The tydy, for her notes as delicate as they, DELIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY. This privilege, above others, makes the countryman happy, that he hath always something at hand which is both useful and pleasant; a blessing which has never been granted either to a courtier or a citizen they have enemies enough, but few friends that desire their love, or that they dare trust to, either for counsel or action. O, who can ever fully express the pleasures and happiness of the country life, with the various and delightful sports of fishing, hunting, and fowling, with guns, greyhounds, spaniels, and several sorts of nets! What oblectation and refreshment it is to behold the green shades, the beauty and majesty of the tall and ancient groves; to be skilled in planting and draining of orchards, flowers, and pot-herbs; to temper and allay these harmless employments with some innocent and merry song; to ascend sometimes to the fresh and healthful hills; to descend into the bosom of the valleys, and the fragrant, dewy, meadows; to hear the music of birds, the murmurs of bees, the falling of springs, and the pleasant discourses of the old ploughmen; where, without any impediment or trouble, a man may walk, and (as Cato Censorinus used to say) discourse with the dead; that is, read the pious works of learned men, who, departing this life, left behind them their noble thoughts for the benefit of posterity, and the preservation of their own worthy names; where the Christian pious countryman may walk with the learned, religious, minister of the parish, or converse with his familiar faithful friends, avoiding the dissimulation and windiness of those that are blown up with the spirit, and, under the pretence of religion, commit all villanies. These are the blessings which only a countryman is ordained to, and are in vain wished for by eitizens and courtiers. From Guevara, by Vaughan, 1651. THE COUNTRY LIFE. Sweet country life, to such unknown, Here thou behold'st thy large, sleek neat, Thy May-poles, too, with garland's graced; And trace the hare in the treacherous snow. VEGETABLE GARDEN DIRECTORY. Sow Cucumbers, in the first week, if not sown last month, and thin out those which were sown, and have advanced so far as to show the rough leaf. Gourd-seeds, that species, particularly, known by the name of vegetable marrow: also the pumkin. Peas, Prussian blue; Knight's marrowfats, early frame, and charlton, for late crops. Beans, the white blossom, for the latest crop. Kidney-beans, the dwarf and the runners, in the first week, and again in the course of the month, once or twice In the second and third week, carrots and onions, for drawing young; turnips, the white, yellow Dutch, and Swedish, for the autumnal and winter crops. In the fourth week, endive, for a main supply. Plant Potatoes, the kidneys, and other late sorts, for winter crops; slips of southernwood, lavender, hyssop, sage, and other aromatic herbs. Choose a shady spot of ground, and give water occasionally. Transplant, Towards the end of the month, cabbage, broccoli, borecole, savoy, chiefly into nursery-beds, but some to remain for early supply. Celery, into manured trenches, and keep it well watered. Leeks, into an open spot of ground, six inches apart. Stick Every bough looked big with blessings, and the florid fields and fragrant meadows (adorned with green) sent forth their sweet and redolent perfumes to refresh the universe. Chanticleer then gave the day a summons, and the early lark, earlier than the sun, salutes the air, while blushing Phoebus paints and gilds the azure globe, whose celestial influence (by refulgent magnetism) blest all the world with prolific blessings; so that the whole creation began to vegetate, and every vegetation sent forth sweet aromas; the birds began now to build their nests, and every bird to choose his mate, whilst the groves and delightful springs, as also the forests and unfrequented deserts, celebrated the fragrant spring; when the frigid congelations of frost and snow were all struck Peas; dig between the rows; draw dead by the blazing fiery strokes of the earth to their stems; hoe between all sun. The vernon ingress smiled a bless-drilled crops; destroy weeds, as fast as ing, when she sent the melodious harmony they appear, and remove them to the of birds to melt the air. The nightingale compost heaps. with her warbling notes, the blackbird, Clear off thrush, linnet, and golden jay, besides the Cabbage-stalks, and all other kinds of canary, and delicious bullfinch, filled all the woods with their solitary strains; and, Gather because beating the air with such proportionable harmony, every bush became an aviary, and every grove a mellifluous concert; whilst the purling springs, and more shady rivulets, softened by the gentle breathings of Zephyrus, seemed tacitly to express a secret, whispering, silent praise." Franck's Northern Memoirs, 1658. litter. Mint, balm, sage, and other herbs that are used in a dry state during the winter. Such plants possess their full aroma just let that state be considered as an indicabefore they expand the flower; therefore tion of the proper time for cutting them. Cut them in dry weather, suspend the cuttings in open air, under a shed, and sheltered from sun's rays. HOWITT. Dutch fleet, and were fitting themselves to fight them; so that they are, ere this, certainly engaged; besides, several do vaer that they heard the guns yesterday in the afternoon. This put us at the board into a toss.-Presently come orders for our sending away to the fleet a recruit of two hundred soldiers. To the victualling office, and thence upon the river among several vessels to consider of the sending them away. [A consideration and sending too late, by the by.] To Greenwich, ordered two yachts to be ready, and did order the soldiers to march to Blackwall. Down to Blackwall, and there saw the soldiers, (who were by this time getting, most of them, drunk,) shipped off. But, Lord! to see how the poor fellows kissed their wives and sweethearts in that simpie manner at their going off, and shouted, and let off their guns, was strange sport. 3d. [Further news]-4th. To Whitehall, saw a letter dated last night, from Strowd, governor of Dover Castle, which says, that the guns which we writ that we heard is only a mistake for thunder. It is a miraculous thing that we, all Friday, and Saturday, and yesterday, did hear every where most plainly the guns go off, and yet at Deal and Dover, to last night, they did not hear one word of a fight, nor think they heard one gun. This makes room for a great dispute in philosophy, how we should hear it and they not.