il How oft when grief has made me fly,

To hide me from society

Even of my dearest friends, have I,

In your recesses' friendly shade,

All my sorrows open laid, And my most secret woes, intrusted to your privacy!

X.

Lord ! would men let me alone,
What an over-happy one
Should I think myself to be;
Might I in this desert place
(Which most men in discourse' disgrace)
Live but undisturb'd and free!
Here, in this despis'd recess,

Would I, maugre winter's cold,
And the summer's worst excess,
Try to live out to sixty full years old ; *
And, all the while,
Without an envious eye
On any thriving under fortune's smile,
Contented live, and then contented die.

C. C.

Variation. 6 by their voice disgrace.

CHAPTER I.

PISCATOR JUNIOR, AND VIATOR.

ISCATOR. You are happily overtaken, Sir: may a man be

-*• so hold as to inquire, how far you travel this way?

VIATOR. Yes sure, Sir, very freely; though it be a question I cannot very well resolve you, as not knowing myself how far it is to Ashhourn, where I intend to-night to take up my inn.

PlSCATOR. Why then, Sir, seeing I perceive you to be a stranger in these parts, I shall take upon me to inform you, that from the town you last came through, called Brailsford,* it is five miles; and you are not, yet, ahove half a mile on this side.

Viator. So much! I was told it was but ten miles from Derby; and, methinks, I have rode almost so far already.

PlSCATOR. O, Sir, find no fault with large measure of good land; which Derbyshire ahounds in, as much as most counties of England.

Viator. It may be so; and good land, I confess, affords a pleasant prospect: but by your good leave, Sir, large measure of foul way is not altogether so acceptable.

PlSCATOR. True, Sir, but the foul way serves to justify the fertility of the soil, according to the proverb, "There is good land

'Brailsford is six miles from Ashhourn, and Ashhourn thirteen miles from Derby.