nish a parallel. The old man was condemned again, at this trial, but not capitally, so that he may yet make the number of his convictions equal to threescore and ten.

There is a great number of debtors confined in New. gate and the adjoining prisons, and most of them are immured for small sums, and have very little hope of escaping, because they are miserably poor. They are crowded, in great numbers, into small apartments, and I have never heard more piteous cries of distress, nor more moving entreaties for relief, than from the grates of the Fleet prison, as I have been passing along between it and Fleet-market.

GOLDSMITH'S GARRET.

My companion, who although residing in this country as a merchant, has indulged that curiosity which the habits of his early education were calculated to excite and direct, took me from the Old Bailey to Green Arbour Court, one of the early residences of Goldsmith. This court but poorly deserves the name which it bears, for it is obscure and dirty, and has neither arbour nor verdure about it. Although Mr. Mhad been here before, we searched for some time, and went into a number of houses, before we could find that in which Goldsmith formerly lived. It was a very ordinary, indeed I may say a very poor house, and the poet resided in the very garret. His chamber was light. ed by a single window in the roof, and its antiquity was sufficiently evinced by the diamond form of the glass, which was very small, and set in lead. The chamber itself was small, and so low, on account of

the sloping of the roof, as to leave only a few feet where one can stand upright.

We should not expect such a place to be honoured with the visitations of the Muses, yet, it is said, that this garret witnessed some of the finest effusions of a mind which has left much to delight and instruct the world.

His chamber is now inhabited by a poor woman, who seemed to be very little conscious of the honour of being Dr. Goldsmith's successor; for, when we asked her concerning him, she said she knew nothing of the matter, although she had heard that such a man once lived there. When we inquired whether she had any thing of his in her possession, she even seemed wounded at what she appeared to feel as a reflection on her honesty.

MORLAND GALLERY.

July 15.-On my way home through the Strand today, my attention was arrested by the Morland Gallery of pictures, in surveying which I spent an hour. There are nearly one hundred pieces, all done by Morland, a very eccentric English artist, lately dead. The scenes are all from nature, and from real life, and what is more, they are all English scenes. There is not a single shred of Roman or Grecian fable, and therefore the pictures are generally understood, and being admirably executed, they are generally admired. I have never seen any pictures which exhibit the appearance of the ocean in a storm so well as these, and they pro.. duced their full effect on my imagination, on account of the strong impressions which I have so recently received of marine scenery.

Morland has been equally happy in his winter scenes, and peculiarly successful in exhibiting the moral traits of common life. There is a picture of a bashful country lad, making love to a lass as bashful as himself, while the old people are looking on. This picture

amused me much.*

This story, not badly told in rhyme, is admirably told on the canvass, and the effect, as you may well imagine, is ludicrous in the extreme.

Morland was a man of wild eccentric fancy, in the indulgence of which he travelled all over England, to copy some of its finest scenes. He has given a faithful portrait of his old white horse, which carried him in his excursions, and he took the strange whim into his head of painting a caricature of himself.

He is exhibited as sitting at the canvas, with his pencil between his fingers, and his pallet on his thumb;with stockings full of holes, and a coat out at elbows; nor has he forgotten to satirize his own infirmity, by

*As I cannot show you the picture, you shall have the story on which it is founded.

"Young Roger, the ploughman, who wanted a mate,
Went along with his daddy a courting to Kate:
With a nosegay so large, and his holyday clothes,
His hands in his pockets, away Roger goes.

Now he was as bashful as bashful could be,

And Kitty, poor girl, was as bashful as he ;

So he bow'd and he star'd, and he let his hat fall,

Then he grinn'd, scratch'd his head, and said nothing at all.

If awkward the swain, not less awkward the maid;
She simper'd and blush'd, with her apron-strings play'd;
Till the old folks, impatient to have the thing done,
Agreed that young Roger and Kate should be one."

4

placing the gin keg (which is said to have been his ruin) in full view.

My evening was rendered very pleasant at my lodgings by a call from two Americans, who took tea and spent the evening with me. We returned in imagination to our own country, and beguiled several hours in the most interesting conversation on American scenes. Never, till since my arrival in England, did I realize the strength of the tie which binds one to his country.

My windows are barred and doors shut as close as if it were winter, and this has generally been the fact for some time past. Even in the day I have found it sometimes necessary to wear an outside garment and gloves, when reading in my apartment. It is widely different with you at this period, when the sultry heats of July oblige you to open your doors and windows to every breath of evening air, and to divest yourselves of every article of superfluous apparel.

July 16.-I had an interview this morning with Mr. Nicholson, the conductor of the Philosophical Journal, and author of several works on Natural Science. He is so well known to the scientific world, that it is not necessary that I should inform you of his merits. It is however always gratifying to find distinguished men amiable and attentive to civility in private life.

Mr. Nicholson is so in an eminent degree, and in several instances in which I have consulted him on subjects connected with his peculiar pursuits, he has exhibited a degree of urbanity aud intelligence, which could not fail of making an advantageous impression. He holds a conversazione at his house; I was present

at one.

No. XXIX.-LONDON.

The Opera....An amusement of the great....Nature of an opera ....Absurdity of Italian operas before an English audience.

THE OPERA.

At half past seven o'clock in the evening, I went with an acquaintance to the opera, which is in Haymarket-street. You will recollect the amusing remarks of Addison on the subject of this opera, which was established in his time, that is, in the reign of Queen Anne, in 1705.

I had never seen any thing of the kind before, and I believe there is no opera in America. No place in the United Kingdoms is so much resorted to by people of rank and fashion, and in none is more expense in dress exhibited than here, and the prices for admission are much higher than at the other theatres. The opera is therefore in a great measure avoided by the lower, and even by the middle classes of society, and given up to the fashionable world. To go into the boxes, or even into the pit, without being in full dress, would be regarded as a high indecorum, and you will remember, that, in this country, a full dress always implies un chapeau bras, that is, an enormous cocked hat, which folds in a manner perfectly flat, so as to be carried beneath the arm, when it is not on the head, (whence its French name of a hat for the arm) or even to be laid on the seat beneath the owner, or dangled in his fingers, by way of pastime or relief, from the awkward embarrassment of not knowing what to do with the hands.