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I WAS born, and passed the first seen years of life, iele. Its church, its halls, its gardens, its fountain, its rier, I had alst said -- for in those young years, what was this king of riers to but a streathat watered our pleasant pces? -- These are of oldest lles. I repeat, to this day, no erses to self re frequently, or with kiion, than those of Spenser, where he speaks of this spot.
There when they ca, whereas those bricky towers,
The whi Thees brode aged back doth ride,
Where now the studious wyers hae their bowers,
There whylo wont the Teler knights to bide,
Till they decayd through pride.
Indeed, it is the st elegant spot iropolis. What a transition for a tryn isiting London for the first ti -- the passing frothe crowded Strand or Fleet-street, by ued aenues, into its gnifit ale squares, its cssic green recesses! What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it, which, frothree sides, oerlooks the greater garden: that goodly pile
Of building strong, albeit of Paper hight,
fronting, with ssy trast, the lighter, older, re fantastically shrouded one, nad of Hurt, with the cheerful -office Row (py kindly engendure), right opposite the stately strea which washes the garden-foot with her yet scarcely trade-polluted waters, and see but just weaned froher TwihaNaiades! a n would gie sothing to hae been born in such pces. What llegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan hall, where the fountain pys, which I hae de to rise and fall, how ny tis! to the astou of the young urs,  oraries, who, not being able to guess at its redite ery, were alst teted to hail the wondrous work as gic! What an antique air had the now alst effaced sun-dials, with their ral inscriptions, seeneals with that Ti which they asured, and to take their reetions of its flight iediately froheaen, holdinrrespohe fountain of light! How would the dark lieal ierceptibly on, watched by the eye of childhood, eager to detect its ent, neer catched, nice as an ea cloud -- or the first arrests of sleep!
Ah ! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand
Steal frohis figure, and no pace perceied!
What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous eowelnts of lead and brass, its pert or sole dulness of unication, pared with the sile aar-like structure, and sile-nguage of the old dial! It stood as the garden god of Christian gardens. Why is it alst eery where anished? If its business-use be superseded by re eborate iions, its ral uses, its beauty, ght hae pleaded for its tinua spoke of derate bours, of pleasures not protracted after su, of teerance, and good-hours. It was the pritie clock, the he of the first world. Adauld scarce hae ssed it in Paradise. It was the asure appropriate for sweet pnts and flowers t by, for the birds to apportion their siler warblings by, for flocks to pasture and be led to fold by. The shepherd quot;cared it out quaintly in the sun;quot; and, turning philosopher by the ery oupation, proided it with ttos re toug than tostones. It retty deice of the gardener, rded by Marell, who, in the days of artificial gardening, de a dial out of herbs and flowers. I st quote his erses a little higher up, for they are full, as all his poetry was, of a witty delicacy. They will not e in awkwardly I hope, in a talk of fountains and sun-dials. He is speaking of sweet garden ses:
What wondrous life in this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about head.
The luscious clusters of the ine
Upon uth do crush their wine.
The arine, and curious peach,
Into hands theeles do reach.
Stuling on lons, as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.
Meanwhile the nd fropleasure less
Withdraws into its happiness.
The nd, that o, where each kind
Does straight its own resence find;
Yet it creates, transding these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihiting all thats de
To a green thought in a green shade.
Here at the fountains sliding foot,
Or at so fruit-trees ssy root,
Casting the bodys est aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide:
There, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Thes and cps its siler wings;
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waes in its plus the arious light.
How well the skilful gardner drew,
Of flowers and herbs, this;u;/u dial new!
Where, froaboe, the lder sun
Does through a fragrant zodia:
And, as it works, the industrious bee
 utes its ti as well as we.
Hould such sweet and wholeso hours
Be red, but with herbs and flowers?
[Footnote] * fropy of erses entitled quot;The Garden.quot;
The artificial fountains of the tropolis are, in like nner, fast anishing. Most of theare dried up, or bricked oer. Yet, where one is left, as in that little green nook behind the South Sea House, what a freshness it gies to the dreary pile! Four little winged rble boys used to py their irgin fancies, spouting out eer fresh strea frotheir i-wanton lips, in the square of Lins-inn, when I was no bigger than they were figured. They are gone, and the spring choked up. The fashion, they tell , is gone by, and these things are esteed childish. Why not then gratify children, by letting thestand? Lawyers, I suppose, were children ohey are awakening iges to theat least. Why st eery thing san, and nnish? Is the wrown up? Is childhood dead? Or is there not in the boso of the wisest and the best so of the childs heart left, to respond to its earliest es? The figures were grotesque. Are the stiff-wigged liing figures, that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothi appearance? or is the splutter of their hot rhetorie half so refreshing and i as the littlol pyful strea those eploded cherubs uttered?
