appear the 
 more extraordinary, as the education of 
 both seems to be pretty much the same ; 
 neither of them having had their courage 
 tried by Virgil's description of a storm, 
 in which, inspired as he was, I doubt 
 whether our captain doth not exceed 
 him. 
 
 In the evening the wind, which con- 
 tinued in the N.W., again freshened, and 
 that so briskly that cape Finisterre ap- 
 peared by this day's observation to bear 
 a few miles to the southward. We now 
 indeed sailed, or rather flew, near ten 
 knots an hour ; and the captain, in the 
 redundancy of his good humour, declared 
 he would go to church at Lisbon on Sun- 
 day next, for that he was sure of a wind ; 
 and indeed we all firmly believed him. 
 But the event again contradicted him : 
 for we were again visited by a calm in 
 the evening. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 195 
 
 But here, tho' our voyage was retarded, 
 we were entertained with a scene which 
 as no one can behold without going to 
 sea, so no one can form an idea of any 
 thing equal to it on shore. We were 
 seated on the deck, women and all, in 
 the serenest evening that can be ima- 
 gined. Not a single cloud presented 
 itself to our view, and the sun himself 
 was the only object which engrossed our 
 whole attention. He did indeed set with 
 a majesty which is incapable of descrip- 
 tion, with which, while the horizon was 
 yet blazing with glory, our eyes were 
 called off to the opposite part to survey 
 the moon, which was then at full, and 
 which in rising presented us with the 
 Seconal object that this world hath offered 
 to our vision. Compared to these the 
 pageantry of theatres, or splendor of 
 courts, are sights almost below the regard 
 of children. 
 
 We did not return from the deck till 
 late in the evening : the weather being 
 inexpressibly pleasant, and so warm, that 
 even my old distemper perceived the 
 alteration of the climate. There was in- 
 deed a swell, but nothing comparable to 
 what we had felt before, and it affected 
 
196 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 US on the deck much less than in the 
 cabin. 
 
 Friday. The calm continued till sun- 
 rising, when the wind likewise arose ; but, 
 unluckily for us, it came from a wrong 
 quarter : it was S.S.E., which is that very 
 wind which Juno would have solicited of 
 ^olus, had ^neas been in our latitude 
 bound for Lisbon. 
 
 The captain now put on his most 
 melancholy aspect, and resumed his 
 former opinion, that he was bewitched. 
 He declared, with great solemnity, that 
 this was worse and worse, for that a wind 
 directly in his teeth was worse than no 
 wind at all. Had we pursued the course 
 which the wind persuaded us to take, we 
 had gone directly for Newfoundland, if 
 we had not fallen in with Ireland in our 
 way. Two ways remained to avoid this ; 
 one was to put into a port of Galicia ; the 
 other, to beat to the westward with as 
 little sail as possible ; and this was our 
 captain's election. 
 
 As for us, poor passengers, any port 
 would have been welcome to us ; espe- 
 cially as not only our fresh provisions, 
 except a great number of old ducks and 
 fowls, but even our bread was come to 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 1 97 
 
 an end, and nothing but sea biscuit re- 
 mained, which I could not chew. So 
 that now, for the first time in my life, 
 I saw what it was to want a bit of bread. 
 
 The wind, however, was not so unkind 
 as we had apprehended ; but having de- 
 clined with the sun, it changed at the ap- 
 proach of the moon, and became again 
 favourable to us ; tho' so gentle, that the 
 next day's observation carried us very 
 little to the southward of cape Finisterre. 
 This evening at six the wind, which had 
 been very quiet all day, rose very high, 
 and continuing in our favour, drove us 
 seven knots an hour. 
 
 This day we saw a sail, the only one, 
 as I heard of, we had seen in our whole 
 passage through the bay. I mention 
 this on account of what appeared to me 
 somewhat extraordinary. Tho' she was 
 at such a distance that I could only per- 
 ceive she was a ship, the sailors dis- 
 covered she was a snow bound to a port 
 in Galicia. 
 
 Sunday. After prayers, which our good 
 captain read on the deck with an audible 
 voice, we found ourselves far advanced in 
 42°, and the captain declared we should 
 sup off Porte. We had not much wind 
 
igS JOURNAL OF A 
 
 this day ; but, as this was directly in our 
 favour, we made it up with sail, of which 
 we crowded all we had. We went only 
 at the rate of four miles an hour, but 
 with so uneasy a motion, continually 
 rolling from side to side, that I suffered 
 more than I had done in our whole 
 voyage ; my bowels being almost twisted 
 out of my belly. However, the day was 
 very serene and bright, and the captain, 
 who was in high spirits, affirmed he had 
 never passed a pleasanter at sea. 
 
 The wind continued so brisk that we 
 ran upward of six knots an hour the 
 whole night. 
 
 Monday. In the morning, our captain 
 concluded that he was got into lat. 40°, 
 and was very little short of the Burlings, 
 as they are called in the charts. We 
 came up with them at five in the after- 
 noon, being the first land we had dis- 
 tinctly seen since we left Devonshire. 
 They consist of abundance of little rocky 
 islands, a little distant from the shore, 
 three of them only shewing themselves 
 above the water. 
 
 Here the Portuguese maintain a kind 
 of garrison, if we may allow it that name. 
 It consists of malefactors, who are 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 199 
 
 banished hither for a term, for divers 
 small offences. A policy which they 
 may have copied from the Egyptians, 
 as we may read in Diodorus Siculus. 
 That wise people, to prevent the corrup- 
 tion of good manners by evil communi- 
 cation, built a town on the Red Sea, 
 whither they transported a great number 
 of their criminals, having first set an in- 
 delible mark on them, to prevent their 
 returning and mixing with the sober part 
 of their citizens. 
 
 These rocks lie about fifteen leagues 
 north-west of cape Roxent ; or, as it is 
 commonly called, the rock of Lisbon ; 
 which we past early the next morning. 
 The wind, indeed, would have carried us 
 thither sooner ; but the captain was not 
 in a hurry. This is a very high moun- 
 tain, situated on the northern side of the 
 mouth of the river Tajo, which rising 
 above Madrid, in Spain, and soon be- 
 coming navigable for small craft, empties 
 itself, after a long course, into the sea, 
 about four leagues below Lisbon. 
 
 On the summit of the rock stands a 
 hermitage, which is now in the posses- 
 sion of an Englishman, who was for- 
 merly master of a vessel trading to 
 
200 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 Lisbon ; and, having changed his religion 
 and his manners, the latter of which, at 
 least, were none of the best, betook him- 
 self to this place, in order to do penance 
 for his sins. He is now very old, and 
 hath inhabited this hermitage for a great 
 number of years, during which he hath 
 received some countenance from the royal 
 family ; and particularly from the late 
 queen dowager, whose piety refuses no 
 trouble or expence by which she may 
 make a proselyte ; being used to say, that 
 the saving one soul would repay all the 
 endeavours of her life. 
 
 Here we waited for the tide, and had 
 the pleasure of surveying the face of the 
 countiy, the soil of which, at this season, 
 exactly resembles an old brick kiln, or a 
 field where the greensward is pared up 
 and set a-burning or rather a-smoaking, 
 in little heaps, to manure the land. This 
 sight will, perhaps, of all others, make an 
 Englishman proud of and pleased with 
 his own country, which in verdure excels, 
 I believe, every other country. Another 
 deficiency here, is, the want of large 
 trees, nothing above a shrub being here 
 to be discovered in the circumference of 
 many miles. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 201 
 
 At this place we took a pilot on board, 
 who, being the first Portuguese we spoke 
 to, gave us an instance of that religious 
 observance which is paid by all nations 
 to their laws : for, whereas it is here a 
 capital offence to assist any person in 
 going on shore from a foreign vessel, be- 
 fore it hath been examined, and every 
 person in it viewed by the magistrates of 
 health, as they are called, this worthy 
 pilot, for a very small reward, rowed the 
 Portuguese priest to shore at this place, 
 beyond which he did not dare to ad- 
 vance ; and, in venturing whither he had 
 given sufficient testimony of love for his 
 native country. 
 
 We did not enter the Tajo till noon, 
 when after passing several old castles, 
 and other buildings, which had greatly 
 the aspect of ruins, we came to the castle 
 of Bellisle, where we had a full prospect 
 of Lisbon, and were indeed within three 
 miles of it. 
 
 Here we were saluted with a gun, 
 which was a signal to pass no farther, till 
 we had complied with certain ceremonies, 
 which the laws of this country require to 
 be observed by all ships which arrive in 
 this port. We were obliged then to cast 
 
202 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 anchor, and expect the arrival of the 
 officers of the customs, without whose 
 passport no ship must proceed farther 
 than this place. 
 
 Here likewise we received a visit from 
 one of those magistrates of health before- 
 mentioned. He refused to come on board 
 the ship, till every person in her had been 
 drawn up on deck, and personally viewed 
 by him. This occasioned some delay on 
 my part, as it was not the work of a 
 minute to lift me from the cabin to the 
 deck. The captain thought my particular 
 case might have been excused from this 
 ceremony ; and that it would be abun- 
 dantly sufficient if the magistrate, who 
 was obliged afterwards to visit the cabin, 
 surveyed me there. But this did not 
 satisfy the magistrate's strict regard to 
 his duty. When he was told of my 
 lameness, he called out with a voice of 
 authority, " Let him be brought up," and 
 his orders were presently complied with. 
 He was indeed a person of great dignity, 
 as well as of most exact fidelity in the 
 discharge of his trust. Both which are 
 the more admirable, as his salary is less 
 than £^o English per annum. 
 
 Before a ship hath been visited by one 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 203 
 
 of those magistrates, no person can law- 
 fully go on board her ; nor can any on 
 board depart from her. This I saw ex- 
 emplified in a remarkable instance. The 
 young lad, whom I have mentioned as 
 one of our passengers, was here met by 
 his father, who, on the first news of the 
 captain's arrival, came from Lisbon to 
 Bellisle in a boat, being eager to embrace 
 a son whom he had not seen for many 
 years. But when he came along-side our 
 ship, neither did the father dare ascend, 
 nor the son descend, as the magistrate of 
 health had not been yet on board. 
 
 Some of my readers will, perhaps, ad- 
 mire the great caution of this policy, so 
 nicely calculated for the preservation of 
 this country from all pestilential distem- 
 pers. Others will as probably regard it 
 as too exact and formal to be constantly 
 persisted in, in seasons of the utmost 
 safety, as well as in times of danger. I 
 will not decide either way ; but will con- 
 tent myself with observing, that I never 
 yet saw or heard of a place where a tra- 
 veller had so much trouble given him at 
 his landing as here. The only use of 
 which, as all such matters begin and end 
 in form only, is to put it into the power 
 
204 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 of low and mean fellows to be either 
 rudely officious, or grossly corrupt, as 
 they shall see occasion to prefer the 
 gratification of their pride or of their 
 avarice. 
 
 Of this kind, likewise, is that power 
 which is lodged with other officers here, 
 of taking away every grain of snuff, and 
 every leaf of tobacco, brought hither from 
 other countries, tho' only for the tempo- 
 rary use of the person, during his resi- 
 dence here. This is executed with great 
 insolence, and as it is in the hands of the 
 dregs of the people, very scandalously : 
 for, under pretence of searching for to- 
 bacco and snuff, they are sure to steal 
 whatever they can find, insomuch that 
 when they came on board, our sailors 
 address'd us in the Covent-Garden lan- 
 guage, " Pray, gentlemen and ladies, take 
 care of your swords and watches." Indeed 
 I never yet saw any thing equal to the 
 contempt and hatred which our honest 
 tars every moment express'd for these 
 Portuguese officers. 
 
 At Bellisle lies buried Catherine of 
 Arragon, widow of Prince Arthur, eldest 
 son of our Henry VII., afterwards married 
 to, and divorced from, Henry VIII. 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 205 
 
 Close by the church where her remains 
 are deposited, is a large convent of 
 Geronymites, one of the most beautiful 
 piles of building in all Portugal. 
 
 In the night at twelve, our ship having 
 received previous visits from all the neces- 
 sary parties, took the advantage of the 
 tide, and having sailed up to Lisbon, cast 
 anchor there, in a calm, and a moonshiny 
 night, which made the passage incredibly 
 pleasant to the women, who remained 
 three hours enjoying it, whilst I was left 
 to the cooler transports of enjoying their 
 pleasures at second-hand ; and yet, cooler 
 as they may be, whoever is totally igno- 
 rant of such sensation, is, at the same 
 time, void of all ideas of friendship. 
 
 Wednesday. Lisbon, before which we 
 now lay at anchor, is said to be built on 
 the same number of hills with old Rome ; 
 but these do not all appear to the water ; 
 on the contrary, one sees from thence 
 one vast high hill and rock, with build- 
 ings arising above one another, and that 
 in so steep and almost perpendicular a 
 manner, that they all seem to have but 
 one foundation. 
 
 As the houses, convents, churches, &c. 
 are large, and all built with white stone. 
 
