opinion, or from one in whom time has worn out all taste of pleasure. I assure you, it is far otherwise, for I am possessed of all the contrary advantages; and, I hope, wealth, good humour, and good breeding, may be best employed in the service of religion and virtue; and desire you would, as soon as possible, remark upon the above-mentioned indecorums, that we may not long transgress against the latter, to preserve our reputation in the former.

Your humble servant,

'LYDIA.'

The last letter I shall insert is what follows. This is written by a very inquisitive lady; and, I think, such interrogative gentlewomen are to be answered no other way than by interrogation. Her billet is this:

DEAR MR. BICKERSTAFF,

'Are you quite as good as you seen to be?

To which I can only answer:

'DEAR CHLOE,

'CHLOE.'

Are you quite as ignorant as you seem to be?

STEELE.

'I. B.'

N° 141. SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1709-10.

Sheer Lane, March 3.

WHILE the attention of the town is drawn aside from reading us writers of news, we all save ourselves against it is at more leisure. As for my own part, I shall let the labouring oar be managed by my correspondents, and fill my paper with their sentiments, rather than my own, until I find my readers more disengaged than they are at present. When I came home this evening, I found several letters and petitions, which I shall insert with no other order than as I accidentally opened them, as follows:

March 1, 1709-10.

'SIR, 'HAVING a daughter about nine years of age, I would endeavour she might have education: I mean such as may be useful, as working well, and a good deportment. In order to it, I am persuaded to place her at some boarding-school, situated in a good air. My wife opposes it, and gives for her greatest reason, that she is too much a woman, and understands the formalities of visiting and a tea-table so very nicely, that none, though much older, can exceed her; and, with all these perfections, the girl can scarce thread a needle: but, however, after several arguments, we have agreed to be decided by your judgment; and, knowing your abilities, shall manage our daughter exactly as you shall please to direct. I

By the subject of Sacheverell's trial,

am serious in my request, and hope you will be so in your answer, which will lay a deep obligation upon,

SIR,

"Your humble servant,

'T. T.'

'Sir, pray answer it in your Tatler, that it may be serviceable to the public "."

2

I am as serious on this subject as any correspondent can be; and am of opinion, that the great happiness or misfortune of mankind depends upon the manner of educating and treating that sex. I have lately said, I design to turn my thoughts more particularly to them, and their service: I beg therefore a little time to give my opinion on so important a subject, and desire the young lady may fill out tea one week longer, until I have considered whether she shall be removed or not.

MR. BICKERSTAFF,

Chancery-lane, Feb. 27, 1709.

⚫ YOUR notice in the advertisement in your 'Tatler of Saturday last about Whetters 3 in and about the Royal Exchange, is mightily taken notice of by gentlemen who use the coffee-houses near the Chancery-office in Chancery-lane. And there being a particular certain set of both young and old gentlemen that belong to and near adjoining to the Chancery-office, both in Chancery-lane and Bell-yard, that are not only Whetters all the morning long, but very musically given about twelve at night the same days, and mightily taken with the union of the dulcimer, violin, and song; at which recreation they rejoice together with. 3 See No 138.

2 See N° 145.

perfect harmony, however their clients disagree: You are humbly desired by several gentlemen to give some regulation concerning them; in which you will contribute to the repose of us, who are your very humble servants,

'L. T. N. F. T. W.'

These Whetters are a people I have considered with much pains; and find them to differ from a sect I have hitherto spoken of, called snuff-takers, only in the expedition they take in destroying their brains: the Whetter is obliged to refresh himself every moment with a liquor, as the snuff-taker with a powder. As for their harmony in the evening, I have nothing to object; provided they remove to Wapping, or the Bridge-foot, where it is not to be supposed that their vociferations will annoy the studious, the busy, or the contemplative. I once had lodgings in Gray'sinn, where we had two hard students, who learned to play upon the hautboy; and I had a couple of chamber-fellows over my head not less diligent in the practice of backsword and single rapier. I remember these gentlemen were assigned by the benchers the two houses at the end of the terras-walk, as the only place fit for their meditations. Such students as will let none improve but themselves, ought indeed to keep their proper distances from societies.

The gentlemen of loud mirth above mentioned I take to be, in the quality of their crime, the same as eaves-droppers; for they who will be in your company whether you will or no, are to as great a degree offenders, as they who hearken to what passes withqut being of your company at all. The ancient punishment for the latter, when I first came to this town,

* See No 105.

was the blanket, which, I humbly conceive, may be as justly applied to him that bawls, as to him that listens. It is therefore provided for the future, that, except in the long vacation, no retainers to the law, with dulcimer, violin, or any other instrument, in any tavern, within a furlong of an inn of court, shall sing any tune, or pretended tune whatsoever, upon pain of the blanket, to be administered according to the discretion of all such peaceable people as shall be within the annoyance. And it is further directed, that all clerks, who shall offend in this kind, shall for feit their indentures, and be turned over as assistants to the clerks of the parishes within the bills of mortality, who are hereby empowered to demand them accordingly.

I am not to omit the receipt of the following letter, with a night-cap from my Valentine; which nightcap, I find, was finished in the year 1588, and is too finely wrought to be of any modern stitching. Its antiquity will better appear by my Valentine's own words:

SIR,

SINCE you are pleased to accept of so mean a present as a night-cap from your Valentine, I have sent you one, which I do assure you has been very much esteemed of in our family; for my great grandmother's daughter, who worked it, was maid of honour to queen Elizabeth, and had the misfortune to lose her life by pricking her finger in the making of it, of which she bled to death, as her tomb now at Westminster will shew. For which reason, neither myself nor any of the family, have loved work ever

4

4 An idle story, still repeated by the man who shews the tombs at the abbey.