, B.D.

[_MAGA._ JUNE 1844.]

It had pleased Heaven in the year 1672, when I had finished my studies
in Magdalen College, Oxford, whereof I was a Demy, and had taken my
degree of bachelor of arts in the preceding term, to visit me with so
severe an affliction of fever, which many took at first for the
commencement of the small-pox, that I was recommended by the
physicians, when the malady had abated, to return to my father's house
and recover my strength by diet and exercise. This I was fain to do;
and having hired a small horse of Master John Nayler in the
corn-market, to take me as far as to the mansion of a gentleman, an
ancient friend of my father's, who had a house near unto Reading in
Berkshire, and in those troubled times, when no man knew whereunto
things might turn from day to day, did keep himself much retired,--I
bade adieu to the university with a light heart but a weakened habit
of body, and turned my horse's head to the south. I performed the
journey without accident in one day; but the exertion thereof had so
exhausted my strength, that Mr Waller (which was the name of my
father's friend, and of kin to the famous poet, Edmund Waller,
Esquire, who hath been ever in such favour with our governors and
kings), perceiving I was nigh discomfited, did press me to go to my
chamber without delay. He was otherwise very gracious in his reception
of me, and professed great amity to me, as being the son of his fast
friend and companion; but yet I marked, as it were, a cloud that lay
obscure behind his external professions, as if he was uneasy in his
mind, and was not altogether pleased with having a stranger within his
gates. Howbeit I thanked him very heartily for his hospitality, and
betook myself to the chamber that was assigned for my repose. It was a
pretty, small room, whereof I greatly admired the fashion; and the
furnishing thereof was extreme gay, for the bed hangings were of
bright crimson silk, and on a table was placed a mirror of true
Venetian glass. Also, there were chests of mahogany wood, and other
luxurious devices, which my weariness did not hinder me from
observing; but finally I was overcome by my weakness, and I threw
myself on the bed without removing my apparel, and sustained, as I
believe, though I have no certain warranty thereof, an access of
deliquium or fainting. When I did recover my senses after this
interval of suspended faculty (whether proceeding from sleep or the
other cause abov