Satires. I copied and fent him a great part of it; in which the author demonftrates the folly of cultivating the Mufes, from the hope, by their inftrumentality, of rifing in the world. It was all to no purpofe; paper after paper of his poem continued to arrive every post.

Meanwhile Mrs. T*** having loft, on his account, both her friends and her business, was frequently in diftrefs. In this dilemma fhe had recourfe to me; and to extricate her from her difficulties, I lent her all the money I could fpare. I felt a little too much fondness for her. Having at that time no ties of religion, and taking advantage of her neceffitous fituation, I attempted liberties (another error of my life,) which the repelled with becoming indignation. She informed Ralph of my conduct; and the affair occafioned a breach between us. When he returned to London, he gave me to understand that he confidered all the obligations he owed me as annihilated by this proceeding; whence I concluded that I was never to expect the payment of what money I had lent him, or advanced on his account. I was the lefs afflicted at this, as he was wholly unable to pay me; and as, by lofing his friendship, I was relieved at the fame time from a very heavy burden.

I now began to think of laying by fome money. The printing-houfe of Watts, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, being a ftill more confiderable one than that in which I worked, it was probable I might find it more advantageous to be employed there. I offered myfelf, and was accepted; and in this houfe I continued during the remainder of my stay in London.

On my entrance I worked at first as a pressman, conceiving that I had need of bodily exercise, to which I had been accuftomed in America,

where

where the printers work alternately as compofitors and at the prefs. I drank nothing but wa ter. The other workmen, to the number of a bout fifty, were great drinkers of beer. I carried occafionally a large form of letters in each hand, up and down ftairs, while the reft employed both hands to carry one. They were furprized to fee, by this and many other examples, that the American Aquatic, as they used to call me, was stronger than those who drank porter. The beer-boy had fufficient employment during the whole day in ferving that houfe alone. My fellow-preffman drank every day a pint of beer before breakfast, a pint with bread and cheese for breakfast, one between breakfast and dinner, one at dinner, one again about fix o'clock in the afternoon, and another after he had finished his day's work. This cuftom appeared to me abominable; but he had need, he faid, of all this beer, in order to acquire ftrength to work.

I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily ftrength furnished by the beer, could only be in proportion to the folid part of the barley diffol ved in the water of which the beer was compofed; that there was a larger portion of flour in a penny loaf, and that confequently if he eat this loaf, and drank a pint of water with it, he would derive more ftrength from it than from a pint of beer. This reasoning, however, did not prevent him from drinking his accustomed quantity of beer, and paying every Saturday night a fcore of four or five fhillings a week for this cur fed beverage; an expence from which I was whol. ly exempt. Thus do thefe poor devils continue all their lives in a state of voluntary wretchedness and poverty.

At the end of a few weeks, Watts having occafion for me above ftairs as a compofitor, I quit

ted

ted the prefs. The compofitors demanded of me garnish-money afresh. This I confidered as an impofition, having already paid below. The mafter was of the fame opinion, and defired me not to comply. I thus remained two or three weeks out of the fraternity. I was confequently looked upon as excommunicated; and whenever I was abfent, no little trick that malice could fuggeft was left unpractifed upon me I found my letters mixed, my pages tranfpofed, my matter broken, &c. &c. all which was attributed to the spirit that haunted the chapel *, and tormented those who were not regularly admitted. I was at laft obliged to fubmit to pay, notwith ftanding the protection of the mafter; convinced of the folly of not keeping up a good understanding with thofe among whom we are destined to live.

After this I lived in the utmoft harmony with my fellow-labourers, and foon acquired confiderable influence among them. I propofed fome alterations in the laws of the chapel, which I carried without oppofition. My example prevailed with feveral of them to renounce their abominable practice of bread and cheese with beer; and they procured, like me, from a neighbouring houfe, a good bafon of warm gruel, in which was a small flice of butter, with toafted bread and nutmeg. This was a much better breakfast, which did not coft more than a pint of beer, namely, three-halfpence, and at the fame time preferved the head clearer. Thofe who continued to gorge themselves with beer, often loft their credit with the publican, from neglecting to pay their fcore. They had then recourfe to me, to become fecurity for them; their light, as they

Printing-houfes in general are thus denominated by the workmen: the fpirit they call by the name of Ralph.

ufed

used to call it, being out. I attended at the pay table every Saturday evening, to take up the little fum which I had made myself answerable for ; and which amounted to nearly thirty fhillings a week.

This circumftance, added to my reputation of being a tolerable good gabber, or, in other words, skilful in the art of burlefque, kept up my im. portance in the chapel. I had befides recommended myself to the efteem of my mafter by my affiduous application to bufinefs, never obferving Saint Monday. My extraordinary quicknefs in compofing always procured me fuch work as was moft urgent, and which is commonly beft paid; and thus my time paffed away in a very pleafant manner.

My lodging in Little Britain being too far from the printing-houfe, I took another in Duke-ftreet oppofite the Roman Catholic chapel. It was at the back of an Italian warehouse. The house was kept by a widow, who had a daughter, a fervant, and a fhop-boy; but the latter flept out of the houfe. After fending to the people with whom I lodged in Little Britain, to enquire into my character, fhe agreed to take me in at the fame price, three-and-fixpence a week; contenting herself, the faid, with fo little, because of the fecurity fhe fhould derive, as they were all women, from having a man lodge in the houfe.

She was a woman rather advanced in life, the daughter of a clergyman. She had been educated a Proteftant; but her hufband, whofe memory the highly revered, had converted her to the Catholic religion. She had lived in habits of intimacy with perfons of diftinction; of whom the knew various anecdotes as far back as the time of Charles II. Being fubject to fits of the gout, which often confined her to her room, fhe was fometimes difpofed to fee company. Hers

was

was fo amufing to me, that I was glad to pafs the evening with her as often as the defired it. Our fupper confifted only of half an anchovy apiece, upon a flice of bread and butter, with half a pint of ale between us. But the entertainment was in her converfation.

The early hours I kept, and the little trouble I occafioned in the family, made her loth to part with me; and when I mentioned another lodging I had found, nearer the printing-house, at two fhillings a week, which fell in with my plan of faving, the perfuaded me to give it up, making herself an abatement of two fhillings: and thus I continued to lodge with her, during the remainder of my abode in London, at eighteen-pence a week.

In a garret of the house there lived, in the moft retired manner, a lady feventy years of age, of whom I received the following account from my landlady. She was a Roman Catholic. In her early years she had been fent to the continent, and entered a convent with the defign of becoming a nun; but the climate not agreeing with her constitution, she was obliged to return to England, where, as there were no monafteries, fhe made a vow to lead a monaftic life, in as rigid a manner as circumstances would permit. She accordingly difpofed of all her property to be applied to charitable ufes, referving to herself only twelve pounds a year; and of this small pittance fhe gave a part to the poor, living on water-gruel, and never making ufe of fire but to boil it. She had lived in this garret a great many years, without paying rent to the fucceflive Catholic inhabitants that had kept the house; who indeed confidered her abode with them as a bleffing. A prieft came every day to confels her. I have afked her, faid my landlady, how, living as fhe did, fhe could find fo much employment for a confeffor? To

which