let loose a weight, the rope of which revolved round an axle; at the end of the axle was a cross of equal radii; this cross, in its circumition, was made to strike forcibly against a bell supported by a steel spring; the noise it made throughout the house defied all continuance of rest, and as I frequently set it so as to call me two or three hours before daybreak, family complaints became as clamorous as itself, till the voice of authority effectually silenced my mechanism.

During this period I also made a quantity of philo. sophical apparatus, electrical machines, &c. in all which frolics my affectionate father indulged me; but at last it became necessary to check my increasing attentions to practical execution, and promote my improvement in theory; consequently my father, having heard that Dr. Mosely, the celebrated physician, and Mr. Walker, the equally celebrated philosopher, with his son, were about to set off for France, to pass a few weeks in researches for the benefit of their respective departments in science, requested that I might be permitted to attend them, as several months had yet to elapse before my intended entrance at the university of Cambridge; they consented, and the day of departure was agreed upon.

At this time I had began, boylike, and wishing to exhibit my scholastic abilities, to correct, by the rules of Aristotle, Socrates and Seneca, the flights of an accomplished and amiable young lady, who frequently visited my father's house, and in whose welfare I fancied that I took great interest. With her consent I appointed myself her sylph; I watched over her conduct, wrote her admonitory letters, and played the complete farce of Platonic foolery: but the simple self made sylph, having no wings to soar withal, and being mounted

only on a bubble, soon found that when that air blown bubble bursted, his sylph-affected attributes fell with him to the ground.

This sylphish practice, by the by, is not uncommon with young men who are fools enough to think that they are wiser than their neighbours; fresh from college and puffed up with a few scholastic attainments, their fancy paints to them that they have also gained a knowledge of the world-they yield admonitory morals in profusion, and directing where they might be directed, fatigue where they intend instruction, and are indebted to politeness only for symptoms of attention while they imagine they are making deep impressions on the mind. Besides, your young sylphs are very apt to turn into mere flesh and blood, leaving their spiritual essence to evaporate in air.

To myself, at this time, might aptly have been applied the following observation:

"Qui sapientiæ et literarum divortium faciunt nunquam ad solidam sapientiam pertingent."

I don't recollect who made the observation, but experience has proved it applicable to myself, and I think I know some young men to whom it may be equally so.

The time appointed for the commencement of our excursion to France at length was overtaken by my anxious solicitude to visit a country of which I had heard and read so much, and our party set off for Brighthelmstone; here I had first the satisfaction of seeing the much talked of Mrs. Robinson. We strolled out the time till near dusk, and in the evening went on board the packet: the next morning, on waking, we found ourselves at Dieppe.

This was the first time I had left my native country, of course my curiosity was awakened to the examination of every thing that met my eye. So soon as the arrival of the packet was made known, men, women, and children, in wooden shoes, rushed to the wharf, presenting us cards, inviting us to the hotels of their respective employers, and offering to take our baggage. I stared with wonder when I saw women offer their services, but the enigma was soon solved, when a man having taken my trunks and placed them on a wheelbarrow, ordered his wife to wheel them to the inn. I turned to Dr. Mosely with an eye of inquiry; he replied "it is the custom." On looking again I saw the man walking like a wagoner by the side of his team, whistling as to a beast to encourage his wife.

As I am writing at present only a history of my own life, I do not think myself bound, as a recorder of travels, to describe places. Anecdotes and facts in which I was personally concerned I will relate with fidelity: but "mi lor anglois"* soon found his college

* Mi lor Anglois was the usual address liberally bestowed by the tavern keepers, waiters, &c. before the revolution in France, on all English travellers whose purse they imagined would open for a title. It afterwards was changed to citoyen Anglois, as a compliment to the supposed partnership in liberty. Several years after the period of which I am now treating, and during the revolution, I was at one of the numerous theatres in Paris, when, in the play, the master had to say to his servant "Thou slave!" upon which a person in the pit cried out, "Il n'y a plus d'esclave en France. The exclamation excited general applause. Soon after this a servant on the stage addressed his master by the title of Monseigneur, upon which another wit-whetted wag bawled out Il n'y a plus des seigneurs en

lore insufficient to protect his purse against the nume rous importunities of wretches who had gathered around us at the inn. At last we contrived to break through the crowd, into an elegant but dirty room, where we had an excellent breakfast.

We set off immediately for Paris in a hired cabrio. let à brancart that carried four.

The physician and the philosopher placed themselves on the front seat, and we, Mr. Walker's son and myself, were ordered to take the hinder one, whence we could see nothing, there being but a window of about four inches square on each side, and so low that it would only permit us to look down toward the ground. Our equipage consisted of a large Flanders mare, in the shafts, a diminutive animal on the off side, which I suppose must have been some kind of a horse, as the postilion often addressed him as such, with a severe application of the whip, and the appellation, without its delicacy, of Sterne's distressed ladies, and another on the near side of the great mare, ornamented and honoured by bearing on its back one of the neatest jockeys we had ever witnessed. His head was adorned with a three cornered hat, which had formerly been edged with lace, as we could plainly discover from the remaining pieces that were still dangling about it; it appeared, as

France. This second edition was not so well received as the first, and the silence which the audience wished should be preserved induced them to check any further ebullition of such patriotic heroism, by signifying their displeasure in the usual way. Quære-how would the former observation be appropriate, and how would the latter be received at the present day in Paris? but tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.

if in the hurry of departure, he had seized the cook's dishcloth, to serve him as a cravat. Diminutive as he was, it seemed as if his jacket had been obtained from a drummer boy, for it had the appearance of having been once regimental, but one sleeve of it having decayed, as all things must, and left the lower part of the whip arm bare, and the other having been so torn into dangling remnants, there being also a considerable chasm on each shoulder, neither physic nor philosophy could determine what it had been: but amidst this confusion of ornament, one thing shone with superior lustre. It was a plastered head clotted with flour, from which dangled, as if designed as a substitute for the poor beast's tail, an immense Ramillies at least three feet long, which was doubtless intended for the purpose it effected, that of brushing the flies from the horse's back. His red plush breeches, and his jack boots, completed his equipment.

I recollect nothing of consequence that took place till we arrived at the celebrated city of Rouen. Physic and philosophy had, from their situation in front, a wide sphere of vision, but young Walker and myself could only look down; wishing, however, to see all we could, we kept peeping through our little windows. As we were passing, without our (the young ones) knowing it, the famous cathedral of Rouen; young Walker peeping through his little square, exclaimed, "look, Fennell, what immense pumpkins."-His father, who had been attentively gazing at the building, turned round, exclaiming, God! can you be looking at pumpkins, while you are passing such a cathedral as this: young Walker observed that he did not know what he was passing, for he could see nothing above the ground.