206 JOURNAL OF A 
 
 they look very beautiful at a distance ; 
 but as you approach nearer, and find 
 them to want every kind of ornament, 
 all idea of beauty vanishes at once. 
 While I was surveying the prospect of 
 this city, which bears so little resem- 
 blance to any other that I have ever 
 seen, a reflection occurred to me, that if 
 a man was suddenly to be removed from 
 Palmyra hither, and should take a view 
 of no other city, in how glorious a light 
 would the antient architecture appear to 
 him ? and what desolation and destruc- 
 tion of arts and sciences would he con- 
 clude had happened between the several 
 aeras of these cities ? 
 
 I had now waited full three hours upon 
 deck, for the return of my man, whom I 
 had sent to bespeak a good dinner (a 
 thing which had been long unknown to 
 me) on shore, and then to bring a Lisbon 
 chaise with him to the sea-shore ; but, it 
 seems, the impertinence of the providore 
 was not yet brought to a conclusion. At 
 three o'clock, when I was from empti- 
 ness rather faint than hungry, my man 
 returned, and told me, there was a new 
 law lately made, that no passenger should 
 set his foot on shore without a special 
 
VOYAGE TO LISBON. 207 
 
 order from the providore ; and that he 
 himself would have been sent to prison 
 for disobeying it, had he not been pro- 
 tected as the sei-vant of the captain. He 
 informed me likewise, that the captain 
 had been very industrious to get this 
 order, but that it was then the provi- 
 dore's hour of sleep, a time when no man, 
 except the king himself, durst disturb 
 him. 
 
 To avoid prolixity, tho' in a part of 
 my narrative which may be more agree- 
 able to my reader than it was to me, the 
 providore having at last finished his nap, 
 dispatched this absurd matter of form, 
 and gave me leave to come, or rather to 
 be carried, on shore. 
 
 What it was that gave the first hint of 
 this strange law is not easy to guess. 
 Possibly, in the infancy of their defec- 
 tion, and before their government could 
 be well established, they were willing to 
 guard against the bare possibility of sur- 
 prize, of the success of which bare possi- 
 bility the Trojan horse will remain for 
 ever on record, as a great and memo- 
 rable example. Now the Portuguese 
 have no walls to secure them, and a 
 vessel of two or three hundred tons will 
 
208 VOYAGE TO LISBON. 
 
 contain a much larger body of troops 
 than could be concealed in that famous 
 machine, tho' Virgil tells us (somewhat 
 hyperbolically, I believe) that it was as 
 big as a mountain. 
 
 About seven in the evening I got into 
 a chaise on shore, and was driven through 
 the nastiest city in the world, tho' at the 
 same time one of the most populous, to a 
 kind of coffee-house, which is very plea- 
 santly situated on the brow of a hill, about 
 a mile from the city, and hath a very fine 
 prospect of the river Tajo from Lisbon to 
 the sea. 
 
 Here we regaled ourselves with a good 
 supper, for which we were as well charged, 
 as if the bill had been made on the Bath 
 road, between Newbury and London. 
 
 And now we could joyfully say, 
 " Egressi optata Troes potiuntur arena." 
 Therefore in the words of Horace, 
 " hie finis chartseq; viasq;"- 
 
A 
 
 FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 ON 
 
 L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 
 
A 
 FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 ON 
 
 L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 
 
 I MUST confess myself to be one of those 
 who brought with me to the perusal of 
 the late" published volumes of Lord 
 Bolingbroke, a very high prejudice to 
 the doctrines said to have been estab- 
 lished in them ; but at the same time, 
 can as truly assert, that I had the highest, 
 and strongest prepossession in favour of 
 the abilities of the author. Such, indeed, 
 was this prepossession, that it might, I 
 think, be a sufficient warrant of a man's 
 candour against any prejudice whatever : 
 and it is in the true spirit of this candour, 
 that I declare, upon the perusal, I have 
 found my prepossessions greatly abated, 
 and my prejudices not in the least re- 
 moved. 
 
212 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 Could it therefore be supposed, that all 
 mankind were alike able to try the cause 
 of truth, and to form their judgment on 
 the weight of argument and evidence 
 only, I think there could be no danger 
 in leaving the decision of this matter 
 upon his lordship's own reasoning, with- 
 out any attempt to answer him. But 
 when we consider how very weak the 
 abilities of mankind in general are, in 
 disquisitions of this nature ; how much 
 weaker they are rendered for this purpose 
 by want of due attention ; and, lastly, 
 how apt they are to carry any little par- 
 tiality which they have pre-Conceived 
 before the examination of a cause, up to 
 the final decision of it in their minds, it 
 may possibly be very dangerous to the 
 society to suffer such pernicious doctrines 
 to stand unobjected to, with so great a 
 name at their head. Many, I am con- 
 vinced, will think the authority of this 
 name alone sulificient to establish their 
 own belief upon, without any farther in- 
 quiry at all. Many others will imagine 
 very little inquiry necessary, and, tho' 
 they did not entirely acquiesce in taking 
 his word, will be easily cajoled with his 
 reasons, which, however little they may 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 213 
 
 have of substance, have much of the 
 specious ornaments of wit and language, 
 with all the allurements of novelty both 
 of style and manner ; and, finally, with 
 an appearance, at least, of reading, very 
 singular and extensive. 
 
 From which last particular may arise 
 a third sort very worthy of receiving 
 some assistance on this occasion ; such, 
 I mean, as have not the least inclination 
 to his lordship's doctrines, nor would, in- 
 deed, assent to them on the authority of 
 any man breathing, who may yet have 
 wanted leisure or opportunity sufficient 
 to provide themselves with a proper fund 
 of knowledge, to give a ready answer to 
 various assertions which will occur in the 
 works nowunder consideration, and which, 
 tho' they have the worst of tendencies, 
 have in reality themselves no better sup- 
 port (and not always so good a one) than 
 some very weak and slender hypotheses 
 and are at other times built on the revival 
 of old chimerical principles, which have 
 been confuted and exploded long ago. 
 
 Now, to all these different constitutions, 
 we shall endeavour to apply our several 
 antidotes. And here, luckily for us, we 
 are provided with an argument which 
 
214 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 must most effectually silence those, who 
 are the most difficult of all others to be 
 usually dealt with, in the way of reason- 
 ing : such are the persons I mentioned 
 in the first class, who believe from autho- 
 rity only, and who have not yet, with the 
 schools, given up the irresistible argument 
 of, he Himself said it. 
 
 The force of this argument, however, 
 even in the days when it flourished most, 
 drew all its strength from a supposition 
 that, if he himself said it, he himself be- 
 lieved it : for, if it could have been proved 
 of Aristotle that he had asserted /n? and 
 con, and had with the same clearness 
 affirmed in one part of his works the 
 same thing to be, and in another the 
 same thing not to be, none of his scholars 
 would have known which he believed, and 
 all others would, perhaps, have thought 
 that he had no belief at all in, nor indeed 
 any knowledge of the matter. 
 
 If, therefore his lordship shall appear 
 to have made use of this duplicity of 
 assertion, and that not in one or two, but 
 in many instances, may we not draw the 
 like conclusions ? Luckily, perhaps, for 
 his lordship, we may not be driven to the 
 same absolute degree of uncertainty as 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 215 
 
 must have resulted from the case of 
 Aristotle, as I have put it above ; since 
 our noble author himself seems to have 
 left us a kind of clue, which will suffi- 
 ciently lead to the discovery of his mean- 
 ing, and will shew us, as often as he is 
 pleased to assert both sides of a contra- 
 diction, on which side we are to believe 
 him. 
 
 And here I shall premise two cautions ; 
 one of which I shall borrow from the 
 rules established among writers ; the 
 reasonableness of the other I shall endea- 
 vour to evince, from a rule given us by 
 one of the greatest lawyers whom this 
 kingdom ever bred. 
 
 The first is, that of interpreting the 
 sense of an author with the utmost can- 
 dour, so as not to charge him with any 
 gross and invidious meaning, when his 
 words are susceptible of a much more 
 benign and favourable sense. 
 
 The second is, the observation formed 
 upon the works of judge Littleton by 
 lord chief justice Coke : this is, that 
 whenever that great lawyer is pleased to 
 put down two opinions directly contra- 
 dicting each other, that the latter opinion 
 is always the best, and always his own. 
 
2l6 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 To apply these to the present purpose, 
 I first of all recommend to the candour 
 of the reader, that whenever he shall find 
 two assertions directly contrary to each 
 other, (and many such we do promise to 
 produce to him) one of which directly 
 tends to take away all religion whatever, 
 and the other as directly to establish 
 natural religion at least, that he will be 
 so kind, since it is impossible that my 
 lord should have believed both, to imagine 
 that he rather believed the latter ; espe- 
 cially as this latter, from its contradicting 
 the apparent purpose of the author, ap- 
 pears to have been last set down ; and, 
 consequently, will have my lord Coke's 
 sanction in favour of the superior au- 
 thority. 
 
 Lastly, if it should ever happen that 
 his lordship's sentiments should be more 
 clearly expressed in favour of the worse 
 than of the better doctrine, we will endea- 
 vour all that in us lies to explain and 
 illustrate those hints ; by which, we trust, 
 he will always assist a careful and accu- 
 rate examiner, in rescuing the esoteric 
 purity of his doctrines from that less 
 amiable appearance in which their 
 exoteric garb represents them. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 2\J 
 
 In short, we doubt not but to make it 
 appear as a fact beyond all contest, that 
 his lordship was in jest through the whole 
 work which we have undertaken to exa- 
 mine. If an inflamed zealot should, in 
 his warmth, compare such jesting to his 
 in the Psalmist ; or, if a cooler disposition 
 should ask, how it was possible to jest 
 with matters of such importance ? I con- 
 fess I have no defence against the accusa- 
 tion, nor can give any satisfactory answer 
 to the question. To this, indeed, I could 
 say, and it is all that I could say, that 
 my lord Bolingbroke was a great genius, 
 sent into the world for great and astonish- 
 ing purposes. That the ends, as well as 
 means of action in such personages, are 
 above the comprehension of the vulgar. 
 That his life was one scene of the Wonder- 
 ful throughout. That, as the temporal 
 happiness, the civil liberties and proper- 
 ties of Europe, were the game of his 
 earliest youth, there could be no sport so 
 adequate to the entertainment of his ad- 
 vanced age, as the eternal and final happi- 
 ness of all mankind. That this is the 
 noblest conservation of character, and 
 might, if perceived in himself, possibly 
 lead our great genius to see the supreme 
 
2l8 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 Being in the light of a dramatic poet, 
 and that part of his works which we in- 
 habit as a drama. "The sensitive in- 
 habitants of our globe," says lord Boling- 
 broke,' " like the dramatis personce, have 
 different characters, and are applied to 
 different purposes of action in every 
 scene. The several parts of the material 
 world, like the machines of a theatre, 
 were contrived not for the actors, but for 
 the action : and the whole order and 
 system of the drama would be disordered 
 and spoiled, if any alteration was made 
 in either. The nature of every creature, 
 his manner of being, is adapted to his state 
 here, to the place he is to inhabit, and, 
 as we may say, to the part he is to act." 
 It hath been, I think, too common with 
 poets to aggrandize their profession with 
 such kind of similes, and I have, some- 
 where in an English dramatic writer, 
 met with one so nearly resembling the 
 above, that his lordship might be almost 
 suspected to have read it likewise ; but 
 such conceits are inconsistent with any 
 (even the least) pretence to philosophy. 
 I recollect, indeed, a single instance, in 
 the writings of Jordano Bruno, who was 
 ' Vol. v., p. yjT. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 2I9 
 
 burnt at Rome for heresy, or, if we believe 
 Scioppius, for most horrid blasphemy, 
 the latter end of the i Sth century ; and 
 who, from a want of a due correspondence 
 between the passive powers of matter, 
 and the active power of God, compares 
 the Supreme Being to a fidler, who hath 
 skill to play, but cannot for want of a 
 fiddle. This, it must be confessed, is 
 going somewhat farther ; as much farther, 
 in reality, as to descend from the stage 
 to the orchestra. This ludicrous treat- 
 ment of the Being so universally (for 
 half a dozen madmen must not be allowed 
 to strip any opinion of universality) ac- 
 knowledged to be the cause of all things, 
 whilst it sounds so ill in the grave voice 
 of reason, very well becomes the lips of 
 a droll : for novelty, boldness, and even 
 absurdity, as they all tend to surprize, do 
 often give a poignancy to wit, and serve 
 to enhance a jest. This affords a second 
 reason why we may suspect his lordship 
 was not over serious in the work before us. 
 3dly, That his lordship never thought 
 proper to revise this performance, is a 
 very strong argument that he could not 
 be in earnest, either in believing himself 
 in his own doctrines, or in endeavouring 
 
220 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 to imprint such a belief on others. That 
 he did not in fact revise his works is 
 manifest, from the numerous contradic- 
 tions that occur in them, and these often 
 in the same page ; so that, for the most 
 part, they could not escape the dullest and 
 bluntest degree of penetration : surely we 
 cannot impute such repeated oversights 
 to one who hath so explicitly asserted,' 
 That to be liable to contradict yourself, 
 is to be liable to one of the greatest of 
 human imperfections! An author, in the 
 first hurry of setting down his thoughts 
 on a subject which warms him, may pos- 
 sibly, indeed, assert two opinions not per- 
 fectly reconcileable with each other ; nay, 
 there are some writers from whom we 
 can reasonably expect no less ; since, as 
 archbishop Tillotson observes, it is hard 
 to contradict truth and nature, without 
 contradicting one's self But to expunge 
 such mistakes, is the oiifice of revisal and 
 correction ; and, therefore, a work in 
 which these mistakes abound, is very 
 justly called an incorrect performance. 
 As this work therefore doth, more than 
 any which I ever saw, aiiford us instances 
 of what his lordship calls the greatest 
 ' "Essays," p. i8l. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 221 
 
 human imperfection, charity shews me no 
 more candid way of accounting for them, 
 than this which I have mentioned. 
 
