"You seem to have an antipathy to London?" said I. Why I must own, Sir," answered he, "there is no love lost between us. It would be very well, if it wasn't such a great overgrown, smoky, sickly, place; but they build, and they build, and all the gentry go there as if they were going to a fair; and so they stop when the fair is over, and make a dismal odd sojourning of it. There were two squires who went up to London, when I was a little boy, and got places there, as they are called. Very pretty places they left behind them, I know; but times were hard, and people said the squires couldn't descend. You know what they meant, Sir. So the squires not being able to descend, went up to town; and there I saw them and their's, when I went afterwards, squeezed up in tall narrow houses, not a fourth part of the size of their own pretty ones over the way yonder; -you may see one of 'em, Sir, among the limes;-it belongs now to a lawyer; and the other belongs to What's-his-name there, the great distiller, who never sets eyes on it. Well, Sir, as I was saying, I saw the squires and their families, and young master, who gave me my dog here-Robin, Robin-ah, he's got out of doors-we shall find him, when we go-but I'm keeping you, Sir-Nay, nay, I needn't keep you, Sir, for I can tell you my story as you go, and perhaps it may amuse you, as you seem fond of the country." Here he took up his book again, and put it into his pocket; and then clapping the pocket smartly with one hand, and buttoning one of the buttons of his coat with the other, lifted a latch on the opposite side of the passage, and putting in his head with, "Get the tea, Goody, for myself and neighbour Parkins," went out of the door with me. In an instant we were joined by Robin, who was a fine eager-looking dog, and seemed to have, all his faculties ready for a scour.

Robin, Sir," said he, "was given me when I was in London, and was then called Nero; but why they gave the poor beast such an ill name, I couldn't tell; and so, seeing what a delight he took whenever he saw a bit of green grass, or got near the Parks, and how he would dart away, and drive round and round, and roll, and scamper, and pant with joy; I called him Robin, you see,-after Robin Hood, Sir, who was a sort of prince too, you know, after a kind of a fashion, under his greenwood shade.'-Well, Sir, as I was saying about the squires; when I saw them living so humbly, as it were, or in such small houses, I thought to myself at first-Oh oh! what,does coming up to London help to bring up the thing they talk of in books, some for, and some against, about putting people in general more on a level with one another! I didn't think so, you know, Sir; but somehow or other, the fancy struck me. I know it's impossible for such a thing to be, unless people could be all born with the same brains and bodies, though I do think with some, that there is a much greater difference in the business than need be; though, before it can be altered, it will take a vast deal of better learning in the poor and humble, and, as for that matter perhaps, in the rich and high too. Well, Sir, to cut this matter short, for I must con

fess I have got somehow or other a mighty trick of talking since I came back to my village, and can't tell a thing half so speedily as İ could in London, and so I shall never get to my story. I saw the squires, and there instead of being grown humble, in one way at least, they had grown more grand a great deal,-only as I thought with a very odd sort of exchange. In their old homes here-we are now going by one of 'em, Sir,-you might have had a dance in the hall, and there were at least twenty rooms a-piece to 'em : but in London,-what they called the hall of one of the houses, wasn't much bigger than my own little passage, though exceeding trim and tight to be sure. I remember I almost broke the lamp-glass with the bundle at the end of my stick:-instead of the great piece of ground there in front of the house, and the roses and honeysuckles all over the windows, there was no ground at all, and only a dusty bit of a vine, which I thought looked better too than nothing; and instead of the fine garden behind, and the paddock, and the kitchen-garden, and the fine prospect, I almost started when the footman shewed me the back of the house, which was a bit of a yard, hardly big enough for a couple of boys to play at hop-scotch in, surrounded with the walls of other yards, and the backs of other houses. The house of the other squire had a bit of garden, to be sure,-long, and narrow, and with strips of brick wall, boxed flower-ground, and gravel, that almost set one's teeth on edge to look at, they seemed so hard and dry. I remember however I thought it a very pretty thing, after I had been in London for a year or two. I didn't know whether the squires were glad to see me or not. They spoke to me more familiarly than usual, and yet somehow or other, didn't seem so kind nor so un-proud. Their rooms were full of black and gilt furniture, mighty fine and gloomy as I thought; and coming out of Squire Wilson's, I ran against the physician, who was coming up the steps, and who cursed me in the oddest sweet tone of voice I ever heard swear. However he laughed

the next minute.