They hae tely gothicised the entrao the Iele-hall, and the library front, to assite the I suppose, to the body of the hall, which they do not at all resele. What is bee of the winged horse that stood oer the forr? a stately ar! and who has reed those fres of the Virtues, which Italiahe end of the Paper-buildings? -- first hint of allegory! They st at to for these things, which I ss so greatly.
The terrace is, indeed, left, which we used to call the parade; but the traces are passed away of the footsteps which de its paent awful! It is bee on and profahe old benchers had it alst sacred to theeles, in the forepart of the day at least. They ght not be sided or jostled. Their air and dress asserted the parade. You left wide spaces betwit you, when you passed the We walk oer with their suessors. The roguish eye of J----ll, eer ready to be deliered of a jest, alst inites a strao ie a repartee wit;cite;/citeh it. But what i faliar durst hae ted Thos try ? -- whose person was a quadrate, his step ssy and elephantine, his face square as the lions, his gait peretory and path-keeping, iible frohis way as a ing n, the scarecrow of his inferiors, the brow-beater of equals and superiors, who de a solitude of children whereer he ca, for they fled his insufferable presence, as they would hae shunned an Elisha bear. His growl was as thunder in their ears, whether he spake to thein rth or in rebuke, his initatory notes being, indeed, of all, the st repulsie and horrid. Clouds of snuff aggraating the natural terrors of his speech, broke froeach jestiostril, darkening the air. He took it, not by pinches, but a palul at once, diing for it uhe ghty fps of his old-fashioned ocket; his waiat red and angry, hiat dark rappee, tinctured by dye inal, and by adjuncts, with buttons of a obsolete gold. And so he paced the terrace.
By his side a lder forwas sotis to be seen; the pensie gentility of Sael Sa. They wereals, and had nothing but that and their benchership in on. In politics Sa was a whig and try a staunch tory. Many a sarcastic growl did the tter cast out -- for try had a rough spinous huur -- at the political federates of his associate, which rebounded frothe gentle bosoof the tter like on-balls frowool. Yould not ruffle Sael Sa.
S. had the reputation of being a ery cleer n, and of ecellent disnt in the chaer practice of the w. I suspect his knowledge did not aunt to ch. When a case of difficu disposition of estantary or otherwise, ca before hi he ordinarily ha oer with a few instrus to his n Loel, who was a quick little fellow, and would despatch it out of hand by the light of natural uanding, of which he had an unon share. It was incredible what repute for talents S. enjoyed by the re trick of graity. He was a shy n; a child ght pose hiin a nute -- i and procrastinating to the st degree. Yet n would gie hicredit for ast application in spite of hielf. He was not to be trusted with hielf with iunity. He neer dressed for a dinner party but he fot his sword -- they wore swords then -- or so other necessary part of his equipage. Loel had his eye upon hion all these oasions, and ordinarily gae hihis cue. If there w;dfn;/dfnas any thing which huld speak unseasonably, he was sure to do it. He was to di a reties of the unfortunate Miss Bndy on the day of her eecution ; -- and L. who had a wary fht of his probable halluations, before he set out, schooled hiwith great ay not in any possible o allude to her story that day. S. prosed faithfully to obsere the injun. He had not beeed in the parlour, where the pany eg the dinner suons, four nutes, when, a pause in the ersation ensuing, he got up, looked out of windoulling down his ruffles -- an ordinary tion with hi-- obsered, quot;it was a gloo day,quot; and added, quot;Miss Bndy st be hanged by this ti, I suppose.quot; Instances of this sort were perpetual. Yet S. was thought by so of the greatest n of his ti a fit person to be sued, not alone in tters pertaining to the w, but in the ordinary ies and earrassnts of duct -- froforanirely. He neer ughed. He had the sa good fortune ang the fele world, -- was a known toast with the dies, and one or two are said to hae died for loe of hi-- I suppose, because he rifled or talked galntry with the or paid the indeed, hardly on attentions. He had a fine fad person, but wahought, the spirit that should hae shown theoff with adao the won. His eye cked lustre. -- Not so, thought Susan P----; who, at the adanced age of sity, was seen, in thld eening ti, unapanied, wetting the paent of B----d Row, with tears that fell in drops which ght be heard, because her friend had died that day -- he, whoshe had pursued with a hopeless passion for the st forty years -- a passion, which yearuld inguish or abate; nor the long resoled, yet gently enforced, puttings off of uing bachelorhood dissuade froits cherished purpose. Mild Susan P----, thou hast now thy friend in heaen!
