Author Title Class Book Imprint Instruciot Literature Series — iVo. 221 Sir Roger DeCoverley Papers By JOSEPH ADDISON f«HK^I„.H i«.s«4i^ «„ ) f"- ^- OWEN PUB. CO., aaiMSVILLE, N. Y. Published Jomtly By j „^^^ ^ IHcCREARV, - - CHICAGO, ILL. INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES Five-Cent Classics and Supplementary Readers A N especially fine series of little books containing material needed for Sup- •^ plementary Reading and Study. Classified and graded. Large type for lower grades. A supply of these books will greatly enrich your school work. MS^ This list is constantly being added to. If a substantial number of books are to bi- ordered, or if othei 'titles than those shown here are desired, send for latest list. FIRST YEAR Fables and Myths 6 Fairy Stoiies of the Moon. — Afaguire 27 ^sop's Fables— Part l—Reiter 28 iEsop's Fables— Part ll—Reiter 29 Indian Myths — Bush 140 Nursery Tales-^7a>'/or 1'.; S'lu Myths — Reiter \~--^ :-^jt,egena£,I—Reiter Natl'!, . Little Plant People— Part 1— Chase 2 Little Plant People— Part 11— Chase 30 Story of a Sunbeam— A/z7/e;- 31 Kittj' Mittens and Her Friends — Chase History 32 Patriotic Stories (Story of the Flag, Story of Washington, etc.) — Reiter Literature 22" liliyme and Jingle Reader for Beginners SECOND YEAR Fables and Myths 33 biories from Andersen — Taylor 34 Stories from Grimm — Taylor 36 Little Red Riding Hood— Reiter 37 Jack and the Beanstalk — Reiter 38 Adventures of a Brownie — Reiter 1T6 Norse Legends, II — Reiter Nature 3 Little Workers (Animal Stories)~Chase 39 Lilde Wood Friends — Mayne 40 W;;igs and Stings — Halijax 41 Story of Wool — Mayne 42 Bird Stories from the Poets— yo///^ History and Biography 43 Story of the Mayflower — McCabe 45 Boyhood of Washington — Reiter 164 The Little Brown Baby and Other Babies 165 Gemila, the Child of the Desert and Some of Her Sisters 166 Louise on the Rhine and in Her New Koine. (Nos. 164, 16^, 166 are "Seven Little Sisters" by fane Andrews) 204 Boyhood of Lincoiti.-ifi'zVt'r Literature 1,1 1 = 2 Child's Garden of'X^rses—J^tevenson 206 Picture Study Stories for Utile Children — Cransto7i 220 Story of the Christ Child — Hushoiver THIRD YEAR Fables and Myths 40 I'liss in Boots and Cinderella — Reiter 47 Greek Myths — Klingensmith 102 Tliumbelina and Dream Stories— ^^zV^-r 146 Sleeping Beauty and Other Stories 177 Legends of the Rhineland — McCabe Nature 49 Buds, Stems and Fruits — Mayne 51 Story of Flax— 7l/<7r«« 52 Story of Glass — Hanson July, 1912 of Little Waterdrt.p 53 Adveutures — Mayne 135 Little People of the Hills (Dry Air ami Dry Soil Plants)— (TAa^^ ' 203 Little Plant People of the Waterways- Chase 133 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard — Part T Story of Tea and the Teacup 137 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupbcard — Part II. Story of Sugar, Cofl'ec ami Salt. 138 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard— Part III. Story of Rice, Currants and Honey History and Biography 4 Story of Washington — Reiter 7 Stor}- of Longfellow — McCabe 21 Storj' of the V'xX^v'wws— Powers 44 Famous Early Americans (Smith, Slan- disli, Penu) — Bush 54 Story of Columbus — McCabe 55 Story of Whittier— 71/fCa^f 57 Story of Louisa M. Alcott — Bush 58 Story of Alice and Phoebe Ca.Ty—McFee 59 Story of tlie Boston Tea Party —McCabe 132 Story of Franklin— y'c; is 60 C'.iiidreu of the Northland — Bush 62 Children of the South Lands, I (Florida, Cuba, Puerto Rico) — McFce 63 Children of the South Lands, II (Africa, Hawaii, The Philippines) — McFee 64 Child I/ At a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms, which are shot up so very high, that when one passes under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the top of them seem to be cawing in another region. I am very much delighted with this sort of noise, which I consider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who supplies the wants of the whole creation, and who, in the beautiful lan- guage of the Psalms, f eedeth the young ravens that call upon him. I like this retirement the better, because of an ill report it lies under of being haunted ; for which reason (as I have been told in the family) no living creature ever walks in it besides the chap- lain. My good friend the butler desired me with a very grave face not to venture myself in it after sunset, for that one of the footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits by a spirit that appeared to him in the shape of a black horse without an head, to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids com- ing home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard such a rustling among the bushes that she let it fall. I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder bushes, the harbors of several solitary birds, which seldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a churchyard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is such an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you stamp but a little louder tahn SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 9 ordinary, you hear tlie sound repeated. At the same time, the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens, which, from time to time, are heard from the tops of them, looks exceedingly sol- emn and venerable. These objects naturally raise seriousness and attention ; and when night heightens the awfulness of the place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors upon everything in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with specters and apparitions. Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of Ideas, has very curious remarks to show how by the prejudice of education one idea often introduces into the mind a whole set that bear nc re- semblance to one another in the nature of things. Among several examples of this kind, he produces the following instance: "The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with dark- ness than light ; yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterward bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other." As I was walking in this solitude, where the dusk of the eve- ning conspired with so many other occasions of terror, I observed a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that is apt to startle might easily have construed into a black horse without a head ; and I dare say the poor footman lost his wits upon some such trivial occasion. My friend Sir Roger has often told me, with a great deal of mirth, that at his first coming to his estate he found three parts of his house altogether useless ; that the best room in it had the reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up ; that noises had been heard in his long gallery, so that he could not get a servant to enter it after eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of his chambers was nailed up, because there went a story in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had shut up half the rooms in the house, in which either her husband, a son or daughter had died. The knight seeing his habitation reduced to so small a compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apart- ments to be flung open, and exorcised by his chaplain, who lay in every room one after another, and by that means dissipated the fears which had so long reigned in the family. 