 that, I say, every body
would not have cajoled this out of her, mind that.« The Wife then joined in the
Applause of her Husband's Sagacity; and thus ended the short Dialogue between
them on this Occasion.
    We will therefore take our Leave of these good People, and attend his
Lordship and his fair Companions, who made such good Expedition, that they
performed a Journey of ninety Miles in two Days, and on the second Evening
arrived in London, without having encountered any one Adventure on the Road
worthy the Dignity of this History to relate. Our Pen, therefore, shall imitate
the Expedition which it describes, and our History shall keep Pace with the
Travellers who are its Subject. Good Writers will indeed do well to imitate the
ingenious Traveller in this Instance, who always proportions his Stay at any
Place, to the Beauties, Elegancies, and Curiosities, which it affords. At Eshur,
at Stowe, at Wilton, at Eastbury, and at Prior's Park, Days are too short for
the ravished Imagination; while we admire the wondrous Power of Art in improving
Nature. In some of these, Art chiefly engages our Admiration; in others, Nature
and Art contend for our Applause; but in the last, the former seems to triumph.
Here Nature appears in her richest Attire, and Art dressed with the modestest
Simplicity, attends her benignant Mistress. Here Nature indeed pours forth the
choicest Treasures which she hath lavished on this World; and here Human Nature
presents you with an Object which can be exceeded only in the other.
    The same Taste, the same Imagination, which luxuriously riots in these
elegant Scenes, can be amused with Objects of far inferior Note. The Woods, the
Rivers, the Lawns of Devon and of Dorset, attract the Eye of the ingenious
Traveller, and retard his Pace, which Delay he afterwards compensates by swiftly
scouring over the gloomy Heath of Bagshot, or that pleasant Plain which extends
itself Westward from Stockbridge, where no other Object than one single Tree
only in sixteen Miles presents itself to the View, unless the Clouds, in
Compassion to our tired Spirits, kindly open their variegated Mansions to our
Prospect.
    Not so travels the Money-meditating Tradesman, the sagacious Justice, the
dignified Doctor, the warm-clad Grazier, with all the numerous Offspring of
Wealth and Dulness. On they jogg, with equal Pace, through the verdant Meadows,
or over the barren Heath, their Horses measuring four Miles and a half per Hour
with the utmost Exactness; the Eyes of the Beast and of his Master being alike
directed forwards
