Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1827-08-08

reiterated experience. Upon how many wor-
thy families may not every reader lay his hnger
who, for ten or more successive years have TIL
ed the experiment Of splitting over bridges and
picking up cockle-shells, tillthey have narrow
,iy escaped "dying the death ofthe bored" las
the young lord happily expresses it IN Florence
Mccarthy and who yet return annually 10 the
same watering places, like foolish perch 10
the hook which is baited with piece OF his
own torn jaw, Leaving their pleasant and com.
modious town-houses in some well-wooded ana
picturesque square, TO inhabit the narrow,
cribbed, hot, cold, damp, and sun-baked tene-
men,s Of a leaaess sea-coast! How many also
are there who go annually into voluntary
Punishment TO Camberw.ll or Clapham-rise,
under the notion that London is dreary; and yet,
who would give their eyes to be once more in
the terra incogniia ofRussel-square, before they
have left home fortnight. An hundred years
ago there might perhaps have been some ex-
cuse for such fancies, some pretext for carrying
ON the absurd farce of rural simplicity, when
cockneys had 20 other notions OF country Lille
than were 10 be acquired from the pastoral posts
or from boarding school landscapes worked IN
the chenille; where shepherds play upon pipes,
instead Of smoking them, and where weil-fed
shepherdesses; taller than the steepe OF the adj
Joining church, squirt horribly upon their pot
bellied swans, and surrounded by sheep, the
! image of poodle dogs, and by scenery, such as
rivals blue china saucer, lay basking amidst
eternal sunshine, and never-ending summer
| In times thus ignorant, that men should. be
found to put as implicit faith in Pope's e.
clogues as in their Bible, and TO make the plea
suIes Of the country sort oil fortleth article 10
their religion, is.not so surprising; but now, IN
the broad glare OF intellectual illumination OF
this nineteenth century-when shllling's
worth Of the PaddiTgton stage, or a trip III the
steamboat TO Greenwich or Richmond, can
| bring the matter 10 the test OF scnsation-
that such absurdities should be admitted and
committed, fairly beats cock-hghting. There
is-it must be allowed, physical sensation,
"pleasng alacri,y aud cheer OF mind de-
rived from breathing the pure air OF the
country, and glancing over an extensive range
of fields, which, on first leaving great
city, is sufficiently delightful. grant also that
the smell of new-mown hay is sweet, and lha,
the distant bark of the village dog, or the live
" song Of the nightingale, (why is it called me-
lancholy?) are quite as agreeable prepara'ives
to sleep as "past twelve o'clock" or "fire! fire."
Some allowance must also be made for the lux
ury Of thick cream, lreal cream and not snails
and chalk y and Of "new laid eggs 1hat are not
quite hlckens. These certainly are calculated
TO seize on young imagination, yet Tor even
these, l would not grant the most romantic ina
| pination more than week, and when The no.
yelty has passed away, what else remains! III
were desired to define the pleasures OF a. coun-
try, as hope to be saved, scarcely kBowawhat
| else TO enumerate, besides reading stale news.
papers, and returning in dark moonless nights.
on an average seven miles from your dinner
| parties, together with being thrown for society
fxft.a YXxy<I.
tence, upon some prig Of parson, or village
apothec airy, who "cav find in his heart 10 be-
stow all his tediousness" on The nearest house
holder "possessed of aught to gives" ay, and
you must be grateful 10 Providence even for
the welcome ayatars Of these ienerant and in
carnate bores. Let not the unsuspicious dupe,
who has been invited 10 a country mansion du,
ring hunting party or the Christmas festivi-
ties, imagine tina, the hilarity, and fun, and
dancing, the splendid feasting, and deep drink
ing Of those epochs, go on during the entire
year Upon these OCCASIONS the owner Of the
house keeps an hotel; for the rest of the year
he lives in solitude unbroken, except by the
weekly invasion of the curate upon the Sunday
beef, or by the chance company of the Aforesaid
apothecary, or perhaps Of the physician, tempt
ed from the country town by the prospect Of
fee in your next fit Of the govt.
To those, however, who live all their lives
in the country ,xhings mayfot be quite so bad
as they seem. There Is great principle CT
compensation in human affairs; and Providence
tits said tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
1t cannot, for instance, be denied that farmers
derive pleasure from the smell of a dunghill,
to which cockney citizen is wholly insensible.
A well.flied barn, likewise, may be very pic.
turesque object in his contemplation; and the
heaviest days weather that ever drove an hy-
pochondriac into halter, may by him be cheer
fully endured, provided his .urnips want rain,
or his aftergrass is backward. Nay there is
something even in the vexations of the agri-
cultsrists which partake of the pleasura5le
vicissitudes of gaming. Many's the time when
have sat in listless despair tracing the drops
of an impertwba5S down-pour, chasing each O.
Their down the panes of the windows, | have en-
wed the agitated countenance and half-suppress-
ed oa'h of TIE farmer, as he consulted his bar
ometer, or watched the cloud. coveted hill Civ.
ing new tokens of protracted visit from Jupi-
ter Pluvins; while his wondering eye searched