10 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY IV. A SUNDAY AT SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY' S I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human insti- tution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon different subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appear- ing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard as a citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parish politics be- ing generally discussed in that place either after sermon or be- fore the bell rings. My friend Sir Roger being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing. He has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the communion table at his own expense. He has often told me, that at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very irreg- ular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a Common Prayer-Book, and at the same time employed an itinerant singing- master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the psalms ; upon which they now very much value themselves and, indeed, outdo most of the country churches that I have ever heard. As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servant to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occasions. Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing psalms half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it ; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 11 his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the same prayer, and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing. I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb the congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking his heels for his diversion. The authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite^ enough to see anything ridiculous in his behavior ; besides that, the general good sense and worthiness of his character make his friends observe these little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish his good qualities. As soon as the sermon is finished, nobody presumes to stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down from his seat in the chancel- between a double row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on each side ; and every now and then inquires how such an one's wife, or mother, or son, or father, does, whom he does not see at church; which is understood as a secret reprimand to the person that is absent. The chaplain has often told me, that upon a chatechising day, when Sir Roger has been pleased with a boy that answers well, he has ordered a Bible to be given him next day for his en- couragement ; and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk's place ; and that he may encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church-service, has promised, upon the death of the present incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to merit. The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remark- able, because the very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that rise between the parson and the squire, who live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching at the squire ; and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants I. Used to good society. 3. The chancel is the central part of a church that is built in the shape of a cross. 12 vSIR ROGER DE COYERLEY atheists and tithe-stealers ;' while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them, in almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In short, matters are come to such an extremity, that the squire has not said his prayers either in public or private this half-year ; and that the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his man- ners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation. Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people ; who are so used to be dazzled with riches, that they pay as much deference to the understand- ing of a man of an estate as of a man of learning ; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important soever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are several men of five hundred a year who do not believe it. V. ON WITCHCRAFT — THE COVERLEY WITCH There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter, without engaging his assent to one side or the other. Such a hovering faith as this, which refuses to settle upon any determi- nation, is absolutely necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid errors and prepossessions. When the arguments press equally on both sides in matters that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to give up ourselves to neither. It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of Witchcraft. When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West Indies, but from every particular nation in Eu- rope, I cannot forbear thinking that there is such an intercourse and commerce with evil spirits, as that which we express by the name of witchcraft. But when I consider that the ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound most in these relations, and that the persons among us who are supposed to engage in such an infernal commerce are people of a weak understanding and crazed imagination, and at the same time reflect upon the many impostures and delusions of this nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavor to suspend my belief till I hear more cer- tain accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge. In short, when I consider the question, whether there are such persons in the world as those we call witches, my mind is divided between two opposite opinions ; or rather (to speak my thoughts I. Tithes were oue-tenth of the profits on laud or cattle formerly levied on the inhabitants of a parish for the support ol the church. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY ' 13 freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been, such a thing as witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to any particular instance of it. I am engaged in this speculation, by some occurrences that I met with yesterday, which I shall give my reader an account of at large. As I was walking with my friend Sir Roger by the side of one of his woods, an old woman applied herself to me for charity.. Her dress and figure put me in mind of the following description in Otway^ : "In a close lane, as I pursued my journey, I spied a wrinkled hag, with age grown double. Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself. Her eyes with scalding rheum were galled and red ; Cold palsy shook her head : her hands seemed withered ; A:id on her crooked shoulders had she wrapped The tattered remnants of an old striped hanging. Which served to keep her carcass from the cold; So there was nothing of a piece about her. Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsely patched With different-colored rags, black, red, white, yellow, And seemed to speak variety of wretchedness. ' ' ^ As I was musing on this description, and comparing it with the object before me, the knight told me that this very old woman had the reputation of a witch all over the country; that her lips were observed to be always in motion, and that there was not a switch about her house which her neighbors did not believe had carried her several hundreds of miles. If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws, that lay in the figure of a cross before her. If she made any mistake at church, and cried Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that she was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though she should offer a bag of money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her but- ter to come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White. "Nay," says Sir Roger, "I have known the master of a pack, upon such an occasion, send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning." I. From Act. II. of The Orphan, a tragedy by Tlioinas Otway, a dramatist of the geueratiou preceding Addisou. 14 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY This account raised my curiosity so far that I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a solitary corner under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering, Sir Roger winked to me, and pointed to something that stood behind the door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old broomstaff. At the same time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby-cat that sat in the chimney-corner, which, as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White herself ; for besides that Moll is said often to accompany her in the same shape, the cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity of an ordinary cat. I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so much wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time could not for- bear smiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her, as a justice of peace, to avoid all com- munication with the devil, and never to hurt any of her neigh- bors' cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very acceptable. In our return home. Sir Roger told me that old Moll had been often brought before him for making children spit pins, and giv- ing maids the nightmare ; and that the country people would be tossing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his chaplain. I have since found upon inquiry that Sir Roger was several times staggered with the reports that had been brought him con- cerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county sessions, had not his chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the contrary. I have been the more particular in this account, because I hear there is scarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole country with extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the meantime, the poor wretch that is the innocent occasion of so many evils begins to be frighted at her- self, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This fre- quently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence toward those poor decrepit parts of our species, in whom nature is defaced by in- firmity and dotage. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 15 VI. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart ; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected ; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public. A man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own be- havior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him. My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. He receives a suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind in the returns of affection and good will which are paid him by every one that lives within his neighborhood. I lately met with two or three odd instances of that general respect which is shown to the good old knight. He would needs carry Will Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes. ^ As we were upon the road, Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rid before us, and conversed with them for some time, during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters. "The first of them," says he, "that has a spaniel by his side, is a yeoman of about a hundred pounds a year, an honest man. He is just within the game act, - and qualified to kill a hare or a pheasant. He knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week, and by that means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as himself. He would be a good neighbor, if he did not destroy so many partridges. In short, he is a very sensible man ; shoots flying ; and has been several times foreman of the petty jury. "The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for taking the law of everybody. There is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued at a quarter-sessions. The rogue had once the impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs, damages, and ejectments. He plagued a couple of honest gentlemen so long for a trespass in breaking one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell the ground it enclosed to defray the charges of the prosecution. His father left him four- 1. The sitting of the county magistrate and higher judges on circuit. 2. The Game Act, among many other provisions, stated what class of people ■were entitled to hunt. 16 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY score pounds a year, but he has cast and been cast^ so often, that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is going upon the old business of the willow tree." As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will Wimble and his two companions stepped short till we came up to them. After having paid their respects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and he must appeal to him upon a dispute that arose between them. Will, it seems, had been giving his fellow-travelers an account of his angling one day in such a hole ; when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him that Mr. Such-an-one, if he pleased, might take the law of him for fishing in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard them both, upon a round trot ; and after having paused some time, told them, with the air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that much might be said on both sides. They were neither of them dissatisfied with the knight's determina- tion, because neither of them found himself in the wrong by it ; upon which we made the best of our way to the assizes. The court was sat before Sir Roger came but notwithstanding all the justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made room for the old knight at the head of them ; who, for his repu- tation in the country, took occasion to whisper in the judge's- ear, that he was glad his lordship had met with so much good weather in his circuit. I was listening to the proceedings of the court with much attention, and infinitely pleased with that great appearance and solemnity which so properly accompanies such a public administration of our laws, when, after about an hour's sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, in the midst of a trial, that my friend Sir Roger was getting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, until I found he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences with a look of much business and great intrepidity. Upon his first rising the court was hushed, and a general whisper ran among the country people that Sir Roger was up. The speech he made was so little to the purpose that I shall not trouble my readers with an account of it ; and I believe was not so much designed by the knight himself to inform the court, as to give him a figure in my eye, and keep up his credit in the country. 1 was highly delighted when the court rose to see the gentle- I. That is, with costs and damages. 2 The judge presiding, who was on circuit. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 17 men of the country gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment him most ; at the same time that the or- dinary people gazed upon him at a distance, not a little aamiring his courage, that was not afraid to speak to the judge. In our return home we met with a very odd accident which I cannot forbear relating, because it shows how desirous all who know Sir Roger are of giving him marks of their esteem. When we arrived upon the verge of his estate, we stopped at a little inn to rest ourselves and our horses. The man of the house had, it seems, been formerly a servant in the knight's family ; and to do honor to his old master, had some time since, unknown to Sir Roger, put him up in a signpost before the door ; so that the knight's head had hung out upon the road about a week before he himself knew anything of the matter. As soon as Sir Roger was acquainted with it, finding that his servant's indiscretion proceeded wholly from affection and good-will, he only told him he had made him too high a compliment ; and when the fellow seemed to think that could hardly be, added, with a more decisive look, that it was too great an honor for any man under a duke ; but told him, at the same tim.e, that it might be altered with a very few touches, and that he himself would be at the charge of it. Accordingly, they got a painter by the knight's directions to add a pair of whiskers to the face, and, by a little aggravation of the features, to change it into the Saracen's Head. I should not have known this story had not the innkeeper, upon Sir Roger's alighting, told him, in my hearing, that his honor's head was brought back last night with the alterations that he had ordered be made in it. Upon this my friend, with his usual cheerfulness, related the particulars above mentioned, and ordered the head to be brought into the room. I could not forbear discovering greater expressions of mirth than ordinary upon the appearance of this monstrous face, under which, notwithstanding it was made to frown and stare in a most extraordinary manner, I could still dis- cover a distant resemblance of my old friend. Sir Roger, upon seeing me laugh, desired me to tell him truly if I thought it possible for people to know him in that disguise. I at first kept my usual silence ; but upon the knight's conjuring me to tell him whether it was not still more like himself that a Saracen, I com- posed my countenance in the best manner I could, and replied that "much might be said on both sides." These several adventures, with the knight's behavior in them, gave me as pleasant a day as ever I met with in any of my travels. 18 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY VII. ON PARTY DIVISIONS My worthy friend Sir Roger, when we are talking of the malice of parties, ^ very frequently tells us an accident that happened to him when he was a school-boy, which was at the time when the feuds ran high between the Roundheads and Cavaliers. This worthy knight, being then but a stripling, had occasion to in- quire which was the way to St. Anne's Lane, upon which the person whom he spoke to, instead of answering his question, called him a young popish cur, and asked him who had made Anne a saint. The boy, being in some confusion, inquired of the next he met which was the way to Anne's Lane, but was called a prick-eared cur for his pains, and instead of being shown the way, was told that she had been a saint before he was born, and would be one after he was hanged. "Upon this," says Sir Rog- er, "I did not think fit to repeat the former question, but going into every lane of the neighborhood, asked what they called the name of that lane. " By which ingenious artifice he found out the place he inquired after, without giving offense to any party. Sir Roger generally closes this narrative with reflections on the mischief that parties do in the country, how they spoil good neighborhood, and make honest gentlemen hate one another ; besides that they manifestly tend to the prejudice of the land-tax, and the destruction of the game. There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful spirit of division as rends a government into two dis- tinct people, and makes them greater strangers and more averse to one another, than if they were actually two different nations. The effects of such a division are pernicious to the last degree, not only with regard to those advantages which they give the common enemy, but to those private evils which they produce in the heart of almost every particular person. This influence is very fatal both to men's morals and their understandings ; it sinks the virtue of a nation, and not only so, but destroys even com- mon-sense. A furious party spirit, when it rages in its full violence, exerts itself in civil war and bloodshed ; and when it is under its great- est restraints, naturally breaks out in falsehood, detraction, calumny, and a partial administration of justice. In a word, it fills a nation with spleen and rancor, and extinguishes all the seeds of good nature, compassion, and humanity. I do not know whether I have observed in any of my former I. Party politics ran high in Addison's time. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 19 papers that my friends Sir Roger de Coverley and Sir Andrew Freeport are of different principles, the lirst of them inclined to the landed, and the other to the moneyed interest. ^ This humor is so moderate in each of them, that it proceeds no further than to an agreeable raillery, which very often diverts the rest of the club. I find, however, that the knight is a much stronger Tory in the country than in town, which, as he has told me in my ear, is absolutely necessary for the keeping up his interest. ^ In all our journey from London to his house we did not so much as bait at a Whig inn ; or if by chance the coachman stopped at a wrong place, one of Sir Roger's servants would ride up to his master full speed, and whisper to him that the master of the house was against such an one in the last election. This often betrayed us into hard beds and bad cheer, for we were not so inquisitive about the inn as the innkeeper; and, provided our landlord's principles were sound, did not take any notice of the staleness of his provisions. This I found still the more inconvenient, be- cause the better the host was, the worse generally were his ac- commodations ; the fellow knowing very well that those who "were his friends would take up with coarse diet and an hard lodging. For these reasons, all the while I was upon the road I dreaded entering into a house of any one that Sir Roger had ap- plauded for an honest man. Since my stay at Sir Roger's in the country, I daily find more instances of this narrow party humor. Being upon the bowling- green at a neighboring market town the other day (for that is the place where the gentlemen of one side meet once a week) , I observed a stranger among them, of a better presence and gen- teeler behavior than ordinary ; but was much surprised, that not- withstanding he was a very fair better, nobody would take him lip. But upon inquiry I found that he was one who had given a disagreeable vote in a former parliament, for which reason there was not a man upon that bowling-green who would have so much correspondence with him as to win his money off him. Among other instances of this nature I must not omit one which concerns myself. Will Wimble was the other day relating several strange stories that he had picked up, nobody knows where, of a certain great man ; and upon my staring at him, as one that was surprised to hear such things in the country, which had never been so much as whispered in the town, Will stopped short in 1. The landed interest was chiefly Tory, the moneyed, Whig. 2. Position and reputation 20 vSIR ROGER DE COVERLEY the thread of his discourse, and after dinner asked my friend Sir Roger in his ear if he was sure that I was not a fanatic. It gives me a serious concern to see such a spirit of dissension in the country, not only as it destroys virtue and common sense, and renders us in a manner barbarians toward one another, but as it perpetuates our animosities, widens our breaches, and trans- mits our present passions and prejudices to our posterity. For my own part, I am sometimes afraid that I discover the seeds of a civil war in these our divisions, and therefore cannot but be- wail, as in their first principles, the miseries and calamities of our children. VIII. SIR ROGER AND THE GYPSIES As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir Roger, we saw at a little distance from us a troop of gypsies. Upon the first discovery of them, my friend was in some doubt whether he should not exert the justice of peace upon such a band of lawless vagrants; but not having his clerk with him, who is a necessary counselor on these occasions, and fearing that his poultry might fare the worse for it, he let the thought drop ; but, at the same time, gave me a particular account of the mischiefs they do in the country, in stealing people's goods, and spoiling^ their servants. "If a stray piece of linen hangs upon a hedge," says Sir Roger, "they are sure to have it; if a hog loses his way in the fields, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey ; our geese cannot live in peace for them ; if a man prosecutes them with severity, his hen-roost is sure to pay for it. They generally straggle into these parts about this time of the year, and set the heads of our servant-maids so agog for husbands, that we do not expect to have any business done as it should be whilst they are in the country. I have an honest dairy-maid who crosses their hands with a piece of silver every summer, and never fails being^ promised the handsomest young fellow in the parish for her pains. Your friend the butler has been fool enough to be se- duced by them ; and though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork, or a spoon, every time his fortune is told him, generally shuts him- self up in the pantry with an old gypsy for about half an hour once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the things they live up- on, which they bestow very plentifully upon all those that apply themselves to them. You see now and then some handsome young- jades among them ; the sluts^ have very often white teeth and black eyes." I. Slut. — An untidy woman; a. slattern.— U^ebsier. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 21 Sir Roger, observing that I listened with great attention to his account of a people who were so entirely new to me, told me, that if I would they should tell us our fortunes. As I was very well pleased with the knight's proposal, we rid up and commu- nicated our hands to them. A Cassandra^ of the crew, after having examined my lines very diligently, told me some particulars which I do not think proper to relate. My friend Sir Roger alighted from his horse, and exposing his palm to two or three that stood by him, they crumpled it into all shapes, and diligently scanned every wrinkle that could be made in it, when one of them, who was older and more sunburnt than the rest, told him that he had a widow in his line of life. Upon which the knight cried: "Go, go, you are an idle baggage;" and at the same time smiled upon me. The gypsy, finding he was not displeased in the heart, told him, after a further inquiry into his hand, that his true love was constant, and that she should dream of him to- night. My old friend cried "Pish!" and bid her go on. The gypsy told him that he was a bachelor, but would not be so long; and that he was dearer to somebody than he thought. The knight still repeated, she was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. "Ah, master," says the gypsy, "that rougish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's heart ache ; you ha'n't got that simper about the mouth for nothing." The uncouth gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be short, the knight left the money with her that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse. As we were riding away. Sir Roger told me that he knew sev- eral sensible people who believed these gypsies now and then foretold very strange things ; and for half an hour together ap- peared more jocund than ordinary. In the height of his good humor, meeting a common beggar upon the road, who was no conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his pocket was picked — that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of ver- min are very dexterous. IX. SIR ROGER IN LONDON I was this morning surprised with a great knocking at the door, when my landlady's daughter came up to me and told me there was a man below desired to speak with me. Upon my asking her who it was, she told me it was a very grave elderly person, I. A prophetess, from Cassandra, (laughter of Priam, king of Troy, who re- ceived from the god Apollo the power of kuowin^; futurity. 