 Lastly, the very form and title, under 
 which the noble lord hath thought proper 
 to introduce his philosophy into the 
 world, is a very strong evidence of the 
 justice of all the foregoing observations. 
 We may form, I think, one general pre- 
 cept from the trite story of Archimedes : 
 this is, not to undertake any great work 
 without preconcerting such means as may 
 be adequate to the execution. Now to 
 turn the material world topsy-turvy, is a 
 project scarce more difficult in appear- 
 ance, than to perform the same notable 
 exploit in the intellectual. And yet 
 Archimedes might as judiciously have 
 fixed his machine in vacuo, as his lord- 
 ship hath chosen to argue against the 
 best established systems in the intellec- 
 tual world, in fragments of essays. This 
 method, not to mention the indignity it 
 offers to the subject in dispute, is treating 
 the whole body of the learned with more 
 supercilious disrespect, than nature seems 
 yet to have qualified any member of that 
 body to express towards the rest of his 
 brethren ; and which must appear to be 
 
222 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 wonderful, if serious, in one who expresses 
 so modest an opinion of his own critical 
 talents ; tho', as to his modesty, it must 
 indeed be confessed to be somewhat 
 seasoned with a due mixture of contempt. 
 
 But whatever may lessen the idea of 
 his lordship's modesty, there is only one 
 way to lessen that of his absurdity ; this 
 is to conclude that he was in jest : nay, 
 there is one way to see this absurdity in 
 an amiable light ; for in such a light 
 will he appear, if we suppose that he 
 puts on the jack-pudding's coat, with the 
 noble view of exposing and ridiculing 
 those pernicious tenets which have lately 
 been propagated, with a zeal more difficult 
 to be accounted for, than its success. 
 
 That such an attempt of exposing any 
 popular error would always prove vic- 
 torious, is, I think, extremely probable. 
 My lord Shaftesbury hath been blamed 
 for saying, " That ridicule is one of those 
 principal lights or natural mediums by 
 which things are to be viewed, in order 
 to a thorough recognition : for that truth, 
 it is supposed, may bear all lights." * 
 Perhaps there may be some justice in 
 
 ' " Essay on the freedom of wit and humour," 
 part i., sect. i. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 223 
 
 this censure, as truth may by such a trial 
 be subjected to misrepresentation, and 
 become a more easy prey to the maHce 
 of its enemies ; a flagrant instance of 
 which we have in the case of Socrates. 
 
 But whatever objection there may be 
 against trying truth by ridicule, there can 
 be none, I apprehend, of making use of 
 its assistance in expelling and banishing 
 all falsehood and imposture, when once 
 fairly convicted, out of society ; and as 
 this method is for this purpose very un- 
 exceptionable, so is it generally the most 
 efficacious that can be invented, as will 
 appear by some examples which will 
 occur in the course of our comment on 
 his lordship's essays, or fragments of 
 essays, on which we shall now enter 
 without further preface or apology. 
 
224 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 And here, as a proof that we are as 
 liable to be corrupted by our books as 
 by our companions, I am in danger of 
 setting out with a contradiction. Nay I 
 must yet venture to do this in some 
 degree with my eyes open, and must lay 
 my defence on a distinction rather too 
 nice, and which relies too much on the 
 candour of my reader. 
 
 The truth is, our noble author's chief 
 strength lies in that very circumstance 
 which I have before asserted to be of 
 itself alone a sufficient argument of his 
 weakness ; whereas on the contrary his 
 manner affords such a protection to his 
 matter, that if he had designed to reserve 
 to himself the sole privilege of answering 
 his own doctrine, he could not have in- 
 vented a more ingenious or effectual con- 
 trivance. It hath been alledged as a good 
 reason for not answering certain books, 
 that one must be obliged first to read 
 them ; but surely we shall find few men 
 so very charitable, or so much our friends, 
 to give them order and method with a 
 
ON L. EOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 225 
 
 view only of complimenting them with 
 an answer. 
 
 This, however, I attempted, tho' I own 
 with no great success ; and that not so 
 much, I apprehend, from want of suffi- 
 cient matter to make out such colourable 
 systems as may be expected in such a 
 writer, as from a certain dark, cautious, 
 and loose manner of expressing his senti- 
 ments, which must arise either from a 
 writer's desire of not being very easily 
 explained, or from an incapacity of 
 making himself very clearly understood. 
 The difficulties arising to the commen- 
 tator on these fragments, will appear to 
 be assignable only to the former cause : 
 for a very indifferent reader will be seldom 
 at a loss in comprehending his lordship 
 in his own works ; but to transfer his 
 doctrines with their authority (i.e. the ipse 
 dixit of the author) into another work, 
 is often very difficult, and without long 
 quotations, too apt to tire the reader, im- 
 possible. In this light a very fine thought 
 of Mr. Pope's occurs to my memory. 
 
 " Tho' index-learning turns no student pale, 
 It holds the eel of science by the tail." 
 
 The best way then of proceeding with 
 so slippery a reasoner ; the only way, 
 Q 
 
226 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 indeed, in which I see any possibility of 
 proceeding with him, is first to lay down 
 some general rules, all of which will 
 hereafter be proved out of his writings, 
 and then pursuing him chapter by chap- 
 ter, to extract the several proofs, how- 
 ever scattered and dispersed, which tend 
 to establish both parts of the contradic- 
 tions, which I shall now set down. 
 
 Our noble author sets out in his first 
 section, with a sly insinuation, that it is 
 possible for the gravest of philosophers 
 on the gravest of subjects, to advance 
 propositions in jest. " It is more pro- 
 bable," says Lord B , " and it is more 
 
 candid to believe, that this philosopher 
 (Descartes) was in earnest, than that he 
 was in jest, when he advanced this pro- 
 position," 1 concerning the immutability 
 and eternity of certain mathematical truths. 
 I will add, that I believe that an idea of 
 such jesting had never any footing in a 
 human head, till it first found admission 
 into that of this noble lord. 
 
 In the same section, his lordship pro- 
 ceeds thus : " The antients thought matter 
 eternal, and assumed that the Demiurgus, 
 or divine Architect, composed the frame 
 ' " Essays,'' page 4. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 227 
 
 of the world with materials which were 
 ready prepared, and independently on 
 him, in a confused chaos. Much in the 
 same manner such metaphysicians as the 
 learned Cudworth have imagined a sort 
 of intellectual chaos, a chaos of eternal 
 ideas, of incorporeal essences, indepen- 
 dent on God, self-existent, and therefore 
 co-eval with the supreme Being, and 
 therefore anterior to all other natures. 
 In this intellectual chaos God sees, and 
 man must endeavour to see, the natures, 
 the real essences of things : and thus the 
 foundations of morality are laid higher 
 than the existence of any moral agents, 
 before there was any system of being 
 from which the obligations to it could 
 result, or to which they could be applied : 
 just as the same philosophers suppose 
 the incorporeal essences of white and 
 black to have existed when there was 
 no such thing as colour, and those of a 
 square and circle, when there was neither 
 form nor figure." ' 
 
 Here I am afraid the learned peer hath 
 gone no farther for his erudition than the 
 first or second pages of Ovid's Meta- 
 morphosis : for could he be recalled 
 ' " Essays,'' page 6. 
 
228 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 from the dead, contrary to his own doc- 
 trine, as he hath recalled Descartes, and 
 were asked whom he meant by the 
 antients, he could not certainly answer 
 in general, the antient philosophers, for 
 then the whole tribe of atheists would 
 be ready to testify against him. If he 
 should answer, that he meant the antient 
 atheists only, and less he cannot be sup- 
 posed to mean by those who are well- 
 bred enough to suppose he meant any 
 thing, he will be far from finding even 
 among these an universal concurrence 
 with his opinion. Thales, the chief of 
 the Grecian sages, and who is said to 
 have first turned his thoughts to physio- 
 logical enquiries, afifirmed the indepen- 
 dent pre-existence of God from all 
 eternity. The words of Laertius are 
 remarkable, and I will render them with 
 the most literal exactness in my power. 
 He asserted, says Laertius, " That God 
 was the oldest of all beings, for he 
 existed without a previous cause EVEN 
 IN THE WAY OF GENERATION ; that 
 the world was the most beautiful of all 
 things ; for it was CREATED BY God, 
 &c." ^ This notion of the creation Aris- 
 ^ Diog. Laert., lib. i., sect. 35, where I submit 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 229 
 
 totle tells us, was agreeable to the con- 
 current voice of all antiquity ; " All," 
 says he, " assert the creation of the 
 world ; but they differ in this, that some 
 will have the world susceptible of dis- 
 solution, which others deny." ' On this 
 occasion Aristotle names Empedocles 
 and Heraclitus, but, which is somewhat 
 remarkable, never mentions Thales. The 
 opinion itself is opposed by the Stagy- 
 rite ; and this opposition he was forced 
 to maintain, or he must have given up 
 the eternity of the world, which he very 
 justly asserts to be inconsistent with any 
 idea of its creation. But we will dismiss 
 the antients from the bar, and see how 
 his lordship will support his arraign- 
 ment of the moderns. The charge against 
 them is, that they have holden certain 
 ideas, or incorp>oreal essences to be self- 
 existent. Concerning these doctrines 
 his lordship thus harangues in the very 
 same page,'' Mr. Locke observes, how 
 to the learned reader the construction he will 
 observe I have given to the different import of 
 those terms, dykvvriTov and jroig/io ; the first of 
 which may be considered as a qualified, the 
 latter as an absolute cause. 
 
 ' Aristot., De ccelo, lib. i., cap. lo. 
 
 s "Essay," p. 6. 
 
230 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 impossible " it is for us to conceive cer- 
 tain relations, habitudes, and connec- 
 tions, visibly included in some of our 
 ideas, to be separable from them even 
 by infinite power. Let us observe, on 
 this occasion, how impossible, or, at least, 
 how extremely difficult it is for us to 
 separate the idea of eternity from certain 
 moral and mathematical truths, as well 
 as from such as are called necessary, and 
 are self-evident on one hand : and, on 
 the other, how impossible it is to con- 
 ceive that truths should exist before the 
 things to which they are relative ; or 
 particular natures and essences, before 
 the system of universal nature, and when 
 there was no being but the superessen- 
 tial Being." ' 
 
 If I had any inclination to cavil, I 
 might, with truth, assert that no such 
 passage is to be found in Mr. Locke. 
 His words are : " In some of our ideas 
 there are certain relations, habitudes, and 
 connections, so visibly included in the 
 nature of the ideas themselves, that we 
 cannot conceive them separable from 
 them by any power whatsoever." It 
 
 ^ "Essay on Human Understanding," 1. 4, 
 cap. 3, sect. 29. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 23 1 
 
 may be answered, perhaps, that the vio- 
 lence is done rather to the expression, 
 than to the meaning of this truly great 
 man ; but if I should candidly admit 
 that he seems, from the immediate con- 
 text, to mean no less (I say, seems to 
 mean : for, whoever will carefully com- 
 pare what is said in another part of the 
 same book,' of the powers of the mind 
 in forming the archetypes of its com- 
 plex ideas of mixed modes, may possibly 
 think he sees sufficient reason for re- 
 solving what is here affirmed of arbitrary 
 (not infinite) power, into the human mind 
 only. I may yet reply, that such a vio- 
 lence even to the expression of such a 
 writer on such a subject, is by no means 
 void of blame, nor even of suspicion, 
 when it is left without a reference to 
 conceal itself in a large folio, where it 
 will not be easily detected by any but 
 those who are pretty familiarly ac- 
 quainted with the original. 
 
 But it is time to close this article, 
 which, I think, seems to establish contra- 
 diction the first : for under what other 
 term shall we range the arguing pro and 
 con in the same breath : for where is the 
 1 Locke's "Essay," 1. 2, cap. 31. 
 
232 A FRAGMENT OF A COMMENT 
 
 force of the accusation, or, as a lawyer 
 would call it, the gist of the indictment 
 against poor Cudworth ? Is it not (to 
 use my lord's own phrase) " the laying 
 the foundations of morality higher than 
 the existence of any moral agents?" 
 And what says my lord to enforce the 
 charge? Why, truly, he alleges in de- 
 fence of the accused, that it was impos- 
 sible for him to have done otherwise, 
 and produces the authority of Mr. Locke 
 to confirm this impossibility. 
 
