preferved, the head clearer. Those 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 ufed 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 anfwerable for; and which fometimes amounted to nearly thirty fhillings a week.

This circumftance, added to my reputation of being a tolerable good gabber, or, in other words, fkilful in the: art of burlesque, kept up my importance in the chapel. I had befides recommended myself to the efteem of my mafter by my affiduous application to business, never obferving Saint Monday. My extraordinary quickness in compofing always procured me fuch work as was most urgent, and which is commonly

6

monly beft paid; and thus my time paffed away in a very pleasant manner.

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

She was a woman rather advanced in life, the daughter of a clergyman. She had been educated a Proteftant; but her husband, whose memory fhe highly revered,

vered, had converted her to the Catholic religion. She had lived in habits of intimacy with perfons of diftinction; of whom she 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 fo amufing to me, that I was glad to pass the evening with her as often as the defired it.

fifted only of half an

Our fupper con

anchovy a-piece,

upon a flice of bread and butter, with half

But the entertainment was in her converfation.

a pint of ale between us.

The early hours I kept, and the little trouble I occafioned in the family, made her loath 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 abateinent of

two

two fhillings and thus I continued to lodge with her, during the remainder of my abode in London, at eighteenpence a week.

In a garret of the house there lived, in the most 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 sent to the continent, and entered a convent with the defign of becoming a nun; but the cli mate not agreeing with her constitution, fhe was obliged to return to England, where, as there were no monafteries, she made a vow to lead a monaftic life, in as rigid a manner as circumstances would permit. She accordingly disposed of all her property to be applied to charitable uses, referving to herself only twelve pounds a year; and of this small pittance he gave a part to the poor, living on water-gruel, and never making

ufe

ufe of fire but to boil it. She had lived in this garret a great many years, without paying rent to the fucceffive Catholic inhabitants that had kept the house; who indeed, confidered her abode with them as a bleffing. A prieft came every day to confefs her. I have afked her, faid my landlady, how, living as she did, she could find fo much employment for a confeffor? To which the answered, that it was impoffible to avoid vain thoughts.

I was once permitted to vifit her. She was cheerful and polite, and her converfation agreeable. Her apartment was neat; but the whole furniture confifted of a mattress, a table, on which were a crucifix and a book, a chair, which the gave me to fit on, and over the mantlepiece a picture of St.Veronica difplaying her handkerchief, on which was feen the miraculous impreffion of the face of Chrift, which the explained to me with great gravity. Her countenance was

pale,