22 " SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY but that she did not know his name. I immediately went down to him, and found him to be the coachman of my worthy friend Sir Roger de Coverley. He told me that his master came to town last night, and would be glad to take a turn with me in Gray's Inn walks. As I was wondering in myself what had brought Sir Roger to town, not having lately received any letter from him, he told me that his master was come up to get a sight of Prince Eugene, ^ and that he desired I would immediately meet him. I was not a little pleased with the curiosity of the old knight, though I did not much wonder at it, having heard him say more than once in private discourse, that he looked upon Prince Eugenio (for so the knight always calls him) to be a greater man than Scanderbeg. - I was no sooner come into Gray's Inn walks but I heard my friend upon the terrace hemming twice or thrice to himself with great vigor; for he loves to clear his pipes in good air (to make use of his own phrase), and is not a little pleased with any one who takes notice of the strength which he still exerts in his morn- ing hems. I was touched with a secret joy at the sight of the good old man, who, before he saw me, was engaged in conversation with a beggar-man that had, asked an alms of him. I could hear my friend chide him for not finding out some work ; but at the same time saw him put his hand in his pocket and give him sixpence. Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consisting of many kind shakes of the hand, and several affectionate looks which we cast upon one another. After which the knight told me my good friend his chaplain was very well, and much at my service ; and that the Sunday before he had made a most incom- parable sermon out of Dr. Barrow. "I have left," says he, "all my affairs in his hands ; and being willing to lay an obligation upon him, have deposited with him thirty marks, to be dis- tributed among his poor parishioners," He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon which he put his hand into his fob and presented me in his name with a tobacco-stopper, ^ telling me that Will had army shared with the duke of Marlborough the glory of his victories. He came to England in 1712 to urse the prosecution of the war against France, and to use his efforts to restore Marlborough to the queen's favor, 2. Iskander Bey, the Turkish name for George Castriota, an Albanian pa. triot of the fifteenth century. 3. A little wooden plug for pushing tobacco into a pipe. SIR ROGEP. DE COVERLEY 23 been busy all the beginning of the winter in turning great quan- tities of them ; and that he made a present of one to every gentle- man in the country who has good principles and smokes. He added, that poor Will was at present under great tribulation ; for that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for cutting some hazel sticks out of one of his hedges. Among other pieces of news which the knight brought from his country-seat, he informed me that Moll White was dead ; and that about a month after her death the wind was so very high that it blew down the end of one of his barns. "But for my own part," says Sir Roger, "I do not think that the old woman had any hand in it." He afterward fell into an account of the diversions which had passed in his house during the holidays ; for Sir Roger, after the laudable custom of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from him that he had killed eight fat hogs for this season ; that he had dealt about his chines very liberally among his neighbors ; and that in particular he had sent a string of hogs' puddings, with a pack of cards, to every poor family in the parish. "I have often thought," says Sir Roger, "it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of winter. It is the most dead, uncomfortable time of the year, when the poor people would suffer very much from their poverty and cold, if they had not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to support them. I love to rejoice their poor hearts at this season, and to see the whole village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my small beer, and set it a-running for twelve days to every one that calls for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince pie on the table, and am wonder- fully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole evening in playing their innocent tricks, and smutting one another. Our friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shows a thousand roguish tricks upon these occasions." I was very much delighted with the reflection of my old friend, which carried so much goodness in it. He then launched out in- to the praise of the late Act of Parliament^ for securing the Church of England, and told me, with great satisfaction, that he believed it already began to take effect ; for that a rigid dissenter who chanced to dine at his house on Christmas day had been ob- served to eat very plentifully of his plum porridge. After having dispatched all our country matters. Sir Roger I. Which excluded from office those not members of the Estalished Church. 24 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY made several inquiries concerning the club, and particularly of his old antagonist, Sir Andrew Freeport. He asked me, with a kind of smile, whether Sir Andrew had not taken the advantage of his absence to vent among them some of his republican doc- trinj- but soon after, gathering up his countenance into a more than ordinary seriousness, "Tell me truly," says he, "don't you think Sir Andrew had a hand in the pope's procession?" ^ But without giving me time to answer him, "Well, well," says he, "I know you are a wary man, and do not care to talk of public matters. ' ' The knight then asked me if I had seen Prince Eugenie, and made me promise to get him a stand in some convenient place, where he might have a full sight of that extraordinary man, whose presence does so much honor to the British nation. Ho dwelt very long on the praises of this great general ; and I found that since I was with him in the country, he had drawn many observations together out of his reading in Baker's Chronic/e, and other authors, who always lie in his hall window, which very much redound to the honor of this prince. Having passed away the greatest part of the morning in hear- ing the knight's reflections, which were partly private and partly political, he asked me if I would smoke a pipe with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's-. As I love the old man, I take delight in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and ac- cordingly waited on him to the coffee-house, where his venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated himself at the upper end of the high table but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax candle, and the Supplement, with such an air of cheerful- ness and good humor that all the boys in the coffee-room (who seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed on his several errands ; insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea, until the knight had got all his conveniences about him. X. SIR ROGER'S VISIT TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me the other night that he had been reading my paper upon Westminster Abbey, "in which," says he, "there are a great many ingenious fancies." 