 The generosity of this sudden tranpi- 
 tion from accuser to advocate would 
 convince all men on which side his lord- 
 ship had here delivered his real senti- 
 ments, was it not somewhat controlled by 
 his having concealed from his readers, 
 that the philosopher a little afterwards, 
 in the same book ' hath endeavoured to 
 prove, and, I think, actually hath proved, 
 that there is no absurdity in what my 
 lord Bolingbroke objects, provided the 
 doctrine be rightly understood, so as not 
 to establish innate principles. That the 
 actual existence of the subjects of mathe- 
 matical or moral ideas is not in the least 
 necessary to give us a sufficient evidence 
 ^ Lib. 4, cap. 9. 
 
ON L. BOLINGBROKE'S ESSAYS. 233 
 
 of the necessity of those ideas ; and that, 
 in the disputes of the mathematician as 
 well as of the moralist, the existence of 
 the subject matter is rarely called in 
 question ; nor is it more necessary to 
 their demonstrations and conclusions, 
 than it would be to prove the truth of 
 TuUy's Offices, to shew that there was 
 some man who lived up to that idea of 
 perfect goodness, of which Tully hath 
 given us a pattern. There is somewhat 
 very mysterious in all this ; but we have 
 not promised to explain contradictions 
 farther than by shewing to which side 
 his lordship's authority seems to incline. 
 And surely it is better to decide in favour 
 of possibility, and to lay the foundations 
 of morality too high, than to give it no 
 foundation at all. 
 
 Desunt castera. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Page 4, 1. 17. '■^ from the hands of the author." 
 — This would appear to be scarcely accurate. 
 See Editor's " Introduction," pp. vii-xii. 
 
 Page 4, 1. 28. " those innocents he hath left 
 behind" — Besides Charlotte Cradock's daughter, 
 the Eleanor Harriot referred to at p. 44, 1. 12, 
 Fielding left three children by his second wife, 
 the youngest of whom, Allen, was bom in April, 
 1754, not long before he removed to the " little 
 house" at Ealing mentioned at p. 35, 1. 20. The 
 others were William, born in 1748, and Sophia, 
 bom in 1750. 
 
 Page 5, 1. 7. " in answer to Lord Boling- 
 broke." — The five 4to volumes of Bolingbroke's 
 works, which provoked many assailants and 
 apologists, were published by David Mallet in 
 March, 1754 (see note to p. 34, 1. 20). Fielding's 
 "Comment" must have been begun in the last 
 months of his life. He had made many notes for 
 it from the Fathers, etc., which were preserved by 
 his brother John. 
 
 Page 9, 1. 7. " doctor Zachary Grey." — Grey's 
 " Hudibras" appeared in 1744, in two vols. 8vo, 
 with " a new Set of Cuts " by J. Mynde, based on 
 Hogarth's plates to the edition of 1726. The re- 
 
238 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 dundancy of the notes is unquestioned ; but the 
 erudition is extraordinary. The book was in 
 Fielding's library, though his name does not 
 appear among the original subscribers. 
 
 Page 9, 1. 12. '■'■the late doctor Mead!' — Dr. 
 Richard Mead died on the i6th of February, 
 1754. " Of his books," says the " Gentleman's 
 Magazine" for November in that year (xxiv., p. 
 514), "there were ten thousand volumes, and 
 among them whatever was curious, excellent, or 
 scarce, besides a great number of Greek, Latin, 
 and oriental manuscripts.'' They were sold in 
 November and December, 1754, and in April and 
 May, 1755. The catalogue was issued in August, 
 1754- 
 Page II, 1. 27. " Burnet and Addison."— The 
 books referred to are Gilbert Burnet's " Travels 
 through Switzerland, Italy, etc.," 1687, and 
 Addison's " Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, 
 etc., in the years 1701-2-3," 1705. Both were 
 in Fielding's library. 
 
 Page 16, 1. 18. ^^ things and/acts of so common 
 a kind." — The famous " Five Days' Peregrina- 
 tion" of Hogarth and his friends in May, 1732, 
 was described by its authors " as a burlesque on 
 historical writers recording a series of insignifi- 
 cant events entirely uninteresting to the reader." 
 Goldsmith's "Journey to Kentish Town," in 
 the "Citizen of the World" (Letter CXVIII. 
 [CXXII.]), has a like motive ; and Fielding's 
 own " Letter from a French Gentleman to his 
 Friend at Paris," contributed to his sister's 
 " Familiar Letters between the Principal Cha- 
 racters in David Simple," is also intended as a 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 239 
 
 humorous " Imitation of Horace, Addison, and 
 all Writers of travelling Letters." 
 
 Page 18, 1. 15. "my lord Anson's." — Anson's 
 " Voyage round the World," compiled under his 
 direction by R. Walter, M.A., Chaplain of the 
 " Centurion," was published in May, 1748. " No 
 Voyage," says the " Gentleman's Magazine " for 
 that month, "was ever written with greater 
 dignity of stile, or more regard to truth." 
 
 Page 19, I. 19. " one passage in Horace" — 
 E.g., Ridentem dicere ijerum, Quid vetatf — 
 HOR., Sat. i. I. 24. 
 
 Page 20, 1. 7. " the conduct of authors," etc. 
 — This is a transparent allusion to the laudatory 
 Preface which, under the character of the 
 Editor, Richardson wrote for " Pamela." 
 
 Page 20, 1. 20. " the use of the pastry-cook to 
 be the first" — Probably Fielding had in mind 
 " Spectator," No. 85 : "I once met with a page 
 of Mr. Baxter under a Christmas pie. Whether 
 or no the pastry-cook had made use of it through 
 chance or waggery, for the defence of that super- 
 stitious viand, I know not ; but upon the perusal 
 of it, I conceived so good an idea of the author's 
 piety, that I bought the whole book." 
 
 Page 21, 1. 10. "the Rehearsal." — I.e., the 
 play of that name by George Villiers, second 
 Duke of Buckingham, 1672. See act ii., sc. 4, 
 where the Gentleman-Usher and Physician 
 effect a change of government by drawing their 
 swords and occupying a couple of chairs. 
 
 Page 23, 1. 2. " the Duke of Portland's medi- 
 cine" — "This celebrated powder, which obtained 
 its name in consequence of being recommended 
 
240 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 by a duke of Portland, was long held as a specific 
 in the cure of gout. It is composed of the roots 
 of round birthwort and gentian, and of the tops 
 and leaves of germander, ground pine and cen- 
 taury, dried and reduced to powder. It appears 
 that this preparation was recommended by Galen 
 (' Gent. Mag.,' xxii., 579), that it was called by 
 Toumefort, the Prince of Mirandola's powder, 
 and that a decoction of one of the ingredients, 
 thegermander, was recommended by the Genoese 
 physicians to the Emperor Clfarles V., as a cure 
 for the gout. A similar preparation in the cure 
 of the same disease is spoken of by Hoffman, 
 from which it is obvious that it was no new 
 discovery." — Watson's " Life of Henry Fielding, 
 Esq.," 1807, p. 128 n. 
 
 Page 23, 1. 6. " Mr. Ranby:'-r-T\A6.mg had 
 referred to Ranby in " Tom Jones," book viii., 
 ch. 13, where the Man of the Hill speaks of a 
 doctor " whose Name . . . began with an R," and 
 who "was Sergeant-Surgeon to the King. He 
 had moreover many good Qualities, and was a 
 very generous, good-natured Man, and ready to 
 do any Service to his Fellow-Creatures." In 
 1744 he published a " Narrative of the Last Ill- 
 ness of the Earl of Orford." He was well known 
 to Hogarth, who left " A View of Mr. Ranby's 
 House at Chiswick," which Mrs. Hogarth pub- 
 hshed in 1781 ; and there is an unconfirmed tra- 
 dition that he served as the model for the hero 
 of " A Rake's Progress " ( Nichols's " Anecdotes," 
 1781, p. 68*). 
 
 Page 24, 1. 2. " Mr. Carrington." — Probably 
 the person referred to by Walpole in his letter 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 24 1 
 
 to Lord Hertford of 15th Feb., 1764, giving an 
 account of the debate on General Warrants : 
 " Carrington, the messenger, was alone examined 
 for seven hours. This old man, the cleverest of 
 all ministerial terriers, was pleased vfith re- 
 counting his achievements, yet perfectly guarded 
 and betraying nothing." 
 
 Page 24, 1. 3. " to attend his Grace." — After 
 this, in the later version, comes — " the next morn- 
 ing, in Lincoln's-inn-fields, upon some business 
 of importance ; but I excused myself from com- 
 plying with the message, as besides being lame, 
 I was very ill with the great fatigues I had lately 
 undergone, added to my distemper. 
 
 "His Grace, however, sent Mr. Carrington, 
 the very next morning, with another summons ; 
 with which, tho' in the utmost distress, I imme- 
 diately complied ; but the Duke happening, un- 
 fortunately for me, to be then particularly en- 
 gaged, after I had waited some time, sent a 
 gentleman " etc. 
 
 Page 24, 1. 4. "Lincoln's-inn-fields." — New- 
 castle House, fonnerly Powis House, stands at 
 the north-west angle leading into Great Queen 
 Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. It was built about 
 1686 by Lord Powis, and was purchased by the 
 Duke's uncle, John Holies, Duke of Newcastle. 
 From 1827 to 1879 it was occupied by the Chris- 
 tian Knowledge Society, now located at Northum- 
 berland Avenue. 
 
 Page 26, 1. 24. " T had the satisfaction^' etc. 
 — This is confirmed by a paragraph in the 
 "PubUc Advertiser'' for January ist, 1754: "A 
 Gentleman at Genoa writes, that the Letters 
 
 R 
 
242 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 from Corsica are as full of Housebreakings, 
 Robberies, and Murders, as a London News- 
 Paper before Mr. F!s Plan was carried into 
 Execution." (The italics are the editor's.) 
 
 Page 29, 1. 4. " my clerk."— From Howell's 
 "State Trials," xix., 428, it appears that the 
 clerk's name was Mr. Brogden. 
 
 Page 29, 1. 20. " my great patron." — No doubt 
 John, Duke of Bedford, to whose "princely 
 Benefactions " Fielding refers in the " Dedica- 
 tion " of " Tom Jones," and to whom he had been 
 recommended by his friend and schoolfellow, 
 George Lyttelton. 
 
 Page 30, 1. 25. " my brother."— 1\i\% was John 
 (afterwards Sir John) Fielding, who succeeded 
 Henry Fielding as a Justice of the Peace for the 
 City and Liberties of Westminster, and had been 
 largely concerned in the " Universal- Register- 
 Office," in which his brother held shares (see 
 also note to p. 45, 1. 13). He was the son of 
 General Fielding by his second wife. Although 
 blind, he was a vigorous and an energetic magis- 
 trate, a fact to which (as the author of" Bamaby 
 Rudge " has not forgotten) the " No Popery " 
 rioters of 1 780 rendered emphatic testimony by 
 burning down his Bow Street house. There are 
 many references to him in the periodical and 
 other literature of the day, — e.g., in Churchill's 
 " Ghost " and Goldsmith's " Rhymed Letter to 
 Mrs. Bunbury." He wrote several professional 
 works; and is usually credited in booksellers' 
 catalogues with a " Description of London and 
 Westminster," which he expre'ssly disavowed in 
 the " Pubhc Advertiser " for 6th January, 1777. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 243 
 
 He was knighted in 1761, and died at Brompton 
 Place in September, 1780. There are two por- 
 traits of him by Nathaniel Hone, engraved by 
 McArdell and J. R. Smith respectively, and 
 there is a third by the Rev. M. W. Peters, R.A., 
 engraved by W. Dickinson in November, 1778, 
 in which he is represented in his robes as 
 Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the City of 
 Westminster. 
 
 Page 31, 1. 5. "After this concession" — In 
 the modem version the word is " confession.'' 
 
 Page 32, 1. 8. " the late excellent judge Bur- 
 net!' — This was Sir Thomas Burnet, third and 
 youngest son of the Bishop of Salisbury. After 
 a youth much after the fashion of Fielding's own, 
 he became an industrious lawyer, and in 1741 
 was made a Justice ofjhe Court of Common 
 Pleas. He published in 1724-34 his father's 
 famous " History of His Own Time ; " and, 
 among other early political pamphlets, he is 
 credited with the " History of Robert Powel the 
 Puppet-Show-Man," 1715, a squib on Robert 
 Harley, Earl of Oxford. He died in January, 
 
 1753- 
 Page 34, 1. 10. "Dr. Ward.-'—Dx. Joshua 
 Ward, commonly known, from a blemish on his 
 face, as " Spot " Ward. He figures in Hogarth's 
 "Company of Undertakers," 1736, and is referred 
 to in Pope's — 
 
 "Ward try'd on Puppies, and the Poor, his Drop." 
 
 Fielding also, in " Tom Jones," book viii., ch. 
 9, likens Interest to " Ward's Pill [which] flies 
 at once to the particular Part of the Body on 
 
244 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 which you desire to operate." He was a quack, 
 but a quack of parts, and often very lucky in 
 his cures. He died in December, 1761, leaving 
 the secret of his medicines to Mr. Page, M.P. 
 for Chichester, who bestowed them on two 
 charitable institutions, which are said to have 
 derived considerable pecuniary benefit from the 
 gift. 
 
