and determined
to make a general inspection of the country in my neighbourhood; taking
one direction one day, and another the next, and so on, till I should
have seen all around me to the extent of some miles--"And surely this,"
thought I to myself, "will give offence to nobody." Well, in pursuance
of this resolution, I started on my first voyage of discovery; but had
not proceeded far, when a beautiful shady avenue, with its gate flung
invitingly open, tempted me to diverge. I entered it, and was sauntering
luxuriously along, with my hat in my hand, enjoying the cool shade of
the lofty umbrageous trees by which it was skirted, and admiring the
beauties around me--for it was, indeed, a most lovely place. I was, in
short, in a kind of delightful reverie, when all of a sudden I found
myself again seized by the cuff of the neck, by a ferocious-looking
fellow with a gun in his hand.

"What do you want here, sir?" said the savage, looking at me as if he
would have torn me to pieces.

"Nothing, my good fellow," replied I, mildly. "I want nothing. I came
here merely to enjoy a walk in this beautiful avenue."

"Then, you'll pay for your walk, I warrant you. Curse me, if you don't!
You have no right here, sir. Didn't you see the ticket at the entrance,
forbidding all strangers to come here?"

I declared I did not; which was true.

"Then I'll teach you to look sharper next time. Your name, sir?"

I gave it; and, in three days after, was served with a summons for
another trespass, and was again severely fined.

"Strange land of liberty this!" thought I on this occasion--as, indeed,
I had done on some others before--"where one dare not think as they
please without making a host of enemies, and where you can neither turn
to the right or the left without being taken by the neck."

I now, in short, found, gentlemen (said our melancholy friend), that I
had only exchanged one scene of troubles for another; and that even my
remote and sequestered situation was no protection to me whatever from
annoyance and persecution; and I therefore resolved to quit and return
once more to the town, to make another trial of the justice of mankind;
and in this resolution I was confirmed by a letter which I shortly after
this received from the proprietor whose lands adjoined the small patch
of ground that was attached to the house I resided in.

"Sir," began this new correspondent, "you must be aware that it is the
business of the tenant of th