that would fuffer himself to be fo far infatuated by it, as to neglect the purfuit of a more agreeable game, I think deferves no quarter from the ladies; in old age, indeed, when it is convenient very often to forget and fteal from ourselves, I am of opinion that a little drunkennefs, difcreetly ufed, may as well contribute to our health of body, as tranquillity of foul. Thus have I given your Grace a fhort fyftem of my morals and belief in thefe affairs; but the gentlemen of this country go upon a quite different fcheme of pleafure: the best furniture of their parlours, inftead of innocent China, are tall over-grown rummers ; and they take more care to enlarge their cellars, than their patrimonial eftates. In short, drinking is the he reditary fin of this country; and that hero of a Deputy he e, that can demolish, at one fitting, the reft of his brother Envoys, is mentioned with as much applaufe as the Duke of Lorrain for his noble exploits against the Turks; and may claim a statue, erected at the public expence in any town of Germany. Judge then, my Lord, whether a perfon of my fober principles, and one that only ufes wine, as the wiler fort of Roman Cathelicks do images, to raise up my imagination to fomething more exalted, and not to terminate my worship upon it, muft not be reduced to very mortifying circumftances in this place, where I cannot pretend to enjoy conver.ation, without practising that vice which directly ruins it. And as I have just reafon to complan of the men, for laying fo un reasonable a tax upon pleafure, fo I have no lefs occafion to complain of the women, for wholly denying it. long in decying, fomething migh be faid for the two crying fins of both fexes here; I mean drunkennefs in the men, and refervedness in the ladies. What would it fignify to throw away a week's, nay a month's enjoyment upon one night's debauch, if a man could promife himself the age of a Patriarch? or where would be the mighty penance in dancing a dozen years attendance after a coy-fe male, watching her most favourable moments, and most accellible intervals, at laft to enjoy her, if infirmities and old age were to come fo late upon us? But fince fate has given us so short a period to taite pleasures with fatif faction, three or four days sickness is too great a rent-charge upon hu man nature, and drunkenness cannot pretend, out of its own fund, to acquit the debt. And, my Lord, fince our gaiety and vigour leaves us fo much in the lurch; fince feebleness attacks us, without giving us fair warning; and we no fooner país the meridian of the but begin to decline; it is hardly worth a lover's while to ftay as long for compaffing a mistress, as Jacob did for obtaining a wife; and without this tedious drudgery and application, I can affore your Grace, that an amour is not to be managed here. Bur, my Lord, I forget that while I take upon me to play the moralifts and to enlarge to rhetorically upon the precioufnefs of time, I have al ready made bold with too much of your Grace's; for which reafon, I here put a flop to my discourse, and wili endeavour, the next packet that goes from this place, to entertain your Grace with fomething more a greeable. I am, Could a man find out the fecret to take as long a leafe of his life as Methuselah, and the reft of the antediluvian gentlemen, who were three hundred years in growing up to the perfection of vigour, enjoyed it the fame number of years, and were as Ratifton, Nev. 12, 1685. Your Grace's most obedient Servant, GEO. ETHEREGE LETTER Letter from Sir Geo. Etherege to the Duke of Buckingham. MY LORD, LETTER II. NEVER enjoy myfelf fo much as when I can fteal a few moments from the hurry of public bufinefs, to write to my friends in England; and as there are none there to whom I pay a profounder respect than to your Grace, wonder not if I afford myfelf the fatisfaction of converfing with you by way of letters, the only relief I have left to fupport your abfence at this distance, as often as I can find opportunity. You may guefs by my laft, whether I do not pafs my time very comforta bly here; forced as I am by my chafacter, to spend the better part of my time in fquabbling and deliberating with perfons of beard, and gravity, how to preferve the balance of Chriftendom; which would go well enough of itfelf if the Divines and Minifters of Princes would let it alone: and when I come home, spent and weary from the Diet, I have no Lord Dorfets or Sir Charles Sedleys to fport away the evening with no Madam J.....s or Lady A....s, in fhort, none of thofe kind charming creatures London affords, in whofe embraces I might make myself amends for fo many hours murder in impertinent debates; fo that, not to magnify my fufferings to your Grace, they really want a greater ftock of Chriftian patience to fupport them, than I can pretend to be mafter of. I have been long enough in this town, one would think, to have made acquaintance enough with perfons of both fexes, fo as never to be at a loss how to pafs the vacant hours I can allow myfelf: but the terrible drinking that accompanies all our vifits, hinders me from converfing with the men fo often as I would otherwife do; and the German Ladies are fo intolerably referved and virtuous, with tears in my eyes I fpeak it to Br VOL. XII. No. 71. $13 your Grace, that it is next to an im- So that to deal freely