 Page 34, 1. 20. " Mr. Pelhamy—Tht Right 
 Honourable Henry Pelham died on the 6th of 
 March, 1754, being the very day, Boswell notes, 
 on which Mallet issued the works of Boling- 
 broke, or, as Garrick puts it in the Odf he pub- 
 lished in the same month : — 
 
 " The same sad mom to chm-ch and state 
 (So for our sins 'twas fix'd by fate) 
 
 A double stroke was giv'n ; 
 Black as the whirlwinds of the north, 
 St. J— lis fell genius issu'd forth, 
 
 And Pel/mm's fled to heav'n ] " 
 
 It was to Pelham that Fielding dedicated his 
 " Proposal for Making an Effectual Provision 
 for the Poor,'' etc., 1753. 
 
 Page 35, 1. 20. " a little house of mine in the 
 country.''^ — This house, of which the name, Ford- 
 hook, is given at p. 41, 1. 28, stood on the Ux- 
 bridge road nearly opposite the site now occu- 
 pied by the Ealing Common Station of the 
 Metropolitan District Railway. It has long since 
 given place to, or been elaborated into, a larger 
 building, which still retains the old name. 
 
 P.\GE 37, 1. II. "the virtues of tar-water." — 
 Bishop Berkeley's " Chain of Philosophical Re- 
 flections and Inquiries concerning Tar- Water," 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 245 
 
 to which, in the second edition, the additional 
 title of " Siris " was prefixed, appeared in the 
 spring of 1744. What Fielding would have 
 called its physical part, consisted in the exalta- 
 tion of the mild and benign qualities of tar- 
 water, a beverage affirmed to be so " propor- 
 tioned to the human constitution, as to warm 
 without heating, and to cheer but not inebriate " 
 (this latter property Cowper afterwards claimed 
 for tea), and consequently to be a remedy for all 
 the ills of the flesh. Unhappily it has not sus- 
 tained this reputation, and now occupies a very 
 modest place in the "Pharmacopoeia." The meta- 
 physical part of " Siris " went much farther, rising 
 (in Warton's words) " from matter to spirit, from 
 earth to Heaven." 
 
 Page 37, 1. 14. " the inimitable author of the 
 Female Quixote'' — In the modern version the 
 words " and shamefully distress'd " follow " in- 
 imitable." The lady referred to was Mrs. Char- 
 lotte Lenox, or Lennox, whose novel, entitled at 
 large " The Female Quixote ; or, The Adven- 
 tures of Arabella," had been published in 1752, 
 and reviewed enthusiastically by Fielding in the 
 " Covent Garden Journal" for March 24th in that 
 year. It was to celebrate the publication of an 
 earlier, and in part autobiographical efifort, 
 "The Life of Harriot Stuart," 1751, that John- 
 son organized the "all-night sitting" at the Ivy 
 Lane Club, with its accompaniments of laurel 
 and apple-pie, of which Hawkins gives so graphic 
 an account ("Life," 2nd ed., 1787, pp. 285-7). 
 Mrs. Lenox was the daughter of Colonel Ram- 
 say, Lieutenant-Govetnor of New York, and 
 
246 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 coming to England at fifteen, had been early 
 thrown upon literature for a livelihood — a cir- 
 cumstance which probably explains the qualifi- 
 cation " shamefully distress'd." But she found 
 patrons and friends. Johnson, who thought very 
 highly of her understanding, helped her fre- 
 quently with Prefaces, etc. (he wrote the dedica- 
 tion of " The Female Quixote ") ; Richardson 
 admitted her to his readings at Parsons Green ; 
 Goldsmith gave her an Epilogue for the play 
 of " The Sister," which she based upon her tale 
 of " Henrietta,'' 1758 ; and in 1761 Reynolds 
 painted a portrait of her, afterwards engraved 
 by Bartolozzi for Harding's " Shakespeare." Her 
 husband, Mr. Lenox, was in the employ of 
 Strahan the printer ; and subsequently became 
 a tide-waiter in the Customs. Mrs. Lenox died 
 in 1804, aged eighty-four ; and was buried by 
 the Right Honourable George Rose, who had 
 befriended her later years. 
 
 Page 37, 1. 26. " that tar-water might be use- 
 ful in the dropsy" — In his private communica- 
 tions, if the " Public Advertiser" is to be credited, 
 the Bishop went farther. On Sept. 9th, 1754, 
 when Fielding was sinking at Lisbon, it pub- 
 lished a case alleged to have been communi- 
 cated by Berkeley to a Friend, " a little before 
 his Death." It was of a dropsical soldier who 
 had been cured by drinking two quarts of tar- 
 water daily. The case ends : " The present is 
 but one of several Instances, wherein the Dropsy 
 hath been cured by Tar- Water, which I never 
 knew to fail in any Species of that Malady." 
 
 Page 41, 1. 6. "Lisbon was presently fixed 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE: NOTES. 247 
 
 on." — It was a favourite resort of eighteenth- 
 century invalids. Peterborough died on his 
 way there in 1735 ; Doddridge was buried 
 there in 1751 ; and in 1755, Lord Drumlanrig, 
 the son of Prior's " Kitty," only escaped the 
 Earthquake to succumb at home of the shock 
 to his system caused by that calamity. 
 
 Page 44, 1. 9. " My wife." — This was Field- 
 ing's second wife, Mary Daniel, to whom he had 
 been married at St. Bene't's, Paul's Wharf, on 
 the 27th November, 1747. She had been his 
 first wife's maid. She died at Canterbury on 
 the nth of March, 1802. A portrait of her by 
 Francis Cotes, R.A., described by one who saw 
 it as " a very fine drawing of a very ugly woman," 
 was sold not long since at Christie's. 
 
 Page 44, 1. 12. " my eldest daughter." — Elea- 
 nor Harriot, his daughter by his first wife, Char- 
 lotte Cradock. According to Mr. Keightley, she 
 survived her father, but not for long. See also 
 p. 104, 1. 29. 
 
 Page 45, 1. 13. "Mr. Welch."— S>a.nnAtrs 
 Welch, Esq., the father-in-law of NoUekens the 
 sculptor, and the friend of Johnson, of Fielding, 
 and also of Hogarth, who painted a portrait of 
 him which is copied at p. 155 of Samuel Ireland's 
 " Graphic Illustrations," 1794. Welch was the 
 author of an excellent paper on Hogarth's 
 " March to Finchley," contributed to Christopher 
 Smart's " Student," ii., 162. At this date he was 
 High Constable of Holborn ; and in March, 
 1754, had published a useful series of " Obser- 
 vations on the Office of a Constable." He be- 
 came a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex, 
 
248 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Surrey, and Buckingham, and (like Fielding) 
 for the City and Liberties of Westminster. He 
 was also a co-proprietor in Sir John Fielding's 
 " Universal-Register-Office." He died in Octo- 
 ber, 1784, preceding Johnson to the grave by a 
 few weeks, and was buried in the cemetery of 
 St. George's, Bloomsbury. There are many 
 particulars concerning him in Smith's " Nolle- 
 kens," 1828, i., 121, et seq. 
 
 Page 47, 1. 27. " This morning" etc. — The 
 later version reads : "This morning the captain, 
 who lay on shore at his own house, paid us a 
 visit in the cabin ; and behaved like an angry 
 bashaw, declaring, that had he known we were 
 not to be pleased, he would not have carried us 
 for 500/. He added many asseverations that 
 he was a gentleman, and despised money ; not 
 forgetting several hints of the presents which 
 had been made him for his cabin, of 20, 
 30, and 40 guineas, by several gentlemen, over 
 and above the sum for which they had con- 
 tracted. This behaviour greatly surprised me, 
 as I knew not how to account for it, nothing 
 having happened since we parted from the cap- 
 tain the evening before in perfect good humour ; 
 and all this broke forth on the first moment of 
 his arrival this morning. He did not, however, 
 suffer my amazement to have any long continu- 
 ance, before he clearly shewed me that all this 
 was meant only as an apology to introduce 
 another procrastination (being the fifth) of his 
 weighing anchor ; which was now postponed till 
 Saturday, for such was his will and pleasure. 
 
 " Besides the disagreeable situation " etc. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 249 
 
 Page 48, L 17. ^Hhat print of his." — Hogarth's 
 "Enraged Musician," published in November, 
 1 74 1. Fielding had a genuine admiration for 
 the great artist to whom we owe his portrait, 
 and often mentions him sympathetically in his 
 works. In " Tom Jones " he refers to " A Har- 
 lot's Progress " for the graphic presentments of 
 " Mrs. Partridge " and " Parson Thwackum," 
 and to the prude in " Morning (Four Times 
 of the Day) " for that of " Miss Bridget All- 
 worthy." 
 
 Page 51, 1. 5. "the young society of anti- 
 quarians!'' — The Society of Antiquaries of Lon- 
 don received its Charter Nov. 2, 1751. It had 
 existed informally long before. 
 
 Page 51,1. 18. '■^ the great encourager of art 
 and science" — Perhaps this is a reference to 
 Hogarth, who, when the print of the " March to 
 Finchley" was disapproved by George II., 
 dedicated it in a rage "To His Majesty the 
 King of Prussia, an Encourager of Arts and 
 Sciences." 
 
 Page 58, 1. 6. " The captain}'— f^x^ later 
 version reads " The particular tyrant.'' 
 
 Page 58, 1. 9. " He had been the captain of a 
 privateer" — In the later version this passage 
 runs : " He had been the captain of a privateer, 
 which he chose to call being in the king's ser- 
 vice, and thence derived a right of hoisting the 
 military ornament of a cockade over the button 
 of his hat. He likewise wore a sword of no 
 ordinary length by his side, with which he 
 swaggered in his cabin, among the wretches his 
 passengers, whom he had stowed in cupboards 
 
250 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 on each side. He was a person of a very singu- 
 lar character. He had taken it into his head 
 that he was a gentleman, from those very rea- 
 sons that proved he was not one ; and to shew 
 himself a fine gentleman, by a behaviour which 
 seemed to insinuate he had never seen one. He 
 was, moreover, a man of gallantry; at the age of 
 seventy he had the finicalness of Sir Courtly 
 Nice, with the roughness of Surly ; and while he 
 was deaf himself, had a voice capable of deafen- 
 ing all others." 
 
 Page 59, 1. 7. " Scrub in the play."— Scmh, a 
 character which Goldsmith once expressed a 
 wish to act, is the servant of Squire Sullen in 
 Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem." In act iii., 
 sc. 3, he thus describes his multifarious functions: 
 " Of a Monday I drive the coach, of a Tuesday 
 I drive the plough, on Wednesday I follow the 
 hounds, a Thursday I dun the tenants, on 
 Friday I go to market, on Saturday I draw 
 warrants, and a Sunday I draw beer." Scrub's 
 first exponent was Henry Norris, the "little 
 Dickey " who gave rise to so much misconcep- 
 tion in the controversy between Addison and 
 Steele. 
 
 Page 59, 1. 18. " my friend Mr. Hunter." — 
 This must have been William Hunter, for at 
 this date John was not yet celebrated. In a 
 letter to the former, written in December, 1778, 
 by Sir John Fielding, he says of his brother, 
 " He was your old and sincere friend," and he 
 begs him to send "all his Pupils, all his Patients, 
 all his Friends" to the "Author's Widow's 
 night " of Fielding's posthumous play of " The 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTKS. 251 
 
 Fathers ; or, the Good-Natur'd Man," which was 
 produced at Drury Lane on the 30th November, 
 and ran for nine nights. 
 
 Page 60, 1. 14. "to his word." — After this 
 follows in the later version : "when he had no 
 longer any temptation from interest to break it, 
 as he had no longer any hopes of more goods or 
 passengers." 
 
 Page 61, 1. 4. "his setting out." — The later 
 version adds here : "though I had, very patiently, 
 attended the delays of the captain four days, 
 after many solemn promises of weighing anchor 
 every one of the three last." 
 
 Page 61, 1. 16. "my man." — William, the 
 footman, named at p. 135, 1. 2. 
 
 Page 62, 1. 11. "the Royal Anne." — The 
 " Royal Anne " was built in 1704, at Woolwich, 
 by William Lee. She was 1,721 tons burden, 
 carried 100 guns, and 780 men. But Fielding 
 must have been mistaken in speaking of her as 
 "the largest ship ever built," as the "Royal Sove- 
 reign," built three years earlier by the same Wil- 
 liam Lee, was 1,882 tons, and carried no guns 
 and 850 men. 
 
 Page 64, 1. 10. " the brave young prince" — 
 I.e., the Duke of Cumberland. The battle 
 between the Allies and the French at the vil- 
 lage of Val, July 2, 1747, is perhaps better known 
 as that of Lafeldt, or Lauffield. The Duke made 
 a skilful retreat to Maestricht. 
 
 Page 70, 1. 7. " Sir Courtly Nice declares" — 
 He says it to Leonora in act iv. of Crowne's 
 play of 1685, which is christened after him : 
 " Oh ! there's nothing so charming as admirable 
 
252 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 teeth. If a lady fastens upon my heart it must 
 be with her teeth." 
 
