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gence. But when we confider that the fame kind of regard to attitude and pofition was betrayed by the dying Pompey, we may certainly allow it to two fine young women, who gave up, for ever, the conquefts of their charms, at a period of life, when victory moft folicited them. And, after all, their attentions to external finery were but the afhes of human vanity-a few remaining fparks, that just fhewed themselves, and were then extinguished for

ever.

The cost of the festival is always defrayed by the nun, or novice; and the friends, relations, and a few chosen priests from the neighbouring convent, compose the guests. To this eating and drinking fcene, a little masquerade, in which all the nuns are allowed to affume borrowed characters, enfues. This done, the guests retire, fuch, I mean, as are not of the convent. The religious withdraw to their cells, and the next morning re-commence thofe duties, which know no recefs throughout the revolving year, till a fimilar occafion produces a fimilar jubilee.

It was a fad and forrowful day for the uncle of these fifters; he endured not to remain in an houfe ftripped of its chief ornaments and affociates, and which had the further désagrément of ftanding, as before noted, in full view of the convent, which he confidered as at once the prifon and the tomb of his relations. In a few

weeks,

weeks, therefore, he removed to another part of the country, where he ftill bears about

“A discontented and repining spirit."

But fuch an effect might naturally enough arife. from such a cause. Far, very far from both, be the bofom of

my

friend!

LETTER LXVII.

TO THE SAME.

ADJOINING the little figniories of Box

meer, is the pleasant country of Cuych *, a small, but productive territory, once in the poffeffion of Spain, but now a part of what is called the Generality, a country fubject to the Prince of Orange, and an object worth attention. It may

be about the fize of Hertfordshire, and is, like that, replete with unpretending graces. You would feel its refemblance to England, even more

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* Herman de Cuych gave name to this country in 1580. John, the fon of Wennemaer, yielded it, long after, in exchange of other territories, to William of Guelderland; but, at length, the Dukes of Burgundy becoming proprietors, they united it to Brabant. After this again, it was given as a pledge to the Count of Buren, whofe only daughter and heiress married William of Orange, in 1551. Thus it was that the charming Cuych country became annexed to the poffeffions of the Prince Stadtholders.

clofely

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clofely than the other parts of Weftphalia-the fame pleasant pathways, meandering through cornfields-the fame foft pafturage-modest rifingshumble and flowery hedge-rows-the woods and copfes filled with the fame kind of birds-the river Meufe no less fertilifing than the Thames, nor lefs beautiful-the fame fort of whited cottages, moss and houfeleek growing over the thatch.

If a footpath and river-bank traveller is difpofed, occafionally, to furvey this country, he will find a thousand beautiful fcenes, which crowds had never yet to boast.

It is extremely pleasant to trace, as one journeys on, these fimilitudes and diffimilitudes of one's native land; here recognifing, in certain objects, our old acquaintance; there paying, in others, our first falutation to entire ftrangers; and whether these happen to be of the vegetable or animal world, a tree, a flower, a wood, a meadow, a ftream, a river, a flock, an herd, a cottage, or its inhabitants, the generous heart expands to greet whatever has delighted him at home, or entertained him abroad.

In turning over a little corner in my travelling writing-cafe, I find a fmall bundle of papers, fuperfcribed, materials for a fcrap letter, which is to confift of various minute gleanings, too infignificant to ftand alone, but which, collected

and

and tied together, may be of fome value. After the long ears of corn have been gathered, you have seen the patient gleaners return from the field, with a few handfuls, not of ftem or fubftance, to be bound with the rest of the fheaves, and yet too good to be loft.

To these minutiæ, therefore, I fhall confecrate the remainder of the prefent letter, defiring you will indulge them with the favour by which you have distinguished the rest.

In Holland, Weftphalia, Germany, and their dependencies, it is cuftomary for the common tradefmen and fervants to drop their fabots, flippers, or fhoes, at the threshold of the apartment where their employers, masters, or miftreffes, are fitting, and pad along, with a trembling fort of circumfpection, as if in fear of leaving a plebeian mark of their footsteps behind them. And at every word you fpeak, their hats, whether in the houfe, or the open air, are so painfully doffed, and pinched by their veneration, or their cuftom, or their cuftom, that I have a thousand times fmilingly put their hats on their heads, and requested they would confider a good rub of their fhoes at the door-way was a fufficient paffport to any room wherein they might be introduced to me: but the habit or civility is inveterate, and I verily believe they would pay the fame homage to the empty apartments, had

VOL. III.

they

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they occafion to enter them, in the absence of their fuppofed fuperiors. I repeat that I am no advocate for indiscriminate familiarities, nor for republican rudeneffes; but I love the poor, at least as well as the rich; and I feel myself, as an individual of a majestic fpecies, humbled in their degradation. I would have them fubordinate, because I think society demands its claffes, but I cannot endure they should be fervile: and, after all, it is often affected; for fometimes I have, at a fecond or third gleaning of these bowing, bare-headed, and bare-footed gentlemen and ladies, found, heard, or feen them as faucy, proud, and vain-glorious, as if they knew how to defcend from their heights only to promote their interests, in the hope of over-reaching you in a miferable fous or ftiver.

In each of the above countries you will be obliged, as before obferved, to have one man to dress the hair on your head, my good reader, and another, if peradventure thou art of the bearded fex, to fcrape it from thy face. But the laft mentioned perfonage, whom they call furgeon, is every where fo infufferably vain, formal, and mal adroit, that a penny barber in England does his bufinefs ten times better, and twenty times more expeditiously. The The Continental fhaver, whether Dutch, Weftphalian, or German, is one quarter of an hour bringing his inftru

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