with your I had been happy in my acquainttance with this family for fome months; when an ill-favoured accident robbed me of the greatest happinefs I had hitherto enjoyed in Germany, the lofs of which I can never fufficiently regret.Monticur Hoffman,about" three weeks ago, going to make metry with fome friends, at a village fome mediately brought me, that if I pleafed, I might go up to her. fome three leagues from this place her: accordingly, I came to her houfe, upon the Danube, by unskiifuinefs fent up my name, and word was imor negligence of the waterman, the boat wherein he was unfortunately chanced to overfet, and' of fome twenty perions, not one escaped to bring home the news but a boy, who miraculously faved himfelf by holding faft to the rudder, and fo by the ra pidity of the current was caft upon the other shore. I was fenfibly affected at the death of my worthy friend; and fo indeed were all who had the honour of knowing him. But his wife took on fo extravagantly, that the, in a fhort time, was the only talk both of city and country. She refused to admit any vifits from her near. ft relations; her chamber, her anti-chamber, and pro-antiChamber, were hung with black; nay, the very candles, her fans, and tea table, wore the livery of grief; fhe refused all manner of fuftenance, and was lo averfe to the thoughts of living, that he talked of nothing but death: in fhort, you may tell your ingenious friend Mon. de Saint Evremond, that Petronius his Ephefian' Matron, to whofe ftory he has done fo much justice, in his noble tranflation, was only a type of our most obftinate, as well as unhappy German widow. About a fortnight after this cruel lofs, for I thought it would be labour loft to attack her grief in its firft vehemence, I thought myfeif obliged, in point of honour and gratitude to the memory of my deceafed friend, to make her a fmall vifit, and condole her ladyship upon this unhappy occa fion and though I had been told that fhe refufed to fee feveral perfors who had gone to wait on her, with the fame errand, yet I prefumed fo much upon the friendship her late husband had always expreffed for me, not to mention the particular civilities I had received from herself, as to think I should be admitted to have a fight of When I came into the room, fancied myfelf in the territories of death; every thing looked fo gloomy, fo difmal, and fo melancholy: there' was a grave Lutheran minifter with her, who omitted no arguments to more Chriftian difpofition of mind. bring her to a more compofed and Madam, fays he, you don't confider, that by abandoning yourfelf thus to Providence. I can't help it, fays the, defpair, you actually rebel against Providence may even thank itself for laying fo infupportable a load upon me. this is downright impiety; what would O fye, Madam, cries the other, you fay now, if Heaven fhould punish it by fome exemplary vifitation That is impoffible, cries the Lady, fighing; and fince it has robbed me of the only delight I had in this world, the only favour it can do me, is to level a thunderbolt at my head, and put an end to all my fufferings. The parfon finding her in this extravagant ftrain, and fecing no likelihood of perfuading her to come to a better temper, got up from his feat, and took his leave of her. It came to my turn now, to try forting her; and being convinced by whether I was not capable of comfo late an inftance, that arguments brought from religion were not likely to work any extraordinary effect upon her, I was determined to attack her Ladyfhip in a more fenfible part, and reprefent to her the great inconvenireceived from this inordinate forrow. ences, not which her foul, but her body concern for your worthy hufband's Madam, fays I to her, next to my untimely death, I am grieved to fet what an alteration the bemoaning of his lofs has occafioned in you. Theft words railing her curiofity to know what this alteration was, I thus continued my difcourfe. By endeavour ing, Madam, to extinguish, or at least to alleviate your grief, than which nothing can be more prejudicial to a beautiful woman, I intend a public benefit; for if the public is interested, as most certainly it is, in the preferving of a beautiful face, that man does the public no little fervice who contributes moft to its prefervation. This odd beginning operated fo wonderfully upon her, that the defired me to leave this general road of com. pliments, and explain myself more particularly to her. Upon this, de livering myfelf with an unusual air of gravity, which your Grace knows I feldom carry about with me in the company of ladies, I told her, that grief ruins the fineft faces Tooner than any thing whatsoever; and that, as Envy herfelf could not deny her face to be the most charming in the univerfe, fo if he did not fuffer herfelf to be comforted, the muft foon expect to take her farewell of it. I confirm ed this affertion, by telling her of one of the finest women we ever had in England, who did he felf more injury in a fortnight's time, by lamenting her only brother's death, than ten years could poffibly have done; that I had heard an eminent phyfician at Leyden fay, that tears having abundance of faline particles in them, not only spoiled the complexion, but haftened wrinkles: but, Madam, concluded I, why fhould I give my felf the trouble to confirm this by foreign