furnish a hundred instances of this.]

[Footnote 80: Mark certain expressions, gentle reader, which
occur in the notes to the life of _Robin Hood_, prefixed to
the ballads which go under his name: 1795. 2 vols.
8vo.--also a Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy in the
first vol. of _Ancient Metrical Romances_, 1802, 3 vols.
8vo. A very common degree of shrewdness and of acquaintance
with English literature will shew that, in Menander and
Sycorax, are described honest TOM WARTON and snarling
'mister' JOSEPH RITSON.]

As Lysander concluded his discourse, we turned, abruptly, but
thoughtfully, towards my cottage; and, making the last circuit of the
gravel walk, Philemon stopped to listen to the song of a passing
rustic, who seemed to be uttering all the joy which sometimes strongly
seizes a simple heart. "I would rather," exclaimed he, "be this poor
fellow, chanting his 'native wood-notes wild,' if his heart know not
guilt--than the shrewdest critic in the universe, who could neither
feel, nor write, good-naturedly!" We smiled at this ejaculation; and
quickly reached the house.

The fatigue of travelling had sharpened the appetites of my friends;
and at a moment when, as the inimitable Cowper expresses it,

our drawing-rooms begin to blaze
With lights, by clear reflection multiplied
From many a mirror, in which he of Gath,
Goliath, might have seen his giant bulk
Whole, without stooping, towering crest and all,
_Our_ pleasures too _began_;

_Task_, b. iv.

but they were something more rational than those of merely eating and
drinking. "I seldom partake of this meal," observed Philemon, "without
thinking of the _omnium-gatherum_ bowl, so exquisitely described by
old Isaac Walton. We want here, it is true, the 'sweet shady
arbour--the contexture of woodbines, sweet-briar, jessamine, and
myrtle,'[81] and the time of the evening prevents our enjoying it
without; but, in lieu of all this, we have the sight of books, of
busts, and of pictures. I see there the ponderous folio chronicles,
the genuine quarto romances, and, a little above, a glittering row of
thin, closely-squeezed, curiously-gilt, volumes of original plays. As
we have finished our supper, let us--" "My friends," observed I, "not
a finger upon a book to-night--to-morrow you may ransack at your
pleasure. I wish to pursue the conversation commenced by Lysander, as
w