and attached the written name of every candidate, carefully folded up, to her refpective fkein. Thofe of the elder clafs were then spread on a table, and a master weaver determined upon that which was of the beft manufacture. Lady Harcourt, who continued to prefide, unfolded the name attached to the diftinguished fkein, when the fuccefsful candidate was called, and offered her choice of the various prizes a fcarlet knot was, at the fame time, affixed to a confpicuous part of her drefs. This ceremony continues till the prizes are all obtained, bat without the application of the ribband, which is an exclufive distinction of the firft. The fkill of the fecond clafs underwent the fame trial, and received fimilar rewards. The far greater part of the competitors obtained prizes according to the merit of their respective work, and the few whofe endeavours were not crowned with fuccefs, were difmiffed with words of encouragement and fa vour. The group of elms to the right of the houfe contains a more fpacious as well as more regular area than either of the others, and was, on this occafion, formed into a ball-room of no common elegance. A moveable colonnade, of just architectural proportions, and fuitable embellishments, inclofed a space of ninety feet long, and forty-five in breadth. It was fufficient to referve the place for the purposes to which it is allotted, while the intercolumniations admitted the gazers of the neighbouring villages to view the ceremonies and amufements of the scene. In the centre, on the right, was a Doric pavillion, elevated on a flight of fteps, for the reception of the family, and decorated with allufive fymbols, and wreaths of artificial flowers. On the oppofite fide of the area was an alcove, where the prizes were hung in a gay arrangement, and from whence the diftribution of them was made. It afterward became an orcheftra for the mufic. At the upper end of the room, the architectural ele vation affumed a more enriched appearance. Two porticos, with pediments, were connected by an intermediate range of columns, with large china vafes filled with flowers, placed between them, and beneath each pediment was a tranfparent emblematic painting, representing a Nuneham cottage. The one was a cheerful picture of industry and plenty, the other a dismal scene of idleness and want; over the latter hung a wreath of nettles, and above the former was feen a chaplet of various flowers. The floor of the room was the turf, and its roof the fpreading branches of the elms that grow around. The whole was bright with lamps, arranged in all the elegance of illumination. When the evening advanced, lady Harcourt entered the ball-room, preceded by the mufic, and followed by a proceion of her villagers, and, after making a circuit of the area, entered the alcove, where the prizes were distributed from her hand, not unaccompanied by graceful gratulation. When this charming ceremony was concluded, the mufic occupied the place; nor did any long interval enfue before the commencement of the dance; and as all perfons of a certain appearance were promiscuously admitted, the clofing fcene of the fellival affumed the gay femblance of elegant pleasure. It has been our lot to fee much of the fplendid ceremonials of the world; but we never faw fuch a day as this; nor do we ever remember to have beheld fo much feftive happiness, that bore the promise of fo much future good. From the noble inhabitants of Nuneham House down to the lowest fervant in it, all were zealoufly and anxiously attending to the innocent enjoyments and laudable objects of this festival. The Nuneham Spinning Feaft is formed to be a fchool of virtue and industry, and was not made a spectacle of vanity. The guests invited to fee it were but few. Among them was the bishop of Durham, and we cannot refrain from obferving, that it was graced graced by his manners, encouraged church, and the diftinguifhing letter by his words, and dignified by his prefence. We should, however, omit a very material circumftance, relative to the village order of merit, if we did not mention, that beside the honour conferred on the names of those who are elected into it, by placing them on the walls of the church, the letter M. with a star annexed, is written in a large character over the doors of their relpective cottages. It is indeed with fincere pleasure we obferve, that very few of them throughout the village are without one of thefe honorary fymbols, while many of them have more; and fome are remarked, as containing three persons who had obtained the praise of merit, by the honourable token of three letters. It is also understood, that if any of thefe people fhould, by future mifconduct, forfeit the character they have obtained, and the respectable rank they hold in the village, their names are to be taken down from the wall of the effaced from the front of their houses. This difgraceful confequence of immoral or dishoneft conduct was pathetically enforced by the rector of the parish, in his admirable difcourfe from the pulpit; and by his pastoral care, affectionate attentions, and excellent example, we are authorized to fay, the virtue of his parishioners has been fo pre-eminently advanced. It is, however, highly honourable to this inftitution, that not a fingle example of difgrace has occurred. Nor is this all: the reputation of being thus diftinguished in the village of Nuneham extends its influence and good effects beyond its own limits; and several of its natives, who have been induced to follow their profeffions