made one heart sad at this period of gaiety-one fellow-creature suffering at this season of enjoyment ;let him ask himself whether he has, as far as in him lies, fulfilled those purposes for which Providence has put wealth into his hand-the diffusing succour and kindly relief among the lowly, the poor, the suffering, and the sick;-let him rigidly ask his heart these things, before he permits himself to enjoy the pleasures and happinesses which are clustered beneath his betterfortuned roof.

I scarcely know, my dear M, why I write to you in this manner, for you have always had a warm heart to feel, and a ready hand to relieve, the distresses of those around you ;-neither are you in that situation to which I now more particularly allude-that of a country gentleman. But I feel warmly on this subject,-and you know I always write to you with perfect unreserve. Would to God that those who do come within the scope of my observations, would lay this matter seriously to heart. I am far from saying that there are not many who are all that can be demanded or desired as landlords and country gentlemen,-but, neither can it be denied that there are some who from want of feeling, and more who from carelessness, overlook, and leave unrelieved the sufferings of their neighbouring poor. I only wish that they had your heart, or you had their fortunes.

Ever believe me,

Most truly and affectionately yours,

***.

MY SPORTING-BOX.

I AM a man of gentle habits and kind affections, and not at all given to violent antipathies; but never again. shall I behold the bird called a magpie, without bestowing a hearty curse upon him. I have no doubt that this bitter hostility to such a respectable body of the feathered community will seem somewhat unreasonable, until I explain the extent of the provocation which I have received from an individual belonging to it. Nor, indeed, am I sure but this explanation may, primâ facie, appear rather insufficient to apologize for my extreme rancour, for all that I can allege against him, in this early state of the proceedings, is the crime of having made an error in judgment, respecting the proprietorship of a certain cherry-tree; but the consequences therefrom have been such as will justify my utmost malison. Had he never been addicted to cherries, I should never have sent him to his long account; consequently, I should never have felt the thrill of a sportsman ;-consequently, I should never have left my peaceful home at Islington, to look out for a Sporting-Box;-consequently, I should have escaped all the miseries which I am about to relate.

"It is quite impossible," said I to my wife," that I can endure the air of the suburbs any longer, and I shall take a house with a manor, and so forth, and turn sportsman without delay."

My dearest love," she replied, "take time to consider, or take another shot at another magpie, for I am persuaded that you overrate your talents for a country life; you look just like what you are, and not at all like a sportsman."

This allusion to the counting-house was rather grating to my feelings, but I must freely own that there may be a certain mercantile cast in my physiognomy, which might in some degree justify my wife's waggery, and I sat very passively while she recounted to a posse of friends, how I had watched a whole week in the cowhouse with the blacksmith's gun, peeping through the crannies at my unsuspecting foe,-how he hopped from twig to twig, without suffering me to take a level at him -how he at last hopped upon the muzzle of the gun, which had been all day protruding from the cow-house, like the spout of a tea-kettle, and how I was a full half hour before I could summon resolution to pull the trigger. The laugh was against me, but my mind was made up; and the next day, when I mounted my nag, at the usual hour of attendance at my office, instead of turning towards the city, I ambled away very complacently to a celebrated house-agent's. "Pray, Sir," said I, "have you such a thing as a sporting-box to let? I don't want it very far from town-only just a pretty distance, so that I can run down and kill my three or four brace of birds, and then return to my-hem!-to the opera." A book was immediately handed to me, containing the descriptions of about twenty, which seemed precisely calculated for my accommodation. Were it not rather foreign to my present purpose I should direct the notice of the "Society for the Suppression of Vice" to this identical book, for it was written with a flow of language and depth of poetical feeling, which gave a semblance of truth to fictions of a most injurious tendency. The residence which particularly struck my fancy was, "An elegant cottage, at the extremity of a delightful village, with beautiful lawn, surrounded with odoriferous shrubs and exotics of all descriptions, stables, and stable-yard,

pig-sties and pig-yard, coach-house, and hot-house, and green-house, and tool-house, and hen-house, and various other appurtenances, too numerous to mention. Over and above, a manor well stocked with game, and the right of fishery on one bank of the river Mud." Was ever any thing so totally and altogether entrancing? I instantly demanded a ticket of admission, walked off to the White-horse Cellar, and mounted the coach for this fairy-land without delay. It never struck me till I got half way, that my wife would be waiting dinner for me; but hang it," thought I, "sportsmen never care for their wives-she's beneath my notice."

When I arrived at the delightful village, I immediately proceeded to the elegant cottage, which, if I must speak the truth, was not quite so elegant as I had been taught to expect. The beautiful lawn could not possibly accommodate above one quadrille at a time, (for, be it known, I had cogitated over a fête champêtre, to celebrate my entrée,) the green-house was of about the dimensions of a cucumber-frame, and from a small stove in the middle I concluded it was to answer the description of the hothouse likewise. The rest of the premises were in proportion; but I will not enter into particulars. "A sportsman," I thought, "should never care how he is housed, by the side of a well-stocked manor, and the river Mud.'" I rang the bell with a heart full of expectation, and was answered by a brace of pointers, and a man with a ram-rod. The sight augured well, and I stalked into the presence of my future landlord with the importance of a dead shot. He was a tall thin man, and wore a shooting jacket, red face, and spindle shanks, and altogether presented just the wiry appearance of an old sportsman. Having laid aside his gun-barrel, which he was in the act of washing, he wiped his hands, and

received me very politely. My errand was soon told, and his politeness encreased. He assured me that, “if I was fond of shooting and fishing, there was not a place in the county which would suit me so well. To be sure the house was a little out of repair, which was partly owing to his being a bachelor, and living like Robinson Crusoe, with only his man Friday; and partly to his excellent sport, which scarcely left him leisure to observe what was going on within doors." The house was indeed, as he observed, a little out of repair, the walls being somewhat tattered, the ceilings a little stained with the damp, and the furniture sinking into the vale of years; but every observation which I made on these heads was instantly overpowered by some seemingly careless enquiry which he made of the man Friday respecting the abundance of the game. "I am afraid, Sir," said I, "that this parlour will require fresh papering !" "Oh, say no more about it, my dear Sir, my man shall patch it up. By-the-bye, (turning to Friday,) how many covies are there in the three turnip fields?" "Thirteen, Sir," says Friday. "And these chairs," I continued, "are rather ricketty." "Very true, very true, my good Sir,— they shall have a nail or two.-By-the-bye, do you see that old oak tree yonder, by the side of the Mud? That is where I watch for the ducks in the winter-time.-How many ducks did I kill at a shot there last winter?" "Sixteen," says Friday. I expressed my astonishment, but my landlord-to-be merely answered with Hotspur, "A trifle-a trifle, Sir." The conversation kept twisting so continually from the subject of the house to that of the game, that I soon totally forgot all the objections to the first, to listen to the astonishing feats which had been performed by this Robin Hood and Little John; for at that time I knew so little of old sportsmen, that I