tho' well-meaning, Fancy. If the Effay gives AMELIA any Pleasure, I dare fay you'll very foon communicate it to me, as I am convinc'd, from repeated Favours of this kind, that will never let any

you

Opportunity escape of giving me even the leaft Satisfaction; much lefs will you conceal from me what, you may very well know, will afford the greatest. I am,

Your, &c. &c.

LETTER

I

[61]

LETTER IX.

To the Same.

AM quite fick, my dear Friend, of the fplendid Impertinence, the unmeaning Glitter, the tasteless Profufion, and monstrous Enormities, which I have lately feen in a Summer's Ramble to fome of the Villas which fwarm in the Neighbourhood of our Metropolis. You would imagine that the Owners, having retain'd the horrid Chimeras of a fev'rish Dream, had jumbled them together in a waking Frenzy. In one Place was a House built from an aukward Delineation plunder'd from an old Indian Screen, and decorated with all the Monsters of Afia and Africa, inhofpitably grinning at Strangers over every Door, Window, and ChimneyPiece. In another, we found an old Gothic Building encrufted with Stucco, fliced into Grecian Pilafters, with gilded Capitals; fuperbly lined with Paper disfigur'd all over with the fat Deities of CHINA,

and

and the heterogeneous Animals that exift only in the aërial Regions of UTOPIA. Few, very few, did we meet with that bore any relation to Proportion, or the Conveniencies and natural Emoluments of Life. But in all these notable Distortions of Art, I perceiv'd the poor prostituted Word TASTE, was conftantly made ufe of to express the abortive Conceptions of a diftemper'd Fancy. From a curfory View of thefe motley Productions of modern Refinement, you would be led to think, that the new Gentry of the City, and their Leaders the well-dress'd Mob about St. James's, were feiz'd, the very Moment they left the Town-Air, with a Chinese Madness, and imagined a Deviation from Truth and Nature was an infallible Criterion of TASTE. But of all the fplendid Impertinencies I ever saw, nothing ever excited in me fo contemp tuous an Indignation as Mucio's Palace; and yet the filly Multitude pour forth in abundant Crowds from the adjacent City,

during the Summer Seafon, on a particular Day of the Week, which the indulgent Owner fets apart for that Purpose, to gaze with open-mouth'd Aftonishment at the fuperb Nothing of this unmeaning Structure. MUCIO's Palace ftands about fix Miles from LONDON, upon a dry barren Spot where GOD never intended Wood fhould naturally grow or Water spring: Mucio therefore made choice of this Spot, in Preference to any other, to fhew the admiring Spectators, that Wealth could perform every thing in the Phyfical World, as his wary Ancestors had found it would do in the Moral. So to supply what Nature in a profufe Irregularity be ftows upon other Places, but had withheld from this, he planted, at an im menfe Expence, by Rule and Line, feveral pretty Walks of Elm Trees, fo engagingly like one another, that, at the first Glance, you may know them all to be of the fame Family; and obferving that Water is more naturally collected into, and preferv'd in a Body,

a Body, in low Situations, MUCIO, whofe chief Aim, it seems, was to excel Nature, most artfully catch'd upon an Eminence, in a round Bafon turn'd by a pair of Compaffes, or more properly a large Rainwater Cistern of ten Acres, the imprison'd Contributions of Winter Showers, to putrify by Stagnation in the Summer Seafon. The House itself, 'tis true, is built with good Portland Stone, before which is ftuck on a Portico in the Corinthian Order. The Rooms within are large without Magnificence; numerous without Convenience and fitted up with an oftentatious Splendor, without the minutest Appearance of any one real Elegance. The Furniture is even difguftingly expensive, and ornamented into ufelefs Incumbrance. Several daub'd Copies of P. PININI's Ruins dangle over monftrous Marble ChimneyPieces, that look like Family Monuments in a Cathedral; and not a few shapelefs naked Pagan Deities, done by modern Artists, sprawl upon Canvass surrounded