waterspouts, marked him out as an excellent subject for the
operations of swindlers and banterers. Bullies jostled him into
the kennel, Hackney coachmen splashed him from head to foot,
thieves explored with perfect security the huge pockets of his
horseman's coat, while he stood entranced by the splendour of
the Lord Mayor's Show. Money-droppers, sore from the cart's
tail, introduced themselves to him, and appeared to him the
most honest friendly gentlemen that he had ever seen. Painted
women, the refuse of Lewkner Lane and Whetstone Park, passed
themselves on him for countesses and maids of honour. If he
asked his way to St. James', his informants sent him to Mile
End. If he went into a shop, he was instantly discerned to be
a fit purchaser of everything that nobody else would buy, of
second-hand embroidery, copper rings, and watches that would
not go. If he rambled into any fashionable coffee-house, he
became a mark for the insolent derision of fops, and the grave
waggery of Templars. Enraged and mortified, he soon returned
to his mansion, and there, in the homage of his tenants and
the conversation of his boon companions, found consolation for
the vexations and humiliations which he had undergone. There
he was once more a great man, and saw nothing above himself
except when at the assizes he took his seat on the bench near
the Judge, or when at the muster of the militia he saluted the
Lord Lieutenant."

On the whole, I should put this detached chapter of description at
the very head of his Essays, though it happens to occur in another
volume. The History as a whole does not, as it seems to me, reach
the same level as the shorter articles. One cannot but feel that it
is a brilliant piece of special pleading from a fervid Whig, and