inftances, and by the teftimony of our mot knowing doctors, when, alas! your own face to fully juftifies the truth of what I have faid to you. How? replied our difconfolate widow, with a figh that came from the bottom of her heart; and is it poffible that any juff concern for my dear hulband has wrought fo cruel an effect upon me in fo fhort a time? With that the ordered her gentlewoman to bring the looking-gla's to her, and having furveyed herself a few minutes in it, he told me he was perfectly convinced that my notions were true. But, cries fhe, what would you have us poor women to do in thefe cafes? for fomething, continues the, we owe to the memory of the deceased, and fomething too to the world, which expects at leaft the common appearances of grief from us. By your leave, Madam, fays I, all this is a mistake, and no better; you owe nothing to your hoband, fince he is dead, and knows nothing of your lamentation. Befides, could you fhed an ocean of tears upon his hearfe it would not do him the least service, much less do you lie under any fuck obligation to the world, as to fpoil a good face only to comply with its tyrannic cuftom: No, Madam, take care to preferve your beauty, and 1. the world fay what it pleafes; your ladyship may be revenged upon the world whenever you fee fit. I am refolved, anfwers the, to be entirely governed by you, therefore, tell me frankly, what fort of a course you would have me fteer. Why, Madam, in the first place, forget the defunct, and ia or der to bring that about, relieve nature with the moft exquifite meats, and the moft generous wines. Upon condition you fup with me, cries our afflicted lady, I will fubmit to your prefcription. But why should I trouble your Grace with a 'narration of every particular? In short, we had a noble regale that evening in her bed-chamber; and our good widow palaed the glass io ftrenuously about, that her comforter, meaning myself, could hardly find the way to his coach. To conclude this farce, which I ang afraid begins now to be tedious to your Grace, dis Phoenix of her fex, this pattern of conjugal fidelity, two mornings ago, was married to a smooth-chin'c eufige of Coupt Trautmandoff's regimeni, hat had not a fa.thing in the word but 1 affiit d at his pay to depend on. the ceremony; though I little imagined Rr 2 gined the lady would take the matrimonial receipt fo foon. I was the cafter perfuaded to give your Grace the larger account of this tragi-comedy, not only because I wanted better matter to entertain you, but alfo to fhew your Grace, that not only Ephefus in antient, and England in latter times, have afforded fuch fantastical widows, but even Germa ny itself; where, if the ladies have not more virtue than those of their sex in other countries, yet, they pretend at leaft, a greater management of the outside of it. I am, my Lord, Your Grace's moft obedient Ratisbon, Oct. 21. 1689. On the origin of Sepulchral Rites. IF man For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleafing, anxious being e'errefign'd; Left the warm precincts of the chear ful day Nor caft one longing lingering look behind. The moft fimple and natural kind of Sepulchral Monument, and therefore the most ancient and univerfal, confifts in a mound of earth, or a heap of ftones, raised over the remains of the deceafed. Of fuch monuments, mention is made in the book of Joshua, and in the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace; and of fach, inftances occur in every part of this kingdom, efpecially in thofe elevated and fequeftered fituations where they have neither been defaced by agriculture nor inundations. It has often been a fubject of furprize to me, that, in an age marked by its tafte for Antiquarian 'refearches, greater attention should not have been paid to these most ancient and genuine records of paft ages, 'fo far, at least, as to afcertain to which of the fucceffive inhabitants of this ifland they are to be afcribed, or whether, in fact, they are the work of more than one 34. be people. This can only be done by an examination of the contents of feveral of them in different counties, and in different fituations, by perfons whofe learning, ingenuity, and attention, qualify them for the task. In fearching, however, into thefe rude memorials of our fore-fathers, the true Antiquarian will ever ref pect their remains; and, whilft he enters into their views by endeavour. ing to revive their memory, he will allo as far as poffible confult their wifhes, in leaving to their bones their ancient place of fepulture. Having been lately on a vifit to a gentleman in Dorsetshire, on whose eftate an incredible number of these barrows are found, he kindly complied with my wifhes in caufing feveral of them to be opened.. I fhall firft defcribe, in the moft accurate manner I am able, the contents of feveral barrows; and then give fuch conjectures as occur to me concerning the people to whom they belonged: not without a view, however, that greater light may hereafter be thrown on the fubject by perfons whofe experience and information in this branch of Antiquarian study are fuperiour to my own. We begin with two barrows of no great dimenfion oppofite to Eaft Lullworth, on a level piece of ground that is met with in the afcent up a fteep and lofty mountain, the top of which is crowned with a bold double intrenchment, |