we can come at. This Liberty I demand, a this I am as ready to allow again to my p Neighbours in their Turn. All I profess, and I require of my Brethren, is to maintain the fa ftrict Honesty among ourselves which the M fhew to one another. To fteal from one anoth is indeed highly criminal and indecent; for t may be ftrictly filed defrauding the Poor (fom times perhaps those who are poorer than ourselve or, to see it under the most opprobrious Colour robbing the Spital.

Since therefore upon the ftricteft Examination my own Confcience cannot lay any fuch pitif Theft to my Charge, I am contented to plea guilty to the former Accufation; nor fhall I eve fcruple to take to myself any Paffage which I fha find in an antient Author to my Purpofe, with out fetting down the Name of the Author from whence it was taken. Nay, I abfolutely claim a Property in all fuch Sentiments the Momen they are transcribed into my Writings, and I expect all Readers henceforwards to regard them a purely and entirely my own. This Claim how

ever I defire to be allowed me only on Condition, that I preferve ftrict Honefty towards my poor Brethren, from whom if ever I borrow any of that little of which they are poffeffed, I fhall never fail to put their Mark upon it, that it may be at all Times ready to be reftored to the right Owner.

The Omiffion of this was highly blameable, in one Mr. Moore, who having formerly borrowed fome Lines of Pope and Company, took the Liberty to transcribe fix of them into his Play of the Rival Modes.. Mr. Pepe however very luckily found them in the faid Play, and laying violent

Hands

Hands on his own Property, transferred it back again into his own Works; and for a further Punishment, imprisoned the faid Moore in the loathfome Dungeon of the Dunciad, where his unhappy Memory now remains, and eternally will remain, as a proper Punishment for fuch his unjuft Dealings in the poetical Trade.

CHA P. II.

In which, tho' the Squire doth not find his Daughter, fomething is found which puts an End to his Purfuit.

T

HE History now returns to the Inn at Upton, whence we shall first trace the Footfteps of Squire Western; for as he will foon arrive at an End of his Journey, we shall have then full Leisure to attend our Heroe.

The Reader may be pleased to remember, that the faid Squire departed from the Inn in great Fury, and in that Fury he purfued his Daughter. The Hoftler having informed him that she had croffed the Severn, he likewife past that River with his Equipage, and rode full Speed, vowing the utmost Vengeance againft poor Sophia, if he fhould but overtake her.

He had not gone far, before he arrived at a Crofs-way. Here he called a fhort Council of War, in which, after hearing different Opinions, he at last gave the Direction of his Purfuit to Fortune, and ftruck directly into the Worcester Road.

In this Road he proceeded about two Miles, when he began to bemoan himself moft bitterly, frequently crying out, What Pity is it! Sure

6 never

• never was fo unlucky a Dog as myfelf?' and then burft forth a Volley of Oaths and Execrations.

The Parfon attempted to adminifter Comfort to him on this Occafion. Sorrow not, Sir,' fays he, like thofe without Hope. Howbeit we have not yet been able to overtake young Madam, we may account it fome good Fortune, that we have hitherto traced her Courfe aright. Peradventure fhe will foon be fatigated with her Journey, and will tarry in fome Inn, in order. 6 to renovate her corporeal Functions; and in • that Cafe, in all moral Certainty, you will very briefly be compos voti.

Pogh! D-n the Slut,' anfwered the Squire, I am lamenting the Lofs of fo fine a Morning for Hunting. It is confounded hard to lose one of the best Scenting Days, in all Appearance, which hath been this Seafon, and especially • after fo long a Frost.'

Whether Fortune, who now and then fhews fome Compaffion in her wantoneft Tricks, might not take Pity of the Squire; and as the had determined not to let him overtake his Daughter, might not refolve to make him Amends fome other Way, I will not affert; but he had hardly uttered the Words juft before commemorated, and two or three Oaths at their Heels, when a Pack of Hounds began to open their melodious Throats at a small Distance from them, which the Squire's Horfe and his Rider both perceiving, both immediately pricked up their Ears, and the Squire crying, She's gone, fhe's gone! Damn me if fhe is not gone!' inftantly clapped Spurs to the Beast, who little needed it, having indeed the fame Inclination with his Mafter; and now

the

4

the whole Company croffing into a Corn-field, rode directly towards the Hounds, with much Hallowing and Hooping, while the poor Parfon, bleffing himself, brought up the Rear.

Thus Fable reports, that the fair Grimalkin, whom Venus, at the Defire of a passionate Lover, converted from a Cat into a fine Woman, no fooner perceived a Moufe, than mindful of her former Sport, and still retaining her priftine Nature, fhe leapt from the Bed of her fiusband to purfue the little Animal.

What are we to underftand by this? Not that the Bride was difpleafed with the Embraces of her amorous Bridegroom: For tho' fome have remarked that Cats are fubject to Ingratitude; yet Women and Cats too will be pleafed and purr on. certain Occafions. The Truth is, as the fagacious Sir Roger L'Eftrange obferves, in his deep Reflections, that if we fhut Nature out at the

A

Door, fhe will come in at the Window; and that Pufs, tho' a Madam, will be a Moufer ftill.' In the fame Manner we are not to arraign the Squire of any Want of Love for his Daughter: For in reality he had a great deal; we are only to confider that he was a Squire and a Sportsman, and then we may apply the Fable to: him, and the judicious Reflections likewife.

The Hounds ran very hard, as it is called, and the Squire pursued over Hedge and Ditch, with all his ufual Vociferation and Alacrity, and with all his usual Pleasure; nor did the Thoughts of Sophia ever once intrude themselves to allay the Satisfaction he enjoyed in the Chace, which he said, was one of the finest he ever faw, and which he fwore was very well worth going fifty Miles for. As the Squire forgot his Daughter, the Ser

vants, we may eafily believe, forgot their Miftrefs; and the Parfon, after having exprefs'd much Aftonishment in Latin to himfelf, at length likewife abandoned all farther Thoughts of the young Lady, and jogging on at a Distance behind, began to meditate a Portion of Doctrine for the enfuing Sunday.

The Squire who owned the Hounds, was highly pleased with the Arrival of his Brother Squire and Sportfman: For all Men approve Merit in their own Way, and no Man was more expert in the Field than Mr. Western, nor did any other better know how to encourage the Dogs with his Voice, and to animate the Hunt with his Holla.

Sportsmen, in the Warmth of a Chace, are, too much engaged to attend to any Manner of Ceremony; nay, even to the Offices of Humanity: For if any of them meet with an Accident by tumbling into a Ditch, or into a River, the reft pafs on regardless, and generally leave him to his Fate; during this Time, therefore, the two Squires, tho' often clofe to each other, interchanged not a fingle Word. The Mafter of the Hunt, however, often faw and approved the great Judgment of the Stranger in drawing the Dogs when they were at a Fault, and hence conceived a very high Opinion of his Understanding, as the Number of his Attendants infpired no fmall Reverence to his Quality. As foon therefore as the Sport was ended by the Death of the little Animal which had occafioned it, the two Squires met, and in all Squire-like Greeting, faluted each other.

The Converfation was entertaining enough, and what we may perhaps relate in an Appendix, or on fome other Occafion; but as it nowife con

cerns