1. It was for tnauy years the practice iu Loudon, ou the auuiversary of Queen IJlizabeth's accession, for a procession to parade through the principal streets, bearing an effigy of the pope, wliich was afterward burned. This year it had been the occasion of great political disturbance. 2. A coffee-house frequented by the students of Gray's Inn. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 25 He told me, at the same time, that he observed I had promised another paper upon the tombs, and that he should be glad to go and see them with me, not having visited them since he had read history. I could not at first imagine how this came into the knight's head, till I recollected that he had been very busy all last summer upon Bakers' Chronicle, which he has quoted several times in his disputes with Sir Andrew Freeport since his last coming to town. Accordingly, I promised to call upon him the next morning, that we might go together to the Abbey. I found the knight under the butler's hands, who always shaves him. He was no sooner dressed, than he called for a glass of the Widow Trueby's water,' which he told me he always drank be- fore he went abroad. He recommended to me a dram of it at the same time, with so much heartiness that I could not forbear drinking it. As soon as I had got it down, I found it very un- palatable ; upon which the knight, observing that I had made several wry faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at first, but that it was the best thing in the world against the stone or gravel. I could have wished, indeed, that he had acquainted me with the virtues of it sooner ; but it was too late to complain, and I knew what he had done was out of good-will. Sir Roger told me further, that he looked upon it to be very good for a man while he staid in town, to keep off infection, and that he got together a quantity of it upon the first news of the sickness- being at Dantzic: when of a sudden, turning short to one of his servants, who stood behind him, he bid him call a hackney-coach, and take care it was an elderly man that drove it. He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Trueby's water, tell- ing me that the Widow Trueby was one who did more good than all the doctors and apothecaries in the county : that she distilled every poppy that grew within five miles of her ; that she dis- tributed her medicine gran's among all sorts of people ; to which the knight added, that she had a very great jointure, and that the whole country would fain have it a match between him and her; "and truly," says Sir Roger, "if I had not been engaged, per- haps I could not have done better." His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him he had called a coach. Upon our going to it, after having cast his eye 1. "One of the innumerable 'strouo; waters' drunk, it is said (perhaps libel- ously) , chiefly by the fair sex, as au exhilarant; the excuses being the colic and the vapor.' " — Hhlls. 2. The Plague. 26 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY upon the wheels, he asked the coachman if his axle-tree was good. Upon the fellow's telling him he would warrant it, the knight turned to me, told me he looked like an honest man, and went in without further ceremony. We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his head, called the coachman down from his box, and upon presenting himself at the window, asked him if he smoked. As I was con- sidering what this would end in, he bid him stop by the way at any good tobacconist's, and take in a roll of their best Virginia. Nothing material happened in the remaining part of our journey, till we were set down at the west end of the Abbey. As we went up the body of the church, the knight pointed at the trophies upon one of the new monuments, and cried out: "A brave man, I warranthim !" Passing afterward by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, he flung his hand that way, and cried: "Sir Cloudesley Shovel !' a very gallant man !" As we stood before Busby's tomb, the knight uttered himself again after the same manner: "Dr. Busby !'- a great man ! he whipped my grandfather ; a very great man ! I should have gone to him myself, if I had not been a blockhead ; a very great man !" We were immediately conducted into the little chapel on the right hand. Sir Roger, planting himself at our historian's elbow, was very attentive to everything he said, particularly to the ac- count he gave us of the lord who had cutoff the king of Morocco's head. Among several other figures, he was very well pleased to see the statesman CeciP upon his knees; and concluding them all to be great men, was conducted to the figure which represents that martyr to good housewifery, who died by the prick of a needle.^ Upon our interpreter's telling us that she was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth, the knight was very inquisitive into her name and family; and after having regarded her finger for some time, "I wonder," says he, "that Sir Richard Baker has said nothing of her in his Chronicle.^' We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, where my old friend, after having heard that the stone underneath the 1. A distinguished British admiral, who was commander-iu-chief in tlie reisn of Que(Mi Aiiue. Retiiriiiug from Gibraltar, his ship was lost on the Scilly Isles, and all on board perished. His body was afterward found and interred in West- minster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory. 2. For fifty-five years head-master of Westminster School. 3. L,ord Burleigh, prime minister to Queeu Elizabeth. 4. This is a popular error, originatiiis: from the position ot the figure on the monument to Elizabeth, youngest daughter of I.ord John Russell (A. D. 1584). SIR ROGER DE COVERLLY 27 most ancient of them, which was brought from Scotland, was called Jacob's pillar, sat himself down in the chair; and looking like the figure of an old Gothic king, asked our interpreter : "What authority they had to say that Jacob had ever been in Scotland?" The fellow, instead of returning him an answer, told him "that he hoped his honor would pay his forfeit." I could observe Sir Roger a little ruffled upon being thus tre- panned ; but our guide not insisting upon his demand, the knight soon recovered his good humor, and whispered in my ear that if Will Wimble were with us, and saw those two chairs, it would go hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of them. Sir Roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon Edward III. 's sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it, gave us the whole history of the Black Prince ; concluding, that in Sir Richard Baker's opinion, Edward III. was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the English throne. We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb ; upon which Sir Roger acquainted us, that he was the first that touched for the evil ; and afterward Henry IV. 's, upon which he shook his head, and told us there was fine reading of the casualties of that reign. Our conductor then pointed to that monument where there is the figure of one of our English kings without an head;^ and upon giving us to know that the head, which was of beaten silver, had been stole away several years since; "Some Whig, I'll war- rant you," says Sir Roger ; "you ought to lock up your kings better; they will carry off the body too, if you do not take care." The glorious names of Henry V. and Queen Elizabeth gave the knight great opportunities of shining, and of doing justice to Sir Richard Baker, "who, " as our knight observed with some sur- prise, "had a great many kings in him, whose monuments he had not seen in the Abbey." For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the knight show such an honest passion for the glory of his country, and such a respectful gratitude to the memory of its princes. I must not omit that the benevolence of my good old friend, which flows out toward every one he converses with, made him very kind to our interpreter, whom he looked upon as an ex- traordinary man, for which reason he shook him by the hand at parting, telling him, that he should be very glad to see him at his I. The effigy of Henry V. 28 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY lodgings in Norfolk Buildings, and talk over these matters with him more at leisure. XL SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL As I was sitting in my chamber, and thinking on a subject for my next Spectator, I heard two or three irregular bounces at my landlady's door; and upon the opening of it, a loud cheerful voice inquiring whether the philosopher was at home. The child who went to the door answered very innocently that he did not lodge there. I immediately recollected that it was my good friend Sir Roger's voice, and that I had promised to go with him. on the water to Spring Garden, in case it proved a good evening. The knight put me in mind of my promise from the staircase ; but told me that if I was speculating, he would stay below till I had done. Upon my coming down, I found all the children of the family got about my old friend, and my landlady herself, who was a notable prating gossip, engaged in a conference with him ; being mightily pleased with his stroking her little boy on the head, and bidding him be a good child, and mind his book. We were no sooner come to the Temple stairs, but we were surrounded with a crowd of watermen, offering their respective services. Sir Roger, after having looked about him very atten- tively, spied one with a wooden leg, and immediately gave him orders to get his boat ready. As we were walking toward it, "You must know," says Sir Roger, "I never make use of any- body to row me that has not either lost a leg or an arm. I would rather bate him a few strokes of his oar than not employ an hon- est man that has been wounded in the queen's service. If I was a lord or bishop, and kept a barge, I would not put a fellow in my livery that had not a wooden leg." My old friend, after having seated himself, and trimmed the boat with his coachman, who being a very sober man always serves for ballast on these occasions, we made the best of our way for Foxhall. ^ Sir Roger obliged the waterman to give us the history of his right leg ; and hearing that he had left it at La Hogue, 2 with many particulars which passed in that glorious action, the knight, in the triumph of his heart, made several reflections on the greatness of the British nation ; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen ; that we could never be in danger of popery so long as we took care of our fleet ; that 1. Afterward Vauxhall. 2. On the northwest of France, off which the English gained a splendid vic- tory over the French fleet in 1692. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 29 the Thames was the noblest river in Europe ; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the seven wonders of the world; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman. After some short pause, the old knight turning about his head twice or thrice, to take a survey of this great metropolis, bid me observe how thick the city was set with churches, and that there was scarce a single steeple on this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight!" says Sir Roger; "there is no religion at this end of the town. The fifty new churches' will very much mend the prospect; but church-work is slow, church-work is slow!" I do not remember I have anywhere mentioned, in Sir Roger's character, his custom of saluting everybody that passes by him with a good-morrow, or a good-night. This the old man does out of the overflowings of his humanity, though at the same time it renders him so popular among all his country neighbors that it is thought to have gone a good way in making him once or twice knight of the shire. He caannot forbear this exercise of benev- olence even in town, when he meets with any one in his morn- ing or evening walk. It broke from him to several boats that passed by us upon the water but to the knight's great surprise, as he gave the good-night to two or three young fellows a little before our landing, one of them, instead of returning the civility, asked us what queer old put- we had in the boat, and whether he was not ashamed to go out at night at his years ? with a great deal of the like Thames ribaldry. Sir Roger seemed a little shocked at first ; but at length, assuming a face of magistracy, told us "that if he were a Middlesex justice, he would make such vagrants know that her majesty's subjects were no more to he abused by water than by land. ' ' We were now arrived at Spring Garden, which is exquisitely pleasant at this time of year. When I considered the fragrancy of the walks and bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon the trees, and the loose tribe of people that walked under their shades, I could not but look upon the place as a kind of Mahom- etan paradise. Sir Roger told me, it put him in mind of a little coppice by his house in the country, which his chaplain used to call an aviary of nightingales. "You must understand, " says the knight, "there is nothing in the world that pleases a man in love so much as your nightingale. Ah, Mr. Spectator! the many 1. An Act had recently been passeivn.i)g's Poe- s. 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