The next morning we prepared to return, and ordered horses and cabriolet; but were informed that we could have none, the count D'Artois having hired every horse in the town. We did not much regret this circumstance, as it afforded us another day to visit the grounds and interior of the house, which we had not yet seen. We visited again the stables and the pond. Buffon, I think, in calculating the respective ages of different kinds of fish, mentions that the carp was supposed to be immortal. This phrase should, I imagine, be considered as the "avov" in the Greek Testament; which is, to be sure, translated, "everlasting," though it exceeded not twenty-eight years: that being supposed to be the average duration of human beings. I have often thought of Buffon's theories, and compared them with what I have seen. Are all the actions of animals to be attributed to "certain vibrations of the brain?" There must be an original action which causes this brain to vibrate. I will relate a fact, which comes here rather out of place, as I was witness to it two or three years after the circumstances I have been representing.

In the year seventeen hundred and ninety-two, I visited Fontainbleau, and was amusing myself by whistling to and feeding the carp in the pond; when I observed one of extraordinary size, gray and blind with age, advancing with two attendants, one on each side, as guides. I threw a piece of bread to him; others immediately advanced to seize it: the attendants instantly repulsed them; then returning to their station on each side of the old one, directed his mouth to the bread.

We visited Douet, and the celebrated English college there; we were surprised to find all the principal

labour of the city was performed by dogs instead of horses.

At Abbeville we had the pleasure of seeing the original picture by Reubens, The Descent from the Cross. As we were leaving the church we observed an immense lizard, I suppose eight feet long (or more from head to tail) suspended on one of the church walls. We inquired of our guide for what reason that animal was placed there. Our guide, who was sexton of the cathedral, told us that for many years the bodies interred below, in the vault, had been found mangled in the most dreadful manner; it was looked over for many years, till at last the depredation being of an extraordinary nature, a complaint was entered by the sexton, and a general search was ordered, when this animal was found.

During our stay at Paris, we visited the labyrinth leading under the principal streets; we were told that the chief part of the stone used in building the houses above, was cut from the rock beneath, leaving an arch sufficiently substantial for safety. Our guide led us in this subterranean vault under a considerable part of the town, till on our expressing fear, in case of the extinction of our lights, for occasionally the air was bad, he told us, for our consolation, that some time since, three persons having thought proper to wander through the caverns without a guide, their candles were extinguished, they lost their way, were starved to death, and he would show us presently where the bodies were found, and the inscription on the wall, reporting their fate. I strongly suspected that the whole was a fabrication, intended to impress visitors with a deep acknowledgment

of the value of a guide, that purses might pay for prehensions of danger.

ap.

We were invited, while in Paris, to attend a meeting of the celebrated Academy of Arts and Sciences. We attended, entered the room, and were with all politeness, ushered to our seats. There was a balloon floating about the room. The solemnity began: the president called to order, and all was silent expectation. I had raised my mind to embrace the highest pitch of science, when the president, looking over his record, called the first name on the list. The person advanced. My eyes were open to gaze on some new wonder, when the gentleman, after a short preface, produced from his pocket a wig! Risibility, I believe, is independent of the mind-I involuntarily smiled, before I reflected that there were older heads than mine that wished for warmer covering than those which nature had left them.

The gentleman expatiated a long time on the virtues of the improvement he had made, in what I think we nominate the "caul."

We returned, after a six weeks' tour, to England, after having visited all the places of consequence within our reach. I went home; when my father having made the necessary inquiries, and had every thing prepared, called me into his room, and giving me sound and affectionate advice, which I have often wished since that I had followed, he ordered his gig, and presenting me with fifty pounds, he desired me to set off for Cambridge, and, as he could not, with convenience to the public business, attend me, enter myself at Trinity college. I obeyed; and proud of having the appearance of something like a man, I set off, and nothing worth rela

ting took place, excepting, that like the milk-maid with her pail upon her head, while I was amusing myself with chimeras, I drove against a wagon, and broke my axletree-but I did not know it then; and excepting also that in stopping at Ware, I visited the great bed to which Falstaff alludes in Henry IV. commonly denominated the Bed of Ware. It appeared to me to be a bed about twenty feet square, capable of accommodating thirty persons or more, of lying each party seven, eight, or nine, feet to feet with the others; the pillows were placed, fixed indeed, on the exterior line of the square; the angles of the square were, as regarded the pillow, curved, so that those who slept in the angles, might lie diagonally. The mattress was one piece, so were the sheets, blankets, and coverlids.

I arrived at Cambridge-put up at the inn opposite Trinity college gate. Having a little refreshed myself, I sent to the son of an old friend of my father's at Luton in Bedfordshire, requesting a visit-he favoured me with compliance: when we had nearly got through the necessary conversation respecting my admission, and our bottle of wine, a numerous train of old acquaintances at Eton, flocked, one after the other, to welcome me to Cambridge. We passed the evening very sociably, and I obtained all the requisite instruction.

The next morning, having early sent a note, without mentioning my name, explanatory of my wishes to the gentleman who was to be my tutor, and received an answer, I attended him at the appointed time-he received me, of course, with great cordiality. I told him that my father, being engaged in public business, had sent me to enter myself, at this college, and requested

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that he would take me under his private guardianship. "You have made yourself acquainted with the usual forms of admission, I presume," said he-"I think, sir, I have;" and taking my pocket book, presented fifteen pounds for what is commonly called salvage. He then observed, that the discipline of the college required an examination, and inquired politely, if I was inclined to submit to it-I replied "most willingly." He rose, and was putting his key into his bookcase, when he turned round and said, "Pray, sir, from what school do you come?" "From the fifth-form of Eton college," said I. "Your name, if you please, sir." I gave it to him. He shut the door of the bookcase, and turning to me, he said, "I would not pay your college nor yourself so bad a compliment, as to suppose any examination necessary.

Having gone through all the ceremonies of entrance, I took my leave, much prepossessed in favour of my fu

ture tutor.

I returned to my inn, ordered my chaise, when the ostler came to me and told me that the axletree was nearly broken in two. I went to see it, and perceived that it was almost separated in the centre. I had, of course, to wait till it was repaired. In the meantime, I visited, with my old acquaintances, all the colleges, and halls, their gardens, libraries, &c. and felt a little pleased to find that the library of my own college ex

ceeded all.

Having been detained a day or two, I departed for home, then Rochester, informed my father of my proceedings, and especially that I had spent all my money.