-I home; where news is brought me of a couple of men come to speak with me from the fleet; so I down, and who should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as a chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tar, and powder, and his right eye stopped with okum-he is come last night at five o'clock from the fleet, with a comrade that hath endangered the other eye. They were set on shore at Harwich this morning, at two o'clock, in a ketch, with more wounded; they being able to ride took post about three and were here between eleven and twelve; went presently into the coach with them to the privy stairs--I into the park to the king-the king mightily pleased--and he, walking into the house, I went and fetched the seamen into the same room to him, and there he heard the whole account [a very meagre one]-the king did pull out of his pocket about twenty pieces in gold, and did give it Daniel for him and his companion; we parted from him and then met the Duke of York and gave him the same account, and so broke up, and I left them going to the surgeons. 5th. No manner of news this day. 6th. An express to Sir W. Coventry, how upon Monday the two fleets fought all day till seven at night, and then the whole Dutch fleet did betake themselves to a very plain flight and never looked back again. The Duke ran with it to the king, who was gone to chapel, and there all the court was in a hubbub, being rejoiced over head and ears in this good news. Away go I, by coach, to the New Exchange, and there did spread the good news a little, and so home to our own church, just before sermon; but Lord! how all the people in the church stared to see me whisper to Sir John Minnes and my Lady Penn, and by and by up comes the sexton to tell me the news, which I had brought; but that us. which pleased me as much as the news was to have the fine Mrs. Middleton at our church, who is indeed a very beautiful lady-Idled away the whole night till twelve at the bonfires in the streets; the joy of the city exceedingly great for the victory. 7th. Up betimes and to my office, my Lord Brouncker and Sir T. H. come from court to tell me the contrary news, that we are beaten, lost many ships, and good commanders have not taken one ship of the enemy's, and so can only report ourselves a victory. This news so much troubled me, and the thoughts of the ill consequences of it, and the pride and presumption that brought us to it. By and by comes Mr. Wayth; he tells me plainly from Capt. Page's own mouth, who lost an arm in the fight, that the Dutch did pursue us two hours before they left The duke did give me several letters he had received from the fleet, and I do find great reason to think that we are beaten in every respect. 8th. Lord! to see how melancholy the curst is, under the thoughts of this last overthrow, for, so it is, instead of a victory, so much and so unreasonably expected. 10th. Pierce, the surgeon, who is lately come from the fleet tells me, that all the officers and even the common seamen do condemn every part of the conduct of the Duke of Albemarle; both in his fighting at all, running among them in his retreat, and running the ships aground; he says all the fleet confess their being chased home by the Dutch, and yet that the Duke of Albemarle is as high as ever; and pleases himself to think that he hath given the Du'ch their bellie full; and talks how he knows now the way to beat them. Even Smith himself, one of his creatures, did himself condemn the conduct from beginning to end. We are endeavouring to raise money by borrowing it of the city, but I do not think the city will lend a farthing. There is nothing but discontent among the officers. This evening we hear that Sir Christopher Mings is dead, of his late wounds. 11th. I went with my Lady Penn to see Harman, whom we find lame in bed; his bones of his ancles are broke; he did plainly tell me that, at the council of war before the fight, it was against his reason, and the reasons of most sober men there, to begin the fight then; the wind being such that they could not use the lower tier of guns. 12th. I was invited to Sir Christopher Mings's funeral. Then out with Sir W. Coventry and went with him into his coach. Then happened this extraordinary case, one of the most romantic that ever I heard of in my life. About a dozen able, lusty, proper men, came to the coach side with tears in their eyes, and one of them that spoke for the rest began, and said to Sir W. Coventry: We are here a dozen of us, that have long known, loved, and served our dead commander, Sir Robert Mings, and have now done the last office of laying him in the ground. We would be glad we had any other to offer after him, and in revenge of him. All we have is our lives; if you will please to get his royal highness to give us a fireship among us all, here are a dozen of us, out of all which choose you one to be commander, and the rest of us, whoever he is, will serve him; and if possible, do that which shall show our memory of our head commander and our revenge.' Sir W. Coventry was herewith much moved (as well as I, who could hardly refrain from weeping), and cook their names, telling me he would move his royal highness as in a thing very extraordinary. The truth is Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, of great parts, and was an excellent tongue among ordinary men; and could have been the most useful man at such a pinch of time as this. He was come into great renown here at home, and more abroad in the West Indies. He had brought his family into a way of being great; but, dying at this time, his memory and name (his father being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a hoyman's daughter, of which he was used frequently to boast), will be quite forgot in a few months, as if he had never been, nor any of his name be the better by it; he having not had time to will any estate, but is dead poor rather than rich.-16th. The king, Duke of York, and Sir W. Coventry, are gone down to the fleet. The Dutch do inightily insult of their victory, and they have great reason. Sir William Berkeley was killed before his ship was taken; and there [in Holland] he lies dead in a sugar chest, for every body to see, with his flag standing up by him; and Sir George Ascue is carried up and down the Hague for people to see." Both Pepys and Evelyn agree in ascribing this natural disaster to the misconduct of the Duke of Albemarle. That he was defeated there is no doubt. On the 17th of June, Evelyn says in his diary, "I went on shore at Sheerness, where they were building an arsenal for the fleet, and do'st give Thy thoughts to worth and virtue, that to live And, juggler-like, works o' th' deluded sight. |