"Well, Sir; I've been talking to you a great deal about other people, but it shews you what I thought of going to London; and yet would you believe it, I lived in that very London for fifteen years afterwards, and for the last ten never stirred out of it! I didn't indeed! I'll tell you how it was. My young master, as I called him, the son of one of the squires,-(I was the village-carpenter's son, and he used to play with me) had got a place as well as his father,— not under government though,-but in the city, at a great banker's; and so, as there was a man wanting there to do a number of things, such as go of messages, and help to take care of the premises at night, he got me a place too. Young master, I know, intended kindly to me; and I thought it a fine thing when I was sent for. I was not a clerk, to be sure, but then I was not a mere servant; and the under clerks and the housekeeper used to let me dine with them. I soon got into what they called the routine of my business. I did a quantity of messages and things all day, and strolled a little

way out of town on Sundays, when it was not my turn to stop at home. Sometimes I'd walk about twenty miles out on a Sunday; sometimes I went a nutting, sometimes a boating, and sometimes only loitered about the suburbs for fear of being caught in the rain with my new hat, and so poked about the new buildings, with a sixpenny cane, and eat apples and gingerbread. I looked in at church by the way; but always used to feel as if I said a kind of prayer in the fields, things were so beautiful there and grand. I remember there were two chief clerks in our office, one of whom was a Methodist, while the other laughed at the Methodists You are not a Methodist, are you Sir?-I thought not. You laugh differently, and seem to think there are good things in this world as well as in the next. Look, Sir, at the beautiful prospect there.-Ah, Molly, how d'ye do to-day? Why you look as kind and handsome as ever!-A dairy-maid, Sir, at Squire Smith's-bless her good-tempered face. Well, Sir, the Methodist wanted to make one of me; but no, no, thought I-I am not so sick or so selfish as that comes to; for I knew him and the rest of 'em well enough. So the other clerk used to laugh at him, when he made me argue, as they call it, and used to laugh at me too, for seeming to think more than I chose to say. There are some good men among 'em too, but they all seem so hard-hearted in their notions, whatever they may be in their conduct; whereas the laughing clerk, who could be the gravest and kindest gentleman in the world too when you wanted it, was soft-hearted both in his notions and conduct; and I take that to be the better side. For my part, I really wonder sometimes how such notions of a good God and his works can get abroad; but then I think of the great town, and all their plagues, and diseases, and driving of monies, and who's to wonder that people get sick and superstitious, and full of bad consciences, and think to get on in the next world as they do in this, with all sorts of bad opinions, both of themselves and their betters?

"Bless me:-well I shall never get to my story, to be sure, and yet, here we are at the top of the hill. Egad, Sir, this is very different air that comes in one's face, from that one meets on Snow-hill or Cheapside. Hah!-hah! Glorious indeed!" and so saying, the old youth took off his hat, and stood a minute, shutting his eyes, and drinking in, as it were, draughts of health. I enjoyed the freshness with him, and took off my gloves that I might feel as much of it as I could, lifting my palms to catch the breeze, for I was feverish with having stopped too long indoors. I told him so; upon which he put on his hat again with a sigh, and began moving down the hill ;-Ah, young gentleman, said he (for so he called me in the fatherliness of his age). "now would I lay my life, that you are one of those studious persons who read so much about the fields, that they have not time to walk in them." I laughed, and said it was a little too much the case; "and yet," added I, "I have haunted the fields to the north-west of London ever since I was a lad, and hardly ever found another man in them,-never, at any rate, one who seemed on the same business of enjoyment."