 Page 72, 1. 4. " the Robin Hood society!'— 
 This was a debating or oratorical club, held 
 every Monday in Essex Street, Strand. It con- 
 sisted chiefly, says the " Connoisseur " for March 
 28th, 1754, " of lawyers clerks, petty tradesmen, 
 and the lowest mechanics." The president was 
 a baker, and freethinking was the order of the 
 day. In Nos. 8 and 9 of the " Covent Garden 
 Journal," Fielding had already ridiculed the 
 society, and he made special capital out of the 
 president's calling. But the baker must have 
 been a notable man in his way, for it is said 
 that Burke spoke at the Robin Hood in his 
 youth, not without profit to his powers of elo- 
 quence. Derrick of Bath took Goldsmith to one 
 of the meetings. The poet was greatly awed by 
 the president, whom he thought Nature had in- 
 tended for a Lord Chancellor at least. " No," 
 commented Derrick, facetiously, "only for a 
 Master of the Rolls " (Forster's " Goldsmith," 
 1871, i., 288). In September, 1754, the Robin 
 Hoodians published a "Vindication" of their 
 proceedings, which was given away gratis. 
 
 Page 72, 1. 10. " a young lady of her sister." 
 — These were Margaret and Jane Collier, the 
 daughters of Arthur Collier, the metaphysician. 
 It was Margaret who accompanied Fielding to 
 Lisbon, and she was one of the witnesses to the 
 undated will which he executed at Ealing. She 
 it was, too, who is supposed to have supplied 
 Hogarth with the cut-paper silhouette from 
 which it is alleged that he prepared the frontis- 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 2S3 
 
 piece to this volume (see note at back of bastard 
 title). In 1 75 5-7 she retired to Ryde, from 
 which place she wrote several letters to Richard- 
 son which are printed in vol. ii. of his " Corre- 
 spondence." In one of these she speaks of having 
 been reported to be "the author of Mr. Fielding's 
 last work, 'The Voyage to Lisbon,'" because "it 
 was so very bad a performance, and fell so far 
 short of his other works " (p. 77). The second 
 sister, Jane (who was dead in Oct., 1755), was 
 author of "The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting," 
 1753, and part-author, with Fielding's own sister 
 Sarah, of the "dramatic Fable" in three volumes 
 called " The Cry," published by Dodsley in 
 March, 1754. 
 
 Page 72, 1. 25. "An inkhorn at his button- 
 hole!' — This was the badge of the exciseman or 
 custom-house officer. The reader will recall the 
 little vignette in Boswell of Johnson at Thrale's 
 sale : " When the sale of Thrale's brewery was 
 going forward, Johnson appeared bustling about, 
 with an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole, like 
 an excise-man; and on being asked what he 
 really considered to be the value of the property 
 which was to be disposed of, answered, ' We are 
 not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but 
 the potentiality of growing rich, beyond the 
 dreams of avarice'" (Birkbeck Hill's " Boswell," 
 1887, iv., 87). 
 
 Page 74, 1. 14. "the whimsical notion of 
 Plato!'— K long quotation from Plato, made on 
 shipboard, is at first sight rather puzzling. But 
 the edition from which it is derived was included 
 among Fielding's library when sold, so that he 
 
254 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 must have taken the book, or one of the volumes, 
 with him to Portugal. 
 
 Page 79, 1. 21. '■'■but uiiluckily for me." — In 
 the later version this continues : " besides a total 
 ignorance of everything in the world but a ship, 
 he had the misfortune of being so deaf, that to 
 make him hear, I will not say understand, my 
 words," etc. 
 
 Page 80, 1. 14. " what I thought."— These 
 words are not in the later version. 
 
 Page 85, 1. 25. "a great lady's name." — In 
 the later version follows : " the wife of the first 
 lord commissioner of the admiralty." The First 
 Lord in 1754 was George, Lord Anson, who had 
 been married in 1748 to Lady Elizabeth Yorke, 
 daughter of the Lord High Chancellor, Philip 
 Yorke, Lord Hardwicke. To Lord Hardwicke 
 Fielding had dedicated the " Enquiry into the 
 Causes of the late Increase of Robbers," etc., 
 1752 ; and he pays him a splendid compliment 
 in bk. iv., ch. 6, of " Tom Jones." 
 
 Page 87, 11. 5 and 8. "of opinion " and '■'■hopes'' 
 — These in the later version are " sure " and 
 " assurance." 
 
 Page 89, 1. 23. " Mr. Addison's observation." 
 —At the close of No. 117 of "The Tatler," d 
 propos of the lines in act iv., sc. 6, of " King 
 Lear." Addison's annotator, the "word-picker" 
 Bishop Hurd, is of opinion that Addison's ob- 
 servation is " a quibble, not much to the credit 
 of the writer," — a position which he proceeds to 
 justify with all his most arid pedantry. 
 
 Page 90, 1. 28. " The captain."— The later 
 version reads "swaggered," and instead of "being 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 255 
 
 unwilling to come to anchor ; " and the lines 
 after " island " (p. 91, 1. 7) to the end of the 
 paragraph are omitted. 
 
 Page 91, 1. 21. ^^ the utmost concern." — The 
 later version adds, " and many bitter oaths.'' 
 
 Page 92, 1. 27. " in -which innocent amuse- 
 ments — For " they passed their leisure hours,'' 
 the later version substitutes " they had passed 
 about two-thirds of their time." 
 
 Page 93, 1. 17. "Ryde." — Ryde, now a flourish- 
 ing town of 10,000 inhabitants, was at this date 
 no more than what Fielding styles it at p. 103, 
 1. 2, viz., "a village." He adds further (p. 141, 
 1. 25), that the parish did " not seem to contain 
 above thirty houses." It was not until the close 
 of the century that the advantages of Ryde as a 
 watering-place began to attract attention, and 
 even then its growth was gradual. 
 
 Page 96, 1. 4. " Ryde was inaccessible." — This 
 state of things continued practically until the 
 erection in 1814 of the first part of the pier. In 
 Marryat's "Poor Jack," one of the speakers 
 says : " At that time there was no wooden pier 
 at Ryde as there is now, and when the tide was 
 out, there was such a long fiat of mud that there 
 was no landing ; so the way it was managed 
 was, the wherries came in as far as they could, 
 and were met by a horse and cart, which took 
 out the passengers, and carried them through 
 the mud and water to the hard ground." 
 
 Page 97, 1. i. ^^ a bubble."— I.e., a dupe. "The 
 players in general were disgusted with the obso- 
 lete style of the play [Ralph's 'Astrologer'], 
 and the almost forgotten scheme of hunting for 
 
2S6 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 the philosopher's stone in order to cheat bubbles 
 of their money" (Davies' " Life of Garrick," 1780, 
 i., 225) 
 
 Page 99, 1. 6. "Mrs. Humphrys." — In the 
 later version : " Mrs. Francis (for that was the 
 name of the good woman of the house) ; " and 
 " Mrs, Francis " throughout that version she con- 
 tinues to be styled. 
 
 Page 103, 1. 20. " Whites."— This was the 
 old chocolate-house of Addison and Steele. 
 .At this date it had been turned into a club, one 
 of tTie earliest rules of which was that every 
 member should pay a guinea per annum "to- 
 wards having a good Cook." Walpole, writing 
 to Sir Horace Mann in June, 175 1, describes a 
 "late extravagant dinner at White's" as dividing 
 the talk of the town with the two Miss Gunnings. 
 " The bill of fare (he says) is got into print, and 
 with good people has produced the apprehension 
 of another earthquake." 
 
 Page 107,1. 12. '^wind." — In the eighteenth 
 century the letter " e " was often written like a 
 " d." Hogarth so wrote it, as may be seen by 
 the facsimile of his well-known " Eta Beta PY " 
 invitation to Dr. King. This justifies Fielding's 
 somewhat laboured jesting upon this theme, 
 which, nevertheless, was not his first offence. 
 Already in the " Letter from a French Gentle- 
 man,'' etc., referred to in the note to p. 16, 1. 18, 
 he had said, " There is a Liquor sold in this 
 Country which they call Wine, (most of the In- 
 habitants indeed call it Wind.)" 
 
 Page 111,1.20. " The famous Cornaro." — The 
 "noble Venetian" (or rather Paduan), Lewis 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 257 
 
 Cornaro, who wrote, at eighty-three, a volume 
 on temperance, which was translated in 1742 by 
 T. Smith under the title of " A Treatise of the 
 Benefits of a Sober Life." Cornaro was com- 
 mended' by Addison in No. 195 of the " Spec- 
 tator." 
 
 Page 112, 1. 2. ^'■Cheney, Arbuthnot." — Dr. 
 George Cheyne (d. 1742) wrote an "Essay on 
 Health and Long Life," 1724 ; Dr. John Arbuth- 
 not (the friend of Pope and Swift) published in 
 1731 " An Essay concerning the Nature of Ali- 
 ments,'' etc. 
 
 Page 112, 1. 5. "the learned Dr. James's dic- 
 tionary." — This was Dr. Robert James of the 
 "Fever Powder" in which Gray and Goldsmith 
 and Walpole had so much faith. His " Medi- 
 cinal Dictionary," here referred to, was published 
 1743-5 ill 3 yo\s. folio. It was his best-known 
 work. Johnson, whose schoolfellow he had 
 been at Lichfield, wrote some of the articles, 
 and supplied the Dedication to Dr. Mead, which 
 (as Boswell says) "is conceived with great 
 address, to conciliate the patronage of that very 
 eminent man." 
 
 Page 112, 1. 8. " kingdom."— Aitex this, in 
 the later version, follows : " and the college 
 themselves were not long since very liberally 
 entertained with it, by the present attorney and 
 other eminent lawyers, in Lincoln's-inn hall, and 
 were all made horribly sick by it." 
 
 Page 113, 1. 20. "none." — The later version 
 reads "one." 
 
 Page 115,1. i. " Quin the player." — Quin said 
 this of Charles Macklin's " Shylock." There was 
 
2S8 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 no love lost between the pair, a circumstance 
 which prompted the following epigram, ascribed 
 to William Hogarth : — 
 
 " Your servant, Sir, says surly Quin ; 
 
 ' Sir, I am yours, replies Macklin.' 
 ** Why, you're the very Jew you play, 
 
 " Your face performs the task well." 
 ' And you are Sir John Brute, they say, 
 
 ' And an accomplish'd MaskwelL' 
 Says Rich, who heard the sneering elves. 
 
 And knew their horrid hearts, 
 ' ' Acting too much your very selves, 
 
 " You overdo your parts." 
 
 Biographical Anecdotes of William 
 Hogarth, etc., 1781, p. 47. 
 
 Page 115, 1. 21. "il/?'. Derham observes!' — 
 The Rev. William Derham, D.D., Prebendary 
 of Windsor and Rector of Upminster in Essex. 
 He was a philosopher and observer of the White 
 of Selborne type (he is often mentioned in 
 White's book) ; and he contributed, inter alia, a 
 paper of " Observations about Wasps,'' etc., to 
 No. 382 of the " Philosophical Transactions " 
 for March and April, 1724 (vol. xxxiii., p. 53). 
 But Fielding was probably thinking of the long 
 note on " the sting of a wasp, or bee" which 
 occurs in bk. iv., ch. 14, of Derham's once- 
 famous " Physico-Theology," 17 13. 
 
 Page 117, 1. 24. '■^with the censure" — The 
 later version reads, " with the tacit censure." 
 
 Page i 19, 1. 19. "_/»r the same thing." — In the 
 later version follows : " as he doth to the govern- 
 ment, for the light which enters through his own 
 window into his own house, from his own estate; 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 259 
 
 such are," etc., an obvious, if injudicious, refe- 
 rence to the window tax. 
 
 Page 120, 1. 2. " Ltician." — Lucian was one 
 of Fielding's favourite authors. Besides refer- 
 ring to Mm in "Tom Thumb," the "Champion," 
 and elsewhere, he specially invokes him at the 
 beginning of Book xiii. of "Tom Jones" ; and 
 in connection with the advertisement of a transla- 
 tion of Lucian's works by himself and the Rev. W. 
 Young (" Parson Adams"), which appeared in the 
 " Covent Garden Journal," he implies that he 
 had followed him as a model. " No Man," he 
 says, " seems so likely to translate an Author 
 well, as he who hath formed his Stile upon that 
 very Author " (No. 52). 
 
 Page 128, 1. 12. "Sir William Petty in his 
 Political Arithmetic." — Petty wrote more than 
 one tract on this subject. But that here referred 
 to by Fielding -is the "Political Arithmetick" 
 published in 1691 by the author's eldest son, 
 Lord Shelburne, who says, in his Dedication to 
 the King, that it would have seen the light 
 earlier had not its doctrines offended France. 
 The last chapter is headed " That the King 
 of England's Subjects have Stock competent and 
 convenient to drive the Trade of the whole com- 
 tmrcial World!' Fielding had this edition in 
 his library. 
 
 Page 130, 1. 4. "with some officers." — The 
 later version adds after "some" the qualification 
 " inferior." 
 
 Page 131, 1. 16. " understand" in the later 
 version Is "understood." 
 
 Page 132, 1. 17. " The captain."— Mt^r " cap- 
 
26o • ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 tain," in the later version comes, ''who had 
 remained on shore all night." 
 
