two of the finest wenches that were ever brought into its feraglios. One, indeed, I loft; and, poor fond foul ! I pitied her but it could not be helped-felf-prefervation obliged me to leave her-I could not tell her what was the matter with her, rot me if I could; and fo it. got fuch a head, that the devil himself could not have-faved her.

There's one thing vexes me: I have much ado to avoid having that infignificant character, a good natured fellow, fixed upon me; fo that I am obliged in my own defence to break the boy's head, and kick my. whore down ftairs every time I enter a night-house : L pick quarrels when I am not offended, break the windows of men I never faw, demolish lamps, bilk hackney coachmen, overturn wheelbarrows, and ftorm night cellars I beat the watchman, though he bids-me good morrow, abufe the conftable, and infult the justice : for thefe feats I am frequently kicked, beaten, pumped, profecuted and imprifoned; but Tim is no fincher; and if he does not get fame, blood! he will deferve it.

I am now writing at a coffee-houfe, where I ame juft arrived, after a journey of fifty miles which I have. rode in four hours. I knocked up my blockhead's horfe two hours ago. The dog whipped and fpurred at fuch a rate, that I dare fay you may track him half the way by: the blood; but all would not do. The devil take the hindmoft, is always my way of travelling. The moment I dismounted, down dropt Dido, by Jove: and here am I all alive and merry, my old boy!"

I'll tell thee what; I was a hellish afs t'other day.. I fhot a damn'd clean mare through the head, for jumping out of the road to avoid running over an old woman. But the bitch threw me, and I got a curfed flice on the cheek against a flint, which put me in a paffion; who could help it you know? Rot me, I would not have lofther for five hundred old women, with all their brats, and the brats of their brats to the third generation.She was a fweet créature! I would have run her five and twenty miles in an hour, for five hundred pounds. But he's gone!--Poor jade! I did love thee, that I did.

: Now

Now what you shall do for me, old boy, is this;: Help to raise my name a little, d'ye mind: write fome-thing in praife of us fprightly pretty fellows. I affure you we take a great deal of pains for fame, and 'tis hard we fhould be bilkt. I would not trouble you, my dear! but only I fear I have not much time before me to do my own bufinefs; for between you and I, both my conftitution and estate are damnably out at elbows. I intend to make them fpin out together as evenly as poffible; but if my purfe fhould happen to leak fastest, I propofe to go with my last half crown to Ranelagh gardens, and there, if you approve the fcheme, I'll mount one of the upper alcoves, and repeat with ans heroic air,

66

"I'll boldly venture on the world unknown ;

"It cannot use me worse than this has done."

I'll then shoot myself through the head; and so good byt'ye.

Yours, as you ferve me,

TIM. WILDGOOSE.

Gradation from a GREENHORN to a BLOOD.

S. I-R,

TH

:

[Advent. No: 100.]]

To the ADVENTURER.

HOUGH the characters of men have, perhaps, been effentially the fame in all ages, yet their external appearance has changed with other peculiarities of time and place, and they have been diftinguished by different names as new modes of expreffion have pre-vailed a periodical writer, therefore, who catches the picture of evanefcent life, and fhews the deformity of follies which in a few years will be fo changed as not to be known, should be careful to exprefs the character when he defcribes the appearance, and to connect it with the name by which it then happens to be called.. You have frequently used the terms Buck and BLOOD, and have given fome account of the characters which are,

thus denominated; but you have not confidered them as the laft ftages of a regular progreffion, nor taken any notice of thofe which precede them. Their dependance apon each other is, indeed, fo little known, that many fuppofe them to be distint and collateral claffes, formed by perfons of oppofite interefts, taftes, capacities, and difpofitions: the scale, however, confifts of eight degrees; GREENHORN, JEMMY, JESSAMY, SMART, HONEST FELLOW, JOYOUS SPIRIT, BUCK, and BLOOD. As I have myfelf paffed through the whole feries, I fhall explain each ftation by a fhort account of my life, remarking the periods when my character changed its denomination, and the particular incidents by which the change was produced.

My father was a wealthy farmer in Yorkshire; and ́ when I was near eighteen years of age, he brought me to London and put me apprentice to a confiderable shopkeeper in the city. There was an aukward modelt fimplicity in my manner, and a reverence of religion and virtue in my converfation. The novelty of the scene that was now placed before me, in which there were innumerable objects, that I never conceived to exist, rendered me attentive and credulous; peculiarities, which, without a provincial accent, a flouch in my gait, a long lank head of hair, and an unfafhionable fuit of drab coloured cloth, would have denominated me a GREENHORN, or, in other words, a country put very green.

