y service, and that the Sunday before he had made
a most incomparable sermon out of Dr. Barrow. "I have left," says he,
"all my affairs in his hands, and being willing to lay an obligation upon
him, have deposited with him thirty merks[156], to be distributed among
his poor parishioners."

He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon
which he put his hand into his fob[157], and presented me in his name
with a tobacco-stopper, telling me that Will had been busy all the
beginning of the winter in turning great quantities of them; and that he
made a present of one to every gentleman in the country who has good
principles, and smokes. He added, that poor Will was at present under
great tribulation, for that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for
cutting some hazel-sticks out of one of his hedges.

Among other pieces of news which the Knight brought from his country
seat, he informed me that Moll White was dead; and that about a month
after her death the wind was so very high, that it blew down the end of
one of his barns. "But for my own part," says Sir Roger, "I do not think
that the old woman had any hand in it."

He afterwards fell into an account of the diversions which had passed in
his house during the holidays; for Sir Roger, after the laudable custom
of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from
him that he had killed eight fat hogs for this season, that he had dealt
about his chines very liberally amongst his neighbours, and that in
particular he had sent a string of hogs-puddings with a pack of cards to
every poor family in the parish. "I have often thought," says Sir Roger,
"it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of
winter. It is the most dead uncomfortable time of the year, when the
poor people would suffer very much from their poverty and cold, if they
had not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to support them. I
love to rejoice their poor hearts at this season, and to see the whole
village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my
small beer, and set it a running for twelve days to every one that calls
for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince-pie upon the
table, and am wonderfully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole
evening in playing their innocent tricks, and smutting one another[158].
Our friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shows a thousand
roguish tricks upo