 Page 139, 1. 18. "the late Sir Robert Wal- 
 pole." — Fielding's treatment of" one of the best 
 of men and of ministers " had been inconsistent, 
 to say the least. He had dedicated the " Modem 
 Husband" to him in 1732. But in the "His- 
 torical Register for the Year 1736" he had 
 satirized him as "Quidam." Here he returns to 
 his first, and probably more genuine, attitude of 
 admiration. 
 
 Page 145, I. 4. " his uncle}'' — After this in the 
 later version, the rest of the paragraph is re- 
 placed by the following : " He was what is called 
 by some a very pretty fellow ; indeed much 
 too pretty a fellow at his years ; for he was 
 turned of thirty-four, though his address and 
 conversation would have become him more 
 before he had reached twenty. In his conver- 
 sation, it is true, there was something military 
 enough, as it consisted chiefly of oaths, and of 
 the great actions and wise sayings of Jack, and 
 Will, and Tom of our regiment, a phrase eter- 
 nally in his mouth ; and he seemed to conclude 
 that it conveyed to all the officers such a degree 
 of public notoriety and importance, that it intitled 
 him, like the head of a profession, or a first 
 minister, to be the subject of conversation among 
 those who had not the least personal acquain- 
 tance with him. This did not much surprise 
 me, as I had seen several examples of the same ; 
 but the defects in his address, especially to the 
 women, were so great, that they seemed abso- 
 lutely inconsistent with the behaviour of a pretty 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 26 1 
 
 fellow, much less of one in a red coat ; and yet, 
 besides having been eleven years in the army, 
 he had had, as his uncle informed me, an edu- 
 cation in France. This, I own, would have 
 appeared to have been absolutely thrown away, 
 had not his animal spirits, which were likewise 
 thrown away upon him in great abundance, 
 borne the visible stamp of the growth of that 
 country. The character, to which he had an in- 
 disputable title, was that of a merry fellow ; so 
 very merry was he, that he laughed at every- 
 thing he said, and always before he spoke. 
 Possibly, indeed, he often laughed at what he 
 did not utter, for every speech begun with a 
 laugh, tho' it did not always end with a jest. 
 There was no great analogy between the charac- 
 ters of the uncle and the nephew, and yet they 
 seem'd intirely to agree in enjoying the honour 
 which the red-coat did to his family. This the 
 uncle expressed with great pleasure in his coun- 
 tenance, and seemed desirous of shewing all 
 present the honour which he had for his nephew, 
 who, on his side, was at some pains to convince 
 us of his concurring in this opinion, and, at the 
 same time, of displaying the contempt he had 
 for the parts, as well as the occupation of his 
 uncle, which he seemed to think reflected some 
 disgrace on himself, who was a member of that 
 profession which makes every man a gentle- 
 man. Not that I would be understood to in- 
 sinuate, that the nephew endeavoured to shake 
 off or disown his uncle, or indeed, to keep him 
 at any distance. On the contrary, he treated 
 him with the utmost familiarity, often calling him 
 
262 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Dick, and dear Dick, and old Dick, and fre- 
 quently beginning an oration with D — n me, 
 Dick. 
 
 "All this condescension on the part of the 
 young man, was received with suitable marks 
 of complaisance and obligation by the old one ; 
 especially, when it was attended with evidences 
 of the same familiarity with general officers, and 
 other persons of rank ; one of whom, in particular, 
 I know to have the pride and insolence of the 
 devil himself, and who, without some strong bias 
 of interest, is no more liable to converse fami- 
 liarly with a lieutenant, than of being mistaken 
 in his judgment of a fool ; which was not, per- 
 haps, so certainly the case of the worthy lieu- 
 tenant, who, in declaring to us the qualifications 
 which recommended men to his countenance 
 and conversation, as well as what effectually set 
 a bar to all hopes of that honour, exclaimed, 
 
 ' No, Sir, by the D , I hate all fooh— no, 
 
 d — n me, excuse me for that. That's a little 
 too much, old Dick. There are two or three 
 officers of our regiment, whom I know to 
 be fools ; but d — n me if I am ever seen 
 in their company. If a man hath a fool of a 
 relation, Dick, you know he can't help that, old 
 boy.' 
 
 " Such jokes as these the old man not only 
 took in good part, but glibly gulped down the 
 whole narrative of his nephew ; nor did he, I am 
 convinced, in the least doubt of our as readily 
 swallowing the same. This made him so chamied 
 with the lieutenant, that it is probable we should 
 have been pestered with him the whole evening, 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 263 
 
 had not the north- wind, dearer to our sea-captain, 
 even than this glory of his family, sprung sud- 
 denly up, and called aloud to him to weigh his 
 anchor. 
 
 "While this ceremony was performing, the 
 sea-captain ordered out his boat to row the land- 
 captain to shore ; not indeed on an uninhabited 
 island, but one which, in this part, looked but 
 little better, not presenting us the view of a single 
 house. Indeed, our old friend, when his boat 
 returned on shore, perhaps being no longer able 
 to stifle his envy of the superiority of his 
 nephew, told us, with a smile, that the young 
 man had a good five mile to walk, before he 
 could be accommodated with a passage to 
 Portsmouth." 
 
 Page 145, 1. 24. " a brother of mine}' — This 
 was probably Edmund Fielding, a son of General 
 Fielding by his first wife, and (according to 
 Arthur Murphy) " an officer in the marine ser- 
 vice.'' Lawrence (" Life of Fielding," 1855, p. 3) 
 adds that he " died young." 
 
 Page 146, 1. 25. '■'■for I must." — From this 
 down to "'occasions" is omitted in the later 
 version. 
 
 Page 147, 1. 13. "declared."—" Swore" in the 
 later version. 
 
 Page 148, 1. 6. "and the captain was busy on 
 deck." — After this, in the later version, comes : 
 " for he began to grow uneasy, chiefly, I believe, 
 because he did not well know where he was, and 
 would, I am convinced, have been very glad to 
 have been in Portland-road, eating some sheep's- 
 head broth." 
 
264 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Page 148, 1. 17. " one Morrison."— The later 
 version adds, " a carpenter, the only fellow that 
 had either common sense or common civility 
 in the ship. Of Morrison he enquired," etc. 
 
 Page 148, 1. 22. " with which they were made!' 
 — After this, in the later version, comes ; " suffi- 
 ciently testified the state of the captain's 
 mind ; he endeavoured to conceal it, and would," 
 etc. 
 
 Page 149, 1. 6. "of any man." — The later ver- 
 sion adds : " I know, to whom they could possibly 
 be so trusted." 
 
 Page 149, 1. 10. '' ihou art now enjoying." — 
 The later version adds here : '' and that I should 
 not live to draw out on paper, that military cha- 
 racter which thou didst peruse in the journal of 
 yesterday." 
 
 Page 149, 1. 19. " the captain." — In the later 
 version the rest of the paragraph is varied in 
 arrangement. 
 
 Page 149, 1. 21. "his night-gown." — I.e., his 
 dressing-gown. " A character of this kind gene- 
 rally receives company in his study, in all the 
 pensive formality of slippers, night-gown, and 
 easy chair" (" Citizen of the World," Letter CI. 
 [CIV.]). 
 
 Page 149, 1. 24. "for a maid." — This must 
 have been a common engagement, as Tom 
 Neverout employs it to the brilliant Miss 
 Notable in Swift's " Polite Conversation," 1738, 
 
 P- 97- 
 Page 153, 1. 4. "as hath been before noticed" 
 — The later version substitutes, " so he phrased 
 it." 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 265 
 
 Page 157, I. 3. "Z»n 5'o«M."— The passage 
 referred to is as follows : "How short of this [i.e., 
 the pleasures of religious contemplation or the 
 ' speculation of divine things '] are the Delights 
 of the Epicure f How vastly disproportionate 
 are the Pleasures of the eating and the thinking 
 Man ? Indeed, as different as the Silence of an 
 Archimedes in the Study of a Problem and the 
 Stillness of a Sow at her Wash." — Sermon on 
 " The Ways of Wisdom are Ways of Pleasant- 
 ness" {Proverbs iii. 17), preached before the 
 Court at Christ Church Chapel. 
 
 Page 157, 1. 15. ^"^ Mark Anthony in Dryden." 
 — " As if increase of appetite had grown By what 
 it fed on," is, of course, from " Hamlet " (act i., 
 sc. 2). But Fielding was probably thinking of 
 Antony's splendid passage in Dryden's " All for 
 Love" (act iii., sc. i) beginning : — 
 
 " There's no satiety of love in thee ; 
 Enjoyed, thou still art new," etc. 
 
 Page 166, 1. 15. " Axylus." — Axylus is one of 
 those personages who — as Addison says in the 
 26th " Spectator " — are " celebrated for nothing 
 but being knocked on the head." He is men- 
 tioned by Homer but once (" Iliad," bk. vi.), 
 when he is killed by Diomed ; and his " charac- 
 ter," in Pope's rendering, is as follows : — 
 
 " Next Teuthras' son distain'd the sands with blood, 
 
 Axylus, hospitable, rich, and good : 
 
 In fair Arisbe's walls (his native place) 
 
 He held his seat ! a friend to human race. 
 
 Fast by the road, his ever-open door 
 
 Obhged the wealthy, and reUeved the poor." 
 
266 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Page i66, 1. 23. " captain.'''— 1\i^ later version 
 substitutes " bashaw.'' 
 
 Page 167, 1. 16. "^arj."— " Deaf ears " in the 
 later version. 
 
 Page 167, 1. 23. '■'■duller than CMer." — Field- 
 ing's antipathy to Colley Gibber was inveterate, 
 but obscure in its origin. Probably it is to be re- 
 ferred to some early misunderstanding in the 
 days of their respective relations as author and 
 manager. But to the last, as this passage testi- 
 fies, Fielding lost no opportunity of ridiculing 
 the actor, who in his famous "Apology" de- 
 scribes his assailant as " a broken Wit," but does 
 not mention him by name, upon the ground that 
 it could do him no good. 
 
 Page 169, 1. 3. " Mr. Quin, whose distin- 
 guishing tooth." — James Quin was a confirmed 
 and impenitent ton vivant. Once, it is recorded, 
 he was dining with the Duchess of Marlborough, 
 who openly avowed her distaste for venison fat. 
 After incredulously assuring himself that she was 
 really in earnest, Quin's delighted gourmandise 
 found vent in an uncontrollable — " I like to dine 
 with such Fools ! " 
 
 Page 169, 1. 17. " Macklin the high priests — 
 This is a reference to Macklin's famous 3J. ordi- 
 nary,opened in March, 1754, in the Grand Piazza, 
 Covent Garden, " next door to the playhouse," 
 an experiment to provide good fare at a cheap 
 rate which in the following year landed its pro- 
 jector in the Gazette. 
 
 Page 170,1. 11. "Ends," etc. — Corrected in 
 the later version to " Means are always in our 
 power ; ends are very seldom so." 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 267 
 
 Page 173, l. i6. ''the Westminster market:'— 
 An Act (22 Geo. II., c. 49), provided for this, and 
 " for preventing the forestalling and monopoHz- 
 ing of Fish," as far back as June, 1749. But al- 
 though it had a legal, it never had any actual, 
 existence; and in 1790 the trustees were relieved 
 of their trust, and the funds transferred to the 
 Marine Society (Fryer's " Relations of the State 
 with Fishermen and Fisheries," etc., 1884, pp. 
 27, 28). 
 
 Page 175, 1. 10. "z« the cabin."— Y ox the re- 
 mainder of this paragraph, and the next, is sub- 
 stituted, in the later version, the following : 
 "when the captain's valet de chambre, head 
 cook, house and ship steward, footman in livery 
 and out on't, secretary and fore-mast-man, all 
 burst into the cabin at once, being indeed all but 
 one person, and without saying, by your leave, 
 began to pack half a hogshead of small beer in 
 bottles, the necessary consequence of which must 
 have been, either a total stop to conversation at 
 that chearful season, when it is most agreeable, 
 or the admitting that polyonymous officer afore- 
 said to the participation of it. I desired him, 
 therefore, to delay his purpose a little longer, but 
 he refused to grant my request ; nor was he pre- 
 vailed on to quit the room till he was threatened 
 with having one bottle to pack more than his 
 number, which then happened to stand empty 
 within my reach. 
 
 " With these menaces he retired at Jast, but 
 not without muttering some menaces on his side, 
 and which, to our great terror, he failed not to put 
 into immediate execution. 
 
268 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 " Our captain was gone to dinner this day with 
 his Swiss brother ; and the' he was a very sober 
 man, was a httle elevated with some champaign, 
 which, as it cost the Swiss little or nothing, he 
 dispensed at his table more liberally than our 
 hospitable English noblemen put about those 
 bottles, which the ingenious Peter Taylor teaches 
 a led captain to avoid by distinguishing by the 
 name of that generous liquor, which all humble 
 companions are taught to postpone to the flavour 
 of methuen or honest port. 
 
 " While our two captains were thus regaling 
 themselves, and celebrating their own heroic ex- 
 ploits, with all the inspiration which the liquor, 
 at least, of wit could afford them, the polyony- 
 mous officer arrived, and being saluted by the 
 name of honest Tom, was ordered to sit down and 
 take his glass before he delivered his message ; 
 for every sailor is by turns his captain's mate 
 over a can, except only that captain bashaw who 
 presides in a man of war, and who upon earth 
 has no other mate, unless it be another of the 
 same bashaws. 
 