Thos try was a cadet of the noble faly of that na. He passed his youth in tracted circes, which gae hiearly those parsinious habits whi after-life neer forsook hi so that, with one windfall or another, about the ti I knew hihe was ster of four or fie huhousand pounds; nor did he look, or walk, worth a idore less. He lied in a gloo house opposite the pu in Serjeants-inn, Fleet-street. J., the sel, is doing self-iosed penan it, for what reason I dii, at this day. C. had an agreeable seat at North Cray, where he seldospent aboe a day or two at a ti in the suer; but preferred, during the hot nths, standing at his window in this da, close, well-like nsion, to watch, as he said, quot;the ids drawing water all day long.quot; I suspect he had his within- door reasons for the preference. Hic cursus et ar fuere. He ght think his treasures re safe. His house had the aspect of a strong bo. C. was a close hunks -- a hoarder rather than a ser -- or, if a ser, none of the d Elwes breed, who hae brought discredit upon a character, which ot eist without certain adrable points of steadiness and unity of purpose. One y hate a true ser, but ot, I suspect, so easily despise hi By taking care of the pence, he is often eo part with the pounds, upon a scale that leaes us careless generous fellows haing at an ieasurable distance behind. C. gae away 30,000 l. at on his life-ti to a blind charity. His house- keeping was seerely looked after, but he kept the table of a gentlen. He would know who an who went out of his house, but his kit ey was neer suffered to freeze.
Sa was his opposite in this, as in all -- neer knew what he was worth in the world; and haing but a petency for his rank, which his i habits were little calcuted to iroe, ght hae suffered seerely if he had not had ho people about hi Loel took care of eery thing. He was at once his clerk, his good serant, his dresser, his friend, his quot;fpper,quot; his guide, stop-watch, auditor, treasurer. He did nothing without suing Loel, or failed in any thing without epeg and fearing his adnishing. He put hielf alst too his hands, had they not been the purest in the world. He resigned his title alst to respect as a ster, if Luld eer hae fotten for a nt that he was a serant.
I khis Loel. He was a n of an incible and losing hoy A good fellow withal, and quot;would strike.quot; In the cause of the oppressed be neer sidered inequalities, or calcuted the nuer of his oppos. He once wrested a sword out of the hand of a n of quality that had drawn upon hi and poelled hiseerely with the hi of it. The swordsn had offered insu to a fele -- an oasion upon whio odds against hiuld hae preehe interference of Loel. He would sta day bare-headed to the sa persoly to ecuse his interference -- for L. neer fot rank, where sothier was not ed. L. was the lieliest little fellow breathing, had a face as gay as Garricks, whohe was said greatly to resele (I hae a portrait of hiwhich fir it), possessed a fiurn for hurous poetry -- o Swift and Prior ---- ulded heads in cy or pster of Paris to adration, by the dint of natural genius rely; turned cribbage boards, and such sll et toys, to perfe; took a hand at quadrille or bowls with equal facility; de punch better than any n of his degree in Engnd; had the rriest quips as, and was aogether as briul ueries and iions as yould desire. He was a brother of the angle, reoer, and ;u;/ujust such a free, hearty, ho panion as Mr. Isaac Waon would hae chosen to go a fishing with. I saw hiin his old age and the decay of his facuies, palsy-stten, i sad stage of hun weakness -- quot;a reant st forlorn of what he was, quot;yet een then his eye would light up upoion of his faourite Garrick. He was greatest, he would say, in Bayes -- quot;oage nearly throughout the whole perfornce, and as busy as a bee.quot; At interals, too, he would speak of his forr life, and how he ca up a little boy froLin to go to serice, and how his ther cried at parting with hi and how he returned, after so few years absence, in his srt new liery to see her, and she blessed herself at the ge, anuld hardly be thought to beliee that it was quot;her own bairn.quot; And then, the et subsiding, he would weep, till I hae wished that sad sed-childhood ght hae a ther still to y its head upon her p. But the other of us all in no long ti after receied higently into hers.