"You don't say so!" replied he, stopping for an instant, and turning

full in my face" but why do I say you don't say so," continued he, "for as I told you before, Sir, I was myself years together, and never set foot in the fields; and this reminds me that I must come to my story at last. Well then, Sir, I went on living in the way I spoke of, for five years, by which time I had become a confidential servant of the house. I then had a little more leisure. I was always fond of reading, and now I read more than ever. Ay, ay, Sir, you may smile; you have a right to it, and the truth must out. But I love reading as well as you; I think it's only bad, as they say, in the abuse. I was'nt scholar enough how→ ever to be spoilt by overmuch study; though, to be sure, I must say, that when I gave up going into the fields, I had better have spent half the time I did in my book, and gone out the other half. But I'll tell you how it was, Sir. I hadn't so much exercise to take as before, though enough to keep me in decent health; my evenings were my own more than they used to be; and what with all this, and some losses that I had, I took to going to a club, which the under clerks frequented, and which they were glad enough I should join, on account of my love of reading, which enabled me to talk better than most of them. To this club I used to go every night after my day's work, and there, what with talking, and debating, and eating hot coarse dishes, and drinking brandy and water, I went home with my head muddled; and that made me prefer lying in bed of a Sunday morning to walking abroad; and that made me a little sick and gloomy; and that made me drink more brandy and water; and that made me muddled again, and sick, and lazy, and so on; till at last between pain and pleasure, and liking and necessity, I got into such a regular habit of spending my days and evenings in this manner, that I never went out of the heat of London, Southwark, and Westminster, for four years. I thought of the country sometimes, and wished I was as comfortable somehow as I used to be there, for my head used to feel thick and dim, as it were, and my eyes hot; but then I had a good deal of walking still, which took off the worst part of the queerness, and there was a little bowling-green public-house, near the suburbs, which contrived to look like a little bit of a village house still; and there I went now and then; but you may think it odd,-I used to lose my temper there more than any where else; and this I didn't like, besides it's exciting me to drink more brandy and water; and so latterly I left off going, and stuck to my club in the city. At last, what was odder still, I took a sort of dislike to the thought of the country; and partly from this, and partly I believe from the vanity of being wondered at for it, made a practice of boasting that I never went to see it; and so between boasting and making a fool of myself, and going of messages, and muddling my head, I arrived at the fifth year of my death, as I call it.

I was silly enough, Sir, at that period, to have a kind of feast in honor of my nonsense in having stopped so long among the noise and smoke. It was held at the club; and about a week after, the good-tempered clerk of whom I spoke to you, and who had laughed at me for it, and said I was a foolish fellow (which made me drink double the quantity

of brandy that evening) told me that there was an old gentleman, an acquaintance of his, and not much wiser than myself, who wanted to speak with me. It struck me at first I needn't go to see a person, of whom the clerk gave such a character; but then I didn't wish to offend that excellent man, though he made me ashamed of myself; and besides I was a little piqued, if I was not offended, at hearing the gentleman called no wiser than myself, and wanted to think he was a very clever fellow in consequence. So I went to him; and what d'ye think he said to me? I found him with a nightcap on; and a basin of broth by his side ;—a little man, with a great puffed red face that looked as if it was full of blood; and I couldn't tell at first whether he was angry with me or pleased.

"So," says he, "they tell me that you have not been out of the metropolis for five years?"

"Yes, Sir, it's very true."

66

Eh, and that you make a joke of the country, and prefer the town?"

Why, Sir, I joke sometimes about it at the club."

Eh, and that you had a supper the other night in commemoration of the fifth year of your never having seen it?"

Why yes, Sir, I hope no offence ?"

"Offence!-Curse the country,-it's pigs, it's sheep, it's hedges, it's ditches, it's people, it's every thing!"

"I was quite petrified, Sir, as you may suppose, at this burst of the old gentleman's, which ended in making his face look twice as full and fiery as before, and forced him to speak in a whisper. He then told me that he always despised the country with it's idle nonsense, and that he had lately got good reason to hate it,-which I found afterwards was the marriage of his daughter with my young master, who had gone with her, to make the best of his little patrimony ;- -we shall see it in a minute, when we get to the green lane.-But what do you think our conversation about the country ended with? Why, Sir, with his telling me he liked my spirit, and that he would give me twice my present income a year, so as to enable me to leave off going of messages, upon condition that I never saw the face of the country again."

Done, Sir," said I, in the bragging of my heart. "Done," said he ; " and done sure enough it was,-the bargain and my comfort too.

"Sir, I liked my independence, as I thought it, mightily at first; some of the clerks, especially the wise one, shook their heads at me; the others said I was a fine fellow, and had made my fortune. I left off trampling about the streets. I only loitered about them, looked at the picture-shops, and over the book-stalls, which lasted me a pretty good while. By degrees, I got quite a little library; and when I wasn't lounging about, I read, and I went to the two-shilling gallery sometimes at the theatres, and above all, went to the club, and cut more noisy jokes, and drank more brandy and water than ever.

"

But, Sir, among my other leisures, I had leisure to think, and then