t.
Such, said I, is the scheme of #Benevolence#, which, by depriving the
prospect of death of its terrors, makes room, without suffering, for a
succession of new generations, to whose perceptions the world is ever
young. The only wise use therefore which men can make of scenes like
that before me, is to deduce from them a lesson of moderation and
humility;--for, such as are these dumb, though visible cares of that
generation--such will our own soon be!

On rejoining Mr. Hoare's man in the hall below, and expressing my
grief that so interesting a building should be suffered to go to decay
for want of attention, he told me that his master intended to pull it
down and unite it to an adjoining barn, so as to form of the two a
riding-house; and I learn that this design has since been executed!
The Kit-Cat pictures were painted early in the eighteenth century,
and, about the year 1710, were brought to this spot; but the room I
have been describing was not built till ten or fifteen years
afterwards. They were forty-two in number, and were presented by the
members to the elder Tonson, who died in 1736. He left them to his
great nephew, also an eminent bookseller, who died in 1767. They were
then removed from this building to the house of his brother, at
Water-Oakley, near Windsor; and, on his death, to the house of Mr.
Baker, of Hertingfordbury, where they now remain, and where I lately
saw them splendidly lodged and in fine preservation. It may be proper
to observe, that the house of Mr. Hoare was not the house of Mr.
Tonson, and that Mr. Tonson's house stood nearer to the Kit-Cat
Club-rooms, having a few years since been taken down. The situation is
certainly not a happy one, being on a level with the Thames, and the
adjacent grounds being deeply flooded at high tides. It is, however,
completely sequestered from vulgar approach, and on that account was,
perhaps, preferred as the retreat of a man of business.

At #Barnes' Elms# lived the virtuous minister of Elizabeth, Sir
#Francis Walsingham#, and here he once entertained that chivalrous
queen. #Cowley#, the poet, afterwards resided here; and, in a later
age #Heydegger#, the buffoon, who gave an eccentric entertainment to
the second Guelph, and contrived to gratify his listless mind by an
ingenious surprize, in at first making him believe that he was not
prepared to receive him, and then contriving a sudden burst of lights,
music, and gaiety.

In returning through the lan