With try, and with Sa, in their walks upoerrace, st only Peter Pierson would join, to ke up a third. They did not walk linked arin arin those days -- quot;as now our stout triuirs sweep the streets,quot; -- but general with both hands folded behind thefor state, or with o least behind, the other carrying a e. P. was a be, but not a prepossessing d. He had that in his face which yould not terunhappiness; it rather ilied an incapacity of being happy. His cheeks werlourless, een to whiteness. His look was uniniting, reseling (but without his sourness) that of reat phinthropist. I know that he did good acts, but uld neer ke out what he orary with these, but subordinate, was Daines Barrington -- another oddity -- he walked burly and square -- in itation, I think, of try -- howbeit he attained not to the dignity of his prototype. heless, he did pretty well, upth of being a tolerable antiquarian, and haing a brother a bishop. Whe of his years treasurership ca to be audited, the following singur charge was unaniusly disallowed by the bench: quot;Ite disbursed Mr. Allen, the gardewenty shillings, for stuff to poison the sparrows, by orders.quot; o hiwas old Barton -- a jolly ion, who took upon hithe of the bills of fare for the parliant chaer, where the benchers dine -- answering to the bination roo allege -- ch to the easent of his less epicureahren. I know nothing re of hi -- Then Read, and Twopenny -- Read, good- huured and personable -- Twopenny, good-huured, but thin, and felicitous is upon his own figure. If T. was thin, Wharry was attenuated and fleeting. Many st reer hi(for he was rather of ter date) and his singur gait, which erford by tree steps and a ju regurly sueeding. The steps were little efforts, like that of a child beginning to walk; the ju paratiely igorous, as a foot to an inch. Where he learhis figure, or what oasio, uld neer der. It was her graceful in itself, nor seed to ahe purpose aer than on walking. The etre tenuity of his fra, I suspect, set hiupon it. It was a trial of poising. Twopenny would often rally hiupon his leanness, and hail hias Brother Lusty; but W. had no relish of a joke. His features were spiteful. I hae heard that he would pinch his cats ears etrely, when any thing had offended hi Ja -- the oist Ja he was called -- was of this period. He had the reputation of possessing re ifarious knowledge than any n of his ti. He was the Friar Ba of the less literate portion of the Tele. I reer a pleasant passage, of thok applying to hi with ality of ;rk;/rkapology, or instrus how to write down edge bone of beef in his bill of ons. He was supposed to know, if any n in the world did. He decided the raphy to be -- as I hae gien it -- fortifying his authority with suatocal reasons as disssed the nciple (for the ti) learned and happy. So do spell it yet perersely, aitch bone, froa fanciful reseween its shape, and that of the aspirate so denonated. I had alst fotten Mingay with the iron hand -- but he was sowhat ter. He had lost his right hand by so act, and supplied it with a grappling hook, which he wielded with a tolerable adroitness. I detected the substitute, before I was old enough to reasoher it were artificial or not. I reer the astonishnt it raised in . He was a blustering, loudtalking person; and I reciled the phenonon to ideas as an eleof power -- sowhat like the horns in the forehead of Michael Angelos Moses. Baron Maseres, who walks (or did till ery tely) in the e of the reign of Gee the Sed, closes ierfect lles of the old benchers of the Iele. Fantastis, whither are ye fled? Or, if the like of you eist, why eist they no re for ? Ye ineplicable, half- uood appearances, why es in reason to tear away the preternatural st, bright loo, that enshrouded you? Why ke ye so sorry a figure in retion, who de up to -- to childish eyes -- the thology of the Tele? In those days I saw Gods, as quot;old ered with a ntle,quot; walking upon the earth. Let the drea of cssic idotry perish, -- etinct be the fairies and fairy truery of legendary fabling,in the heart of childhood, there will, for eer, spring up a well of i or wholeso superstition -- the seeds of eaggeration will be busy there, and ital -- froeery-day for edug the unknown and the unon. In that little Goshen there will be light, when the grown world flounders about in the darkness of sense and teriality. While childhood, and while drea, redug childhood, shall be left, igination shall not hae spread her holy wings totally to fly the earth.
P.S. I hae done injustice to the soft shade of Sael Sa. See what it is to trust to ierfect ry, and the erring notices of childhood! Yet I protest I always thought that he had been a bachelor! This gentlen, R. N. infor , rried young, and losing his dy in child-bed, within the first year of their union, fell into a deep ncholy, frothe effects of which, probably, he hhly ered. In what a new light does this pce his reje (O call it by a gentler na!) of ld Susan P----, unraelling into beauty certain peculiarities of this ery shy airing character -- Heh let no one receie the narraties of Elia for true rds! They are, in truth, but shadows of fact -- erisilitudes, ies -- or sitting but upoe edges and outskirts of history. He is no such ho icler as R. N., and would hae doer perhaps to hae sued that gentlen, before he sent these indite reo press. But the worthy sub-treasurer -- who respects his old and his ers -- would but hae been puzzled at the inrous liberties of Elia. The good n wots not, peradenture, of the lise which Magazines hae arried at in this pin-speaking age, or hardly drea of their eistence beyond the Gentlen`s -- his furthest nthly ecursions in this nature haing been long fio the holy ground of ho Urbans obituary. May it be long before his own na shall help to swell those ns of utery! -- Meanti, O ye New Benchers of the Iele, cherish hikindly, for he is hielf the ki of huures. Should infirties oer-take hi---- he is yet in green and igorous senility -- ke allowances for the reering that quot;ye yourseles are old.quot; So y the Winged Horse, our a badge and isaill flourish so y future Hookers and Seldens illustrate your churd chaers! so y the sparrows, in defau of re lodious quiristers, unpoisoned hop about your walks! so y the freshloured and ly nursery id, who, by leae, airs her pyful charge in your stately gardens, drop her prettiest blushing curtsy as ye pass, reductie of jue etion! so y the younkers of this geion eye you, pag your stately terrace, with the sa superstitious eion, with which the child Elia gazed on the Old Worthies that solee parade before ye!
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