 " Tom had no sooner swallowed his draught, 
 than he hastily began his narrative, and faith- 
 fully related what had happened on board our 
 ship ; we say faithfully, tho' from what happened 
 it may be suspected that Tom chose to add, 
 perhaps, only five or six immaterial circum- 
 stances, as is always, I believe, the case, and 
 may possibly have been done by me in relating 
 this very story, tho' it happened not many hours 
 ago. 
 
 " No sooner was the captain informed of the 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 269 
 
 interruption which had been given to his officer, 
 and indeed to his orders, for he thought no time 
 so convenient as that of his absence for causing 
 any confusion in the cabin, than he leapt with 
 such haste from his chair, that he had Hke 
 to have broke his sword, with which he always 
 begirt himself when he walked out of his ship, and 
 sometimes when he walked about in it, at the 
 same time grasping eagerly that other implement 
 called a cockade, which modern soldiers wear on 
 their helmets, with the same view as the antients 
 did their crests, to terrify the enemy ; he mut- 
 tered something, but so inarticulately, that the 
 word damn was only intelligible ; he then hastily 
 took leave of the Swiss captain, who was too well 
 bred to press his stay on such an occasion, and 
 leapt first from the ship to his boat, and then 
 from his boat to his own ship, with as much 
 fierceness in his looks as he had ever express'd 
 on boarding his defenceless prey, in the honour- 
 able calling of a privateer. 
 
 " Having regained the middle deck he paused 
 a moment, while Tom and others loaded them- 
 selves with bottles, and then descending into 
 the cabin exclaimed with a thundering voice, 
 D — n me, why am't the bottles stoed in, 
 according to my orders ? 
 
 " I answered him very mildly, that I had pre- 
 vented his man from doing it, as it was at an in- 
 convenient time to me, and as in his absence, at 
 least, I esteemed the cabin to be my own. 
 'Your cabin,' repeated he many times, 'no, 
 d — me, 'tis my cabin. Your cabin ! D— me ! 
 I have brought my hogs to a fair market. I 
 
270 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 suppose, indeed, you think it your cabin, and 
 your ship, by your commanding in it ; but I 
 will command in it, d — n me ! I will shew the 
 world I am the commander, and no body but I ! 
 Did you think I sold you the command of my 
 ship for that pitiful thirty pounds ? I wish I had 
 not seen you nor your thirty pounds aboard of 
 her.' He then repeated the words thirty pounds 
 often, with great disdain and with a contempt 
 which, I own, the sum did not seem to deserve 
 in my eye, either in itself, or on the present 
 occasion ; being, indeed, paid for the freight of 
 
 weight of human flesh, which is above 50 
 
 per cent, dearer than the freight of any other 
 luggage, whilst in reality it takes up less room, 
 in fact, no room at all. 
 
 "In truth the sum was paid for nothing more, 
 than for a liberty to six persons, (two of them 
 servants) to stay on board a ship while she sails 
 from one port to another, every shilling of which 
 comes clear into the captain's pocket. Ignorant 
 people may perhaps imagine, especially when 
 they are told that the captain is obliged to sus- 
 tain them, that their diet, at least, is worth some- 
 thing ; which may probably be now and then so 
 far the case, as to deduct a tenth part from the 
 neat profits on this account ; but it was other- 
 wise at present : for when I had contracted with 
 the captain at a price which I by no means 
 thought moderate, I had some content in think- 
 ing I should have no more to pay for my voyage ; 
 but I was whispered that it was expected that 
 passengers should find themselves in several 
 things ; such as tea, wine, and such-like ; and 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 2/ 1 
 
 particularly that gentlemen should stowe of the 
 latter a much larger quantity than they could 
 use, in order to leave the remainder as a present 
 to the captain, at the end of the voyage ; and it 
 was expected, likewise, that gentlemen should 
 put aboard some fresh stores, and the more of 
 such things were put aboard, the welcomer they 
 would be to the captain. 
 
 " I was prevailed with by these hints, to follow 
 the advice proposed, and accordingly, besides 
 tea, and a large hamper of wine, with several 
 hams and tongues, I caused a number of live 
 chickens and sheep to be conveyed aboard ; in 
 truth, treble the quantity of provision which 
 would have supported the persons I took with 
 me, had the voyage continued three weeks, 
 as it was supposed, with a bare possibility, it 
 might. 
 
 " Indeed it continued much longer ; but, as 
 this was occasioned by our being windbound in 
 our own ports, it was by no means of any ill 
 consequence to the captain, as the additional 
 stores of fish, fresh meat, butter, bread, &c. 
 which I constantly laid in greatly exceeded the 
 consumption, and went some way in maintaining 
 the ship's crew. It is true, I was not obliged to 
 do this ; but it seemed to be expected ; for the 
 captain did not think himself obliged to do it ; 
 and, I can truly say, I soon ceased to expect it 
 of him. He had, I confess, on board, a number 
 of fowls and ducks sufficient for a West-India 
 voyage : all of them, as he often said, ' Very 
 fine birds, and of the largest breed.' This, I 
 believe, was really the fact, and, I can add, that 
 
272 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 they were all arrived at the full perfection of 
 their size. Nor was there, I am convinced, any 
 want of provisions of a more substantial kind ; 
 such as dried beef, pork, and fish ; so that the 
 captain seemed ready to perform his contract, 
 and amply to provide for his passengers. What 
 I did then was not from necessity, but, per- 
 haps, from a less excusable motive, and was, 
 by no means, chargeable to the account of the 
 captain. 
 
 " But let the motive have been what it would, 
 the consequence was still the same, and this 
 was such, that I am firmly persuaded the whole 
 pitiful 30/. came pure and neat into the captain's 
 pocket, and not only so, but attended with the 
 value of 10/. more in sundries, into the bargain. 
 I must confess my self therefore at a loss how 
 the epithet pitiful came to be annexed to the 
 above sum . for not being a pitiful price for 
 what it was given, I cannot conceive it to be 
 pitiful in itself ; nor do I believe it is so thought 
 by the greatest men in the kingdom ; none of 
 whom would scruple to search for it in the 
 dirtiest kennel, where they had only a reasonable 
 hope of success. 
 
 " How, therefore, such a sum should acquire 
 the idea of pitiful, in the eyes of a master of a 
 ship, seems not easy to be accounted for ; since 
 it appears more likely to produce in him "ideas 
 of a different kind. Some men, perhaps, are no 
 more sincere in the contempt for it which they 
 express, than others in their contempt of money 
 in general ; and I am the rather inclined to 
 this persuasion, as I have seldom heard of 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 273 
 
 either, who have refused or refunded this 
 their despised object. Besides, it is sometimes 
 impossible to believe these professions, as every 
 action of the man's hfe is a contradiction to 
 it. Who can believe a tradesman, who says 
 he would not tell his name for the profit he 
 gets by the selling such a parcel of goods, 
 when he hath told a thousand lies in order to 
 get it ? 
 
 " Pitiful, indeed, is often applied to an object, 
 not absolutely, but comparatively with our ex- 
 pectations, or with a greater object : In which 
 sense it is not easy to set any bounds to the use 
 of the word. Thus, a handful of halfpence daily 
 appear pitiful to a porter, and a handful of 
 silver to a drawer. The latter, I am convinc'd, 
 at a polite tavern, will not tell his name (for he 
 will not give you any answer) under the price of 
 gold. And, in this sense, 30/. may be accounted 
 pitiful by the lowest mechanic. 
 
 " One difficulty only seems to occur, and that 
 is this : How comes it that, if the profits of the 
 meanest arts are so considerable, the possessors 
 of them are not richer than we generally see 
 them ? One answer to this shall suffice. Men 
 do not become rich by what they get, but by 
 what they keep. He who is worth no more than 
 his annual wages or salary, spends the whole ; 
 he will be always a beggar, let his income be 
 what it will ; and so will be his family when he 
 dies. This we see daily to be the case of eccle- 
 siastics, who, during their lives, are extremely 
 well provided for, only because they desire to 
 maintain the honour of the cloth by living like 
 
274 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 gentlemen, which would, perhaps, be better 
 maintained by living unlike them. 
 
 " But, to return from so long a digression, to 
 which the use of so improper an epithet gave 
 occasion, and to which the novelty of the subject 
 allured, I will make the reader amends by con- 
 cisely telling him, that the captain poured forth 
 such a. torrent of abuse, that I very hastily, and 
 very foolishly, resolved to quit the ship. I gave 
 immediate orders to summons a hoy to carry me 
 that evening to Dartmouth, without considering 
 any consequence. Those orders I gave in no 
 very low voice ; so that those above stairs might 
 possibly conceive there was more than one 
 master in the cabin. In the same tone I likewise 
 threatened the captain with that which, he after- 
 wards said, he feared more than any rock or 
 quick sand. Nor can we wonder at this, when 
 we are told he had been twice obliged to bring to, 
 and cast anchor there before, and had neither 
 time escaped without the loss of almost his whole 
 cargo. 
 
 " The most distant sound of law thus frightened 
 a man, who had often, I am convinced, heard 
 numbers of cannon roar round him with intre- 
 pidity. Nor did he sooner see the hoy approach- 
 ing the vessel, than he ran down again into the 
 cabin, and, his rage being perfectly subsided, he 
 tumbled on his knees, and a little too abjectly 
 implored for mercy. 
 
 " I did not suffer a brave man and an old man, 
 to remain a moment in this posture ; but I imme- 
 diately forgave him. 
 
 " And here, that I may not be thought the sly 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 275 
 
 trumpeter of my own praises, I do utterly disclaim 
 all praise on the occasion. Neither did the 
 greatness of my mind dictate, nor the force 
 of my Christianity exact this forgiveness. To 
 speak truth, I forgave him from a motive which 
 would make men much more forgiving, if they 
 were much wiser than they are ; because it was 
 convenient for me so to do." 
 
 Page 177, 1. 19. " the cabin." — After this, in the 
 later version, comes a full stop, and the sentence ; 
 " I will not endeavour to describe his lamenta- 
 tions with more prolixity than barely by saying, 
 they were grievous, and seemed to have some 
 mixture of the Irish howl in them." 
 
 Page 180, 1. 8. " in the days of Sir Matthew 
 Hale." — It is the one blot in the career of this 
 able and otherwise blameless Lord Chief Justice, 
 that in 1665, at the Bury St. Edmund's assizes, 
 he condemned two women for witchcraft, in 
 which, during the trial, he declared himself 
 to be a believer. The poor creatures were 
 executed. 
 
 Page 183, 1. 11. " and acquaintance" — After 
 this, in the later version, comes : " though this 
 foundation of intimacy seemed to her to be no 
 deeper laid than in an accidental dinner, eaten 
 many years before, at this temple of hospitality, 
 when the captain lay wind-bound in the same 
 bay." 
 
 Page 193, 1. 14. " my teeth not being good." — 
 This is evident from Hogarth's portrait (see 
 frontispiece), which represents Fielding at the 
 age of forty-eight, or in the year of his death. 
 
 Page 195, 1. 8. '■'■Not a single cloud." — A 
 
276 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 writer in the " Quarterly Review " for December, 
 1855, says of this passage : "His [Fielding's] 
 versatile emotions answered to every call of 
 pleasure, animal or mental, and wherever he 
 was, he sunned himself in the ray which was 
 shining at the hour, and, fixing all his attention 
 upon the genial influence, enjoyed it in spite of 
 the surrounding shadows." 
 
 Page 197, 1. 23. "a snow." — Snows, like the 
 " pinks " and '' galleys " so common in the 
 eighteenth-century " Ship News," were formerly 
 much in use. They had two masts, and differed 
 from brigs only in having their fore-and-aft 
 main-sail fitted to a try-sail mast. 
 
 Page 197, 1. 26. " witk an audible voice." — 
 The later version has : " and with but one mis- 
 take, of a lion for Elias, in the second lesson for 
 this day." 
 
 Page 199, 1. 19. " in a hurry." — In the later 
 version follows : " as he was to lose nothing by 
 his delay. Tuesday. This is,'' etc. 
 
 Page 205, 1. 5. "the night." — Corrected to 
 " the evening " in the later version. 
 
 Page 208, 1. 22. " hie finis chartceq; viaq; " 
 — Fielding started from Fordhook on Wednes- 
 day, June 26th, 1754 ; he landed at Lisbon on 
 Wednesday, August 14th, being exactly fifty 
 days, both inclusive. He had anticipated that 
 the voyage would occupy three weeks at the 
 most (see p. 271, 1. 16). From the notices in 
 contemporary newspapers, the mails from Fal- 
 mouth to Lisbon, under favourable conditions, 
 took from seven to eight days. Of Fielding's 
 life in Portugal we have no particulars, except 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 277 
 
 that he there wrote the " Preface " (see p. 
 15 n.), and perhaps the "Introduction," to his 
 "Journal." He died on the 8th of October, 
 and was buried in the English Cemetery. 
 
 LuGET Britannia Gremio non dari 
 
 FOVERE NATUM. 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS :— C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 
ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 245, line 29, for " Ivy Lane Club " read 
 " Devil Tavern."