in the adjacent parts of the country, have happily experienced, that the character which they derived from having obtained the prize of merit at Nuneham, has procured for them immediate and ample encouragement in the places of their recent abode. REMARKS during a SIX WEEKS RESIDENCE in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, in 1792: In a Series of Letters to a Friend. LETTER X. EVE DEAR SIR, VERY fuperficial thinker, and fome who arrogate a fuperior degree of penetration, have given it as a ferious opinion, that happiness depends upon externals, upon circumstances of rank, wealth, and fituation. Hence, among other confequences, the difpute whether a townlife or a country life contributes moft to happiness. Those who have decided in favour of the country, among whom the whole tribe of poets is to be numbered, think that purity and innocence are neceffarily and intimately connected with woods and groves, hills, dales, and purling ftreams; that integrity depends on folitude, and that chastity is to be found only amid the wildnefs of uncultivated nature; that cottages are, in this refpect, to be preferred to all buildings of fuperior architecure; and that the lofty column and gilded roof are friendly to vice and luxury, while the smoky hut and humble thatch are the natural refidence of peace, happiness, and virtue. Nay, fome have carried this opinion fo far, as to prefer the most barren and uncultivated lands to those which have been enriched by labour, or are fpontaneously bountiful. It is not wonderful, therefore, to find fuch men placing the temple of virtue among the precipices of the Pyrenees, or on the plains of Iona. That the poets fhould have taken this fide in the difpute, may perhaps be as much a matter of neceffity as of choice; for rural scenes are the natural furniture of a poet, and in the country his Trivia? But, after all, what connexion is there between the fcenery of a country and the happiness of man? Or does happiness depend on fituation? I am willing to allow, and I never was more difpofed to do fo than at the moment I made thefe reflections, that much is to be faid in favour of a coun try-life. Without going the lengths of poet cal fancy and fiction, it cerpoetical tainly may be allowed that as far as virtue depends on the abfence of vicious contagion (and whofe virtue does not in a certain degree depend on that?) the country muft have the preference to the town. The vices of the former are thofe which refult from the impulfe of redundant nature, uncontaminated by invention: thofe of the latter are the vices of an inyention fharpened by the various arts of pampered luxury and palled appetite. To inftance a cafe; the il. licit commerce between foains and nymphs, although too often occurring for the abode of innocence, is neverthelefs pure innocence compared with the arts of deliberate feduction, which are peculiar to a town-life. The former is in moft cafes the effect of ignorance, and the familiar invitation of continual opportunity, and the mistake is willingly rectified by matrimony, a complete act of oblivion: while the latter is the deliberate ftudy of an unfeeling and depraved mind, and terminates in the mifery of the deluded object.-Even a thief in the country differs as much from a thief of townmanufacture, as the temptation of neceflity is more excufable, than the habitual love of ftealing. The Again, a country-life, as it conduces more to health, may be fuppofed more friendly to virtue. youth whofe health has never been impaired by vicious indulgence, is generally more guileless, and poffeffes a more pure mind than he who has been relaxed by the diffipation of a metropolis. The connexion between An abfence from riotous amusements, body and mind will account for this. and the wretched artifices employed to likewife in a great degree contribute confume time in populous cities, muft to decide the question in favour of a country-life. To a man who had mixed much with the gayeft of the gay world, and had found out his error from reflexion, I might, I am perfuaded, with fuccefs, addrefs thefe lines from the author already quoted: Could't thou refign the park and play of external objects, which however agreeable, are but fecondary, it is impoffible to fay that one place can contribute more to it than another. That which depends on ourselves, that which, rightly defined, is the peaceful intercourfe between the Deity and man, cannot be affected by any circumftances of place or fituation. The temper may, indeed, be ruffled, and the paffionss excited by furrounding objects, but they who to acquire happinels fhift their place, cœlum non animum mutant. The purest and most dignified virtue is that which fubfifis in fituations the most unfavourable to its cultivation; and he who is deemed virtuous in the abfence of temptation, may be reputed courageous in the abfence of danger. Negative merit is an object neither of praise nor emulation. Vice in certain forms and degrees is to be found every where; but it Vice must be allowed that a crowded me tropolis is the focus into which all its fcattered rays are collected. may occafionally appear in any place naturally, but a metropolis is its School. There the talents of the vicious are combined to produce a fyftem more perfect in its kind than is to be found in places remote from its contagion. Indeed, the vice of a country place is fomething like its education, quite enough for common purposes, but not enough to make a figure with. The moft diffipated country fwain, the moft