Green, then, I continued even in externals, near two years; and in this ftate I was the object of univerfal. contempt and derifion: but being at length wearied with merriment and infult, I was very fedulous to affume the manners and appearance of thofe, who in the fame ftation were better treated. I had already improved greatly in my fpeech; and my father having allowed me thirty pounds a year for apparel and pocket money, the greater part of which I had faved, I befpoke a fuit of cloaths of an eminent city taylor, with feveral waistcoats and breeches, and two frocks for a change; I cut off my hair, and procured a brown bob periwig of WILDING just of the fame colour, with a fingle row

of

of curls round the bottom, which I wore very nicely - combed, and without powder: my hat, which had been cocked with great exactness in an equilateral triangle, I difcarded, and purchased one of a more fashionable fize, the fore corner of which projected near two inches further than those on each fide, and was moulded into the shape of a fpout: I alfo furnished myfelf with a change of white thread ftockings, took care that my pumps were varnished every morning with the new German blacking ball, and when I went out, carried in my hand a little switch, which as it had been long appendant to the character that I had just affumed, has taken the fame name, and is called a JEMMY.

I foon perceived the advantage of this transformation. My manner had not, indeed, kept pace with my drefs, I was ftill modeft and diffident, temperate and fober, and confequently ftill fubject to ridicule: but I was now admitted into company, from which I had before been excluded by the rufticity of my appearance; I was rallied and encouraged by turns; and I was inftructed both by precept and example. Some offers were made of carrying me to a houfe of private entertainment, which then I abfolutely refused; but I foon found the way into the play-houfe, to fee the two laft acts and the farce here I learned that by breaches of chastity no man was thought to incur either guilt or fhame; but that on the contrary, they were effentially neceffary to the character of a fine gentleman. I foon copied the original, which I found to be univerfally admired, in my morals, and made fome farther approaches to it in my drefs: I fuffered my hair to grow long enough to comb back over the foretop of my wig, which, when I fallied forth to my evening amusement, I changed to a queue; I tied the collar of my thirt with half an ell of black ribbon, which appeared under my neckcloth; the fore corner of my hat was confiderably elevated and fhortened, fo that it no longer refembled a fpout, bat the corner of a minced pye; my waistcoat was edged with a narrow lace, my ftockings were filk, and I never appeared without a pair of clean gloves. My address, from its native mafculine plainnefs, was converted to

an

an excess of foftnefs and civility, efpecially when I fpoke to the ladies. I had before made fome progrefs in learning to fwear; I had proceeded by fegs, faith, pox, plague, 'pon my life, 'pon my foul, rat it, and zookers,. to zauns and the devil. I now advanced to by Jove,. 'fore ged, geds curfe it, and demme: but I ftill uttered thefe interjections in a tremulous tone, and my pro-nunciation was feminine and vicious. I was fenfible of my defects, and, therefore, applied with great diligence to remove them. I frequently practifed alone, but it was a long time before I could swear fo much to my own fatisfaction in company, as by myfelf. My labour, however, was not without its reward; it recommended. me to the notice of the ladies, and procured me the gentle appellation of JESSAMY.

I now learned among other GROWN GENTLEMEN to dance, which greatly enlarged my acquaintance: I entered into a fubfcription for country dances once a week at a tavern, where each gentleman engaged to bring a partner: at the fame time I made confiderable advances in fwearing; I could pronounce damme with a tolerable air and accent, give the vowel its full found,, and look with confidence in the face of the perfon to whom I fpoke. About this time my father's elder bro-ther died, and left me an eftate of near five hundred pounds per annum. I now bought out the remainder of my time; and this fudden acceffion of wealth and in-dependence gave me immediately an air of greater confidence and freedom. I laid out near one hundred and fifty pounds in cloaths, though I was obliged to go into mourning: I employed a court taylor to make them up; I exchanged my queue for a bag; I put on a fword. which, in appearance at leaft, was a Toledo; and in proportion as I knew my drefs to be elegant, I was lefs folicitous to be neat. My acquaintance now increased every hour; I was attended, flattered, and caressed; was often invited to entertainments, fupped every night at a tavern, and went home in a chair; was taken notice of in public places, and was universally confessed to be : improved into a SMART.

There were fome intervals in which I found it necef

fary: