was drawn away, and the man began to dangle like a joint of meat on a string, the folks began to eat and shout like furies, and a general cry ran through the croud of "take care, gentlemen and ladies, of your pockets; the hangmanday villains are at work-take care of your pockets." Upon our going away, the mob began to be quarrelfome; and after that we were pelted with dead cats, rotten eggs, and all manner of vermin. Such, Frank, is the holiday manner in which your Cocknies amuse themselves when as great a rogue as themfelves is going out of the world. In the progress I made through the town, I recollect many other strange matters. More than half the watchmen, whose business it is nightly to guard the City, are poor, decrepid, fuperannuated creatures, that are afraid to face a fly. I went to hear one of your great orators, as they call them, preach a funeral farment in the evening; and Mr. Smart's footman, who was with me, begged me to fecure my pockets as I came out of church; fo that I find thieves are as bufy here in their places of worship, as underneath their places of hanging There is nothing more common than for the fine folks of this town to marry on one month, and to part by mutual confent on the next fucceeding it. The news-prints tell us of half a dozen dozen divorces every day. My friend, Mr. Smart's smart man, is a deep hand, and tells me curious ftories about the tricks of the town. He fays that beggars here make great fortunes in a few years, and have fuch ftrict laws amongst themselves, that they dare not go beyond their proper ftands or begging-places: he fhewed me a very fine house belonging to one of these chaps, who had built it upon the very spot where he used to ask alms for more than forty years, and now he keeps a coach, and is vifited by all the quality, and is, it seems, as fine a gentleman as the best of them; aye, and dreffes as gay, and is lacified, and powderified, as e'er a monkey of them all. A ftranger's curiofity, Frank, is in this town taken captive, as my mafter calls it, every moment. I have not half done my account. I have feen and heard a trial at the Old Bailey about a rape; and because it was neceffary to call every thing by its name, and much balderdash was expected, the place was more fuller of women than it had ever been known for feveral feffions. With regard to DOCTORS, they are here as thick as hops, and they almost all keep carriages, particularly your Dog-doctors, Corndoctors, Bug-doctors, Teeth-doctors, Horfe. doctors, and P-x-doctors. The folks are all ftark mad after plays and lottery-tickets; and a stage-player shall, I am told told for certain, clear you no less than 30, 40, or 50 guineas a week. There's one Foote gets that at leaft by making people laugh for a couple of hours thrice a week; and another chap called Garrick, who has retired with a better fortune than the King of England, and is, they fay, to be made a Parliament-man; and he has got his money chiefly by making folks cry. Here's a woman too, the papers fay, one Mrs. Bafterdigny, or some such name, who comes all the way from Italy; and because the can fing till you can't hear her, and till fhe fqueaks like a half-ftarved moufe behind an old wainscot, puts into her pocket as much as the can hold in her double hand every night, for making a quaverpiece of work at the Pantheon, as they call it. Nay, to say the truth, your London age-men and fhew-folks get rich here in a twinkle, tho? I'm told the folks who find out new inventions for the good of Old England generally starve in a garret, or else die in a prison. Why, only to fee the whims and vagaries of this maggoty town-here's a parcel of people who get oceans of money by making a horse write letters as well as a parfon, and by riding upon half a dozen horfes at once, then tumbling to the ground, then getting up again, and all fuch fancies. And then, again, as to the Player-men, they are, I understand, almost always quarrelling among themselves, and think themselves of fuch confe quence, quence, that they publifh accounts of their knocking their nonfenfical noddles together, and fo expect all the town to be witnesses of their abfurdity. I have a great deal more to say on these subjects; but as my mafter calls for his boots, in order to fet forth again upon his frolick, I am obliged, as in duty bound, to obey his orders, and to subscribe myself, Dear Frank, Your humble fervant, JOHN TRUSTY, LETTER **** LETTER VIII. BOB RANDAL to his FAMILY. The 'Squire gives a general account of the City of London and its invirons, for the information of bis country friends, being a fupplement to his former letter on the marmers of the Citizens. DEAR RELATIONS, Do not fee how I can render you more enter Itainment, or greater fervice, than by putting into order several short observations I have made in the course of my four days ramble (for this is my fifth morning) upon the buildings and beauties of London. As my former letter took fome notice of the manners of the people, this shall present you with some sketches I have made in a hurry as to the beauty of the place; for, without buying feveral books, you will know little about it, and I can tell you all that is worth knowing in a fingle letter, without putting you to any expence but the postage. I was just about fetting pen to paper on this fubject, when my coufin told me that I might fparo |