river was still to be preferved. But next year, my husband discovered that a plantation was neceffary on a particular knoll; fo the view of the river we had paid fo much for, was shut out by a clump. The garden was the next fubject of amendment, in which an excellent fruit-wall was pulled down, to have it rebuilt on a new plan; by which new plan we have got a very beautiful wall, and trees admirably well dreffed, but unfortunately we have loft all our fruit. The fame thing happened by our acquifition of a new pigeon-houfe, which, notwithstanding the well-known fuperftition of its boding the death of the wife, my husband ventured to build. Luckily I furvive the omen; but we have scarcely had a pigeon-pie fince. In point of ornamental alteration, the fame variety has taken place: We had first a fmooth green lawn, though at the expence of cutting down fome of the finest timber in the country; we then got a serpentine fhrubbery, which within these two years has been dug up, to make room for a field with dropping trees, fenced by a ha-ha! While he was beautifying his house and grounds, Mr. Buftle was not inattentive to the improvement of his eftate. After getting a new furvey made of it by a very fine gentleman who came from your town in a post-chaife and four, he fat down one morning with the plan before him, a fcale and a pair of compaffes in his hand, and that gentleman at his elbow; and while I was pouring out their tea, they raised the rents of it 200 per cent. as Mr. Quadrant was pleafed to exprefs himself. Presently all our former tenants were turned out of their farms, except a few young men whom the late Mr. Bustle, for what reason I know not, had marked in his rent roll with a †, and a new fet put into poffeffion, who, as Mr. Quadrant faid, knew the capabilities of ground. Then there was fuch a pulling down of walls to make little fields large, and a planting of hedges to make large fields little; every thing, in fhort, was turned topfyturvy: but what won't people do to get rich? Mr. Quadrant's calculations, however, have not anfwered with all the exactnefs we expected. The estate indeed, as our old fteward told me, was confiderably increased in its rent; "but ❝a-well-a-day! -my Lady," faid he," it nets "nothing." So Mr. Bustle was obliged to alter that plan, after he had tried it for several years. He has got fome of the old tenants back again; but a confiderable part of his eftate he has referved in his own hands, of which he fays he will treble the produce, by turning it into a sheepwalk. During this period, likewife, he has made feveral attempts to discover coal; and about three years ago, narrowly miffed being worth worth L. 10,000 a-year by the unexpected failure of a lead-mine. These are Mr. Buftle's ferious occupations; his amusements are no lefs various, and he is equally ardent in his pursuit of them. He is a hunter, a fhooter, and an angler: breaks his own horfes, trains his own dogs, and is reckoned the most expert cocker within a hundred miles of us. To do him juftice, however, he is by no means selfish, either in his bufinefs or his pleafures. If any of his neighbours have an estate to be fold, a farm to be let, a garden to be laid out, a house to be built, a horse to be broke, or a pointer to be made; Mr. Buftle will ride half a dozen miles at any time to give them his affistance and advice. Unfortunately his own family are almost the only perfons of whom he does not bufy himself in the management and fuperintendance. To our two daughters I have endeavoured to give fome little education at home; for my husband was always fo occupied, either with his own affairs, or the affairs of other people, that though I often preffed him to fend them to fome place where they could acquire the accomplishments fuitable to their fex and rank in life, he always delayed the measure till fomehow or other the opportunity was loft. As for our three boys, they have coft me many an uneafy moment. They They were fent to an academy in Yorkshire, to grafs, as my husband phrased it, at first, with a long plan for their education afterwards; but at grafs they continued till within these few months, when they returned home perfect colts indeed, with abundance of health and strength to be, fure, but without a word of language that could be understood, in their mouths, or a fingle idea, worth the having, in their heads. They had acquired, it is true, fome knowledge, of which their father has made confiderable use fince their return, and with which he appears fo well pleafed as to have little thoughts of fending them any where elfe. I have heard him declare with much exultation, that he would back them at riding a horse, trowling for a pike, or trimming a cock, against any three boys of their age in the kingdom. He finds the more occafion for their affistance às deputies in matters of this kind, ás of late he has betaken himself chiefly to the bufinefs of the public, having taken a very strong inclination to promote the good of his country. The death of a gentleman who had been long in the commiffion of the peace, has thrown the bufinefs of that department chiefly on Mr. Bustle, who now does little elfe but study law-cafes, convene meetings about highways, turnpikes, bridges, and game-licences, and ride all over the the country, difpenfing juftice, redreffing wrongs,. removing nuisances, and punishing delinquents. In this the activity and eagernefs of his nature has fometimes, I am afraid, in the practice of his office, got the better of the knowledge he had stored up on the theory of it. Besides receiving feveral incendiary letters, which he did not value a rush, and even I should have had the courage to defpife, there are two or three actions of affault and falfe imprisonment raised against him, for acts done in the course of keeping the peace of the country. Indeed his plans. for keeping the peace have turned out, like fome others formed with the best intention in the world, exactly the reverse of what he expected from them, the country having been in perpetual war ever fince he began putting them in execution. There have been fuch bickerings amongst the Gentlemen about widening of roads, removing of dunghills, pulling down cottages, and punishing of vagrants, that one half of the neighbours are scarce in fpeaking-terms with the other. Some of them, who are enemies to the patriotic measures of Mr. Buftle, have, I understand, privately ftirred up and fupported those law-fuits in which his public spirit has involved him. Thefe I cannot help being uneafy about, as of very ferious confequence to his fortune and family; but he him felf |