gay and gallant Lothario,' of a village, finds himself a mere ignoramus, when he compares accounts with the molt contemptible hero of a boxlobby playhouse in London. He may occafionally tranfgrefs the rules of virtue or humanity, but the checks of conícience and the pangs of contrition are yet powerful enough to preferve in his mind a refpect for goodness and decency. He must learn to defpife thefe in the taverns and ftews of London, and not there until he has learned to forget the happier'days of inno cence. Every thing confidered, therefore, it is not without caufe that the poets have been lavish of their praises of a country-life, and have with equal art and juftice put us out of conceit with a metropolis, where the reflecting mind is fhocked, To fee ten thousand baneful arts combin'd To pamper luxury and thin mankind; There the pale artift plies the fickly trade; noy! Sure thefe denote one univerfal joy *!* Perhaps, likewife, for the reafons given above, one might be tempted to yield a little toward the opinion of thofe modern fpeculators, who would abolish all great cities; for it is obferved, that the larger the collection of inhabitants, the more fhocking and depraved is the degree and kind of vice to be found among them. Paris and London are cafes in point. On any extraordinary commotion, we find that thousands of rioters and worthless perfons creep out from their lurking places, fuch as perhaps all the rest of the kingdom cannot produce for fhamelefs depravity and wanton villany; and that commotion quelled, they retire again, and are forgotten until a fimilar call invites them to come forth. But it is more easy to wish for a change in these refpects, than to promote it. Popular cities have their advantages: all the conveniencies of life cannot be procured elsewhere at fo eafy an expence, and with fo little trouble; and if vice be concentrated, fo are industry, abilities, and energy. All great political events, thofe of the moft falutary kind, have originated in a metropolis; and it is there we are to look for that combination of talents, and communication of opinions, which produce actions of great national importance and honour. If individual virtue is more in danger there than in the country, it only fhows that fuch virtue was before negative, and could not ftand the teit of tempta tion. But to decide this question, which fometimes has been agitated with great ability, and thence derives an importance, we ought perhaps to adopt a middle courfe. To minds of a certain texture, the abfence of temptation is neceffary: all men are not heroes in virtue any more than in arms. Successful warfare, in either, is the attribute of few, and we ought not to refuse the praife that is due to him who has fagacity to know his own inability, and too great a love for virtue to hazard the lofs of it; Who quits a world where ftrong tempta tions try, And fince 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly.' On the other hand, to minds of greater vigour, and firmer refolution, all places will be nearly alike; and fuch will prefer the metropolis, because it furnishes them with a greater fund of intellectual entertainment, and becaufe there they may enlarge the happinefs of fociety, by participating in refined pleafures, learned fociety, and polished manners. If I have dwelt longer upon this fubject than you wifhed or expected, I can only fay in excufe that when you defired my correfpondence, you left the manner and the matter alike to my choice, and that it is not eafy to avoid reflections like thefe, when travelling in a part of the country fufficiently remote from the metropolis, to afford 3 a fpecimen of unmixed rural life. Such was the country whence I drew the fubject of my last letter, and which furnishes me with part of the present. I now return to the foreft. The hofpitality of our hoft at Gunn's Mills would not permit us to depart the morning after our arrival, as we intended, and we dedicated the early part of the day to the neighbouring villages, Abenhall, Michael Dean, &c. Of Abenhall, I have little to fay. Michael Dean, or Dean Magna, was once the principal town in the foreft. It is now, by what means I know not, the exact place of all others, from which Dr. Goldsmith muft have taken the fcenery of his Deferted Village. It confifts of one long ftreet, many of the houses of which have unaccountably been allowed to tumble into ruins, without any effort to repair, or rebuild. The accommodations for ftrangers may be expected to be indifferent. To us this was a matter of no confequence, except in one want, which could not be fupplied. It was neceffary for us to procure the affiftance of that very ufeful mechanic, a barber; on examining the figns we obferved two; but upon enquiry found that one of the gentlemen had retired from bufinefs, and become a publican! The other, a boy, had gone three miles off to fhave a great man, or a great man's butler, I know not which, and could not return before the afternoon. The other fhops in this town convinced us of the great decay of its trade; one of them, apparently the moft opulent, for it had a gay and gaudy outfide, contained affortments of goods in fixteen different branches, which any where else would have constituted as many feparate shops. Here's Riga, Dutch, and Memel flax With good long tow, and facking backs; Tar, iron, ropes and twine ; Powder fugars, coarfe and fine, Iron hoops both old and new; Pearl afhes, ftarch and blue, Mullins, laces, pins and fans, Muftard pots, and honey cans, &c. Yet |