I take it
for granted you will not have many spare Minutes for Speculations of
your own. As I was the other Day walking with an honest
Country-Gentleman, he very often was expressing his Astonishment to
see the Town so mightily crowded with Doctors of Divinity: Upon which
I told him he was very much mistaken if he took all those Gentlemen he
saw in Scarfs to be Persons of that Dignity; for, that a young Divine,
after his first Degree in the University, usually comes hither only to
show himself; and on that Occasion is apt to think he is but half
equipp'd with a Gown and Cassock for his publick Appearance, if he
hath not the additional Ornament of a Scarf of the first Magnitude to
intitle him to the Appellation of Doctor from his Landlady and the Boy
at _Childs_. Now since I know that this Piece of Garniture is looked
upon as a Mark of Vanity or Affectation, as it is made use of among
some of the little spruce Adventurers of the Town, I should be glad if
you would give it a Place among those Extravagancies you have justly
exposed in several of your Papers: being very well assured that the
main Body of the Clergy, both in the Country and the Universities, who
are almost to a Man untainted with it, would be very well pleased to
see this Venerable Foppery well exposed. When my Patron did me the
Honour to take me into his Family, (for I must own my self of this
Order) he was pleased to say he took me as a Friend and Companion; and
whether he looked upon the Scarf like the Lace and Shoulder-knot of a
Footman, as a Badge of Servitude and Dependance, I do not know, but he
was so kind as to leave my wearing of it to my own Discretion; and not
having any just Title to it from my Degrees, I am content to be
without the Ornament. The Privileges of our Nobility to keep a certain
Number of Chaplains are undisputed, though perhaps not one in ten of
those reverend Gentlemen have any Relation to the noble Families their
Scarfs belong to; the Right generally of creating all Chaplains except
the Domestick, where there is one, being nothing more than the
Perquisite of a Steward's Place, who, if he happens to out-live any
considerable Number of his noble Masters, shall probably, at one and
the same Time, have fifty Chaplains, all in their proper
Accoutrements, of his own Creation; though perhaps there hath been
neither Grace nor Prayer said in the Family since the Introduct