discourse are the pranks of drunkards, and the tricks put upon country gentlemen by porters and linkboys. When he is with ladies he tells them of the innumerable pleasures to which he can introduce them; but never fails to hint how much they will be deficient, at their first arrival, in the knowledge of the town. What it is to know the town he has not indeed hitherto informed us, though there is no phrase fo frequent in his mouth, nor any science which he appears to think of fo great a value, or fo difficult attainment.

I

But my curiosity has been moft engaged by the recital of his own adventures and atchievements. have heard of the union of various characters in fingle perfons, but never met with fuch a conftellation of great qualities as this man's narrative affords. Whatever has diftinguished the hero; whatever has elevated the wit; whatever has endeared the lover, are all concentered in Mr. Frolick, whofe life has, for seven years, been a regular interchange of intrigues, dangers, and waggeries, and who has diftinguished himself in every character that can be feared, envied, or admired.

I question whether all the officers of the royal navy can bring together from all their journals, a collection of so many wonderful escapes as this man has known upon the Thames, on which he has been a thousand and a thousand times on the point of perishing, fometimes by the terrors of foolish women in the fame boat, fometimes by his own acknowledged imprudence in paffing the river in the dark, and sometimes by fhooting the bridge, under Cc 4 which

which he has rencountered mountainous waves, and dreadful cataracts.

Nor lefs has been his temerity by land, nor fewer his hazards. He has reeled with giddinefs on the top of the monument; he has croffed the street amidst the rush of coaches; he has been furrounded by robbers without number; he has headed parties at the playhouse; he has scaled the windows of every toast of whatever condition; he has been hunted for whole winters by his rivals; he has slept upon bulks, he has cut chairs, he has bilked coachmen; he has rescued his friends from the bailiffs, has knocked down the constable, has bullied the juftice, and performed many other exploits, that have filled the town with wonder and with merriment.

But yet greater is the fame of his understanding than his bravery; for he informs us, that he is, at London, the established arbitrator of all points of honour, and the decifive judge of all performances of genius, that no mufical performer is in reputation till the opinion of Frolick has ratified his pretenfions; that the theatres fufpend their fentence till he begins the clap or hifs, in which all are proud to concur that no publick entertainment has failed or ucceeded, but because he oppofed or favoured it; that all controverfies at the gaming-table are referred to his determination; that he adjusts the ceremonial at every affembly, and prefcribes every fashion of pleasure or of dress.

With every man whofe name occurs in the papers of the day, he is intimately acquainted; and there are very few pofts, either in the ftate or army, of

which he has not more or less influenced the disposal. He has been very frequently confulted both upon war and peace; but the time is not yet come when the nation fhall know how much it is indebted to the genius of Frolick.

Yet, notwithstanding all these declarations, I cannot hitherto perfuade myself to see that Mr. Frolick has more wit, or knowledge, or courage, than the reft of mankind, or that any uncommon enlargement of his faculties has happened in the time of his abfence. For when he talks on fubjects known to the reft of the company, he has no advantage over us, but by catches of interruption, brifkness of interrogation, and pertnefs of contempt; and therefore if he has ftunned the world with his name, and gained a place in the first ranks of humanity, I cannot but conclude, that either a little understanding confers eminence at London, or that Mr. Frolick thinks us unworthy of the exertion of his powers, or that his faculties are benumbed by rural ftupidity, as the magnetick needle lofes its animation in the polar climes.

I would not, however, like many hafty philofophers, search after the cause till I am certain of the effect; and, therefore, I defire to be informed, whether you have yet heard the great name of Mr. Frolick. If he is celebrated by other tongues than his own, I fhall willingly propagate his praife; but if he has fwelled among us with empty boafts, and honours conferred only by himself, I fhall treat him with ruftick fincerity, and drive him as an impoftor from this part of the kingdom to fome region of more credulity.

I am, &c.

RURICOLA

NUMB. 62. SATURDAY, October 20, 1750.

I

Nunc ego Triptolemi cuperem confcendere currus,
Mifit in ignotam qui rude femen humum :
Nunc ego Medea vellem frænare dracones,
Quos habuit fugiens arva, Corinthe, tua;
Nunc ego jactandas optarem fumere pennas,
Sive tuas, Perfeu; Dædale, five tuas.

Now would I mount his car, whofe bounteous hand
First sow'd with teeming feed the furrow'd land:
Now to Medea's dragons fix my reins,
That swiftly bore her from Corinthian plains;
Now on Dadalian waxen pinions stray,
Or those which wafted Perfeus on his way.

SIR,

To the RAMBLER.

OVID.

F. LEWIS,

AM a young woman of very large fortune, which, if my parents would have been perfuaded to comply with the rules and customs of the polite part of mankind, might long fince have raised me to the highest honours of the female world; but so strangely have they hitherto contrived to wafte my life, that I am now on the borders of twenty, without having ever danced but at our monthly affembly, or been toasted but among a few gentlemen of the neighbourhood, or feen any company in which it was worth a wish to be distinguished.

My father having impaired his patrimony in foliciting a place at court, at last grew wife enough to cease his pursuit; and to repair the confequences of

expensive

expensive attendance and negligence of his affairs, married a lady much older than himself, who had lived in the fashionable world till fhe was confidered as an encumbrance upon parties of pleasure, and as I can collect from incidental informations, retired from gay affemblies just time enough to escape the mortification of univerfal neglect.

She was, however, ftill rich, and not yet wrinkled; my father was too distressfully embarraffed to think much on any thing but the means of extrication, and though it is not likely that he wanted the delicacy which polite converfation will always produce in understandings not remarkably defective, yet he was contented with a match, by which he might be fet free from inconveniencies, that would have deftroyed all the pleasures of imagination, and taken from foftnefs and beauty the power of delighting.

As they were both fomewhat difgufted with their treatment in the world, and married, though without any diflike of each other, yet principally for the fake of fetting themselves free from dependence on caprice or fashion, they foon retired into the country, and devoted their lives to rural business and diverfions.

They had not much reafon to regret the change of their fituation; for their vanity, which had fo long been tormented by neglect and disappointment, was here gratified with every honour that could be paid them. Their long familiarity with publick life made them the oracles of all thofe who afpired to intelligence, or politenefs. My father dictated politicks, my mother prescribed the mode, and it was fuf