in the morning, and dogs, boys, men and women fet doggedly to work," as Dr. Johnfon expreffes himself, and run or rather trot to the Hague market with earnest activity. This fhuts up the amufements of the beach; fo with your permiffion after a pause we will return alfo. LETTER XXXIV. TO THE SAME. YES my friend, we will return, but not exactly by the fame way we came, enchanting as it was. After you have taken a peep at our reentrance of the before described walks, to furvey the moving picture (and a very fingular one it is) of the fwarms of fish-boys, fish-men, fifh-girls, fish-dogs, and fish alive, filling every path in the long avenues; striving which fhall arrive with their loads firft at market. I beg to take you by the hand and conduct you as entirely out of the fight of thefe and all other public objects, as if you were in the deepeft receffes of Windfor, or any lefs fashionable foreft. You guels already, I allude to what I called the concealed walks in the outfet of my defcription.-Yes let us glide into one one of thefe-both are of equal beauty-and "The world forgetting, by the world forgot;" let us have this little green regalia wholly to our. felves. In this fequeftered fpot of half a league, fituated as it is in a land which may almost be confidered as "in the flat fea funk,"-even in Holland; and within a few furlongs of that very fea-we shall be prefented with as verdant paths, as redundant foliage, as impervious glooms, as agreeable openings to the fun, and as rich a variety of objects in keeping with such scenery as in the moft happy woodlands of our own country; even in that delightful part of it Wales, which occupied fo large a fhare of our earlier correfpondence. There it must be confeffed Nature is a volunteer. Here he has been preffed into the fervice; in Cambria fhe has " fixed her feats of deareft "refidence;" fhe is a native.-In Holland fhe is an exotic dragged reluctantly from home, and made to establish in a foreign foil. In Great Eritain fhe confents willingly to yield up her blooming beauty and is enamoured of the clime. In Italy yet more-there fhe luxuriates. In Holland the vegetable goddefs like many of her fex, has been fo long and fo affiduously wooed, that after unavailing refiftance and refufal the gives up the point to her perfevering lover, and makes him happy to get rid of his importunity. And in this country she has been fo careffed, invited, and cherished, the whole Republick have, indeed, paid fuch homage to her, fince she settled amongst them, that it is no wonder fhe is, at length, conciliated,—bestows a gracious fmile over fuch parts as are fufceptible of her influence, and affimilates to the foil. The fpot we are furveying is, indeed, preeminently favoured. Our path, you observe, is on the furface of a fine terrace, wide enough to admit half a dozen persons abreast in some places, and narrowing, imperceptibly, in others, fo as to admit only what is ufually more agreeable in fuch fort of walks-a tête a tête. Nay, one fide,-the left, returning to the Hague,-runs off into a variety of woody receffes, the footway of which is adapted only to a foliloquy-fuch, as fome few minds know how to turn to even focial advantage -fuch as yours, my friend: "Thou who art fitted, "Or in Courts to fhine, "With unaffected grace, or walk the plain; It would employ more time than we have to fpare, were we to turn into any one of thefe winding walks, and fuffer ourselves to be led away by its feducing deviations-It is involved in fo many vernal labyrinths, that I can only recommend them to you, when Solitude and her companions, Poefy, and let me add, Philofophy, concur with leifure, to devote a morning or evening to fuch affociates. Keeping the terrace, we fhall for the time that is on our hands, be fufficiently gratified. As we go along, you who are new to the fcene will be ftruck with rural objects, not often to be found in any country in the vicinity of the ocean; and of one of the most populous as well as popular towns in Europe. Among these the found of that ocean, at first loud and paffionate, moderating its wrath. as we go farther on, till at length it foftens as if into founds of regret at having, in its anger, fent us away, and perfuafively murmuring to invite our return. How easily, without ftraining the allufion, may one apply this to the wayward, little animofities of this little life! in which, how often does the violence of rage-the most foaming diffonance, melt into the whispers of love! On the right hand of us but many a foot beneath, for the terrace is extremely elevated, you perceive the obvious roads; you catch a glimpse of them, and of the paffengers; and but a glimpfe, the next three or four 2 steps steps fhuts up the view, and you are again under covert of what Milton has called "a verdant wall." But were the public paths filled with living beauties we might fuffer this exclufion from them,—your pardon, fair ones, our exclufion is very temporary, while " on fuch a night as this;" for I choose to have the evening we are taking this walk a very fine one; added to the diverfified founds of the fea, we have the fong of the nightingale, the note of the cuckoo, (whofe very hoarsenefs has a charm for us; we are in the education, you know, of loving his voice to the laft;) the concert of the small birds to amuse the ear-the perfume of the wild flowers, which are here in profufion; the magnificence of the trees, many of which are "of the first order of fizes;" the oaks for example, which are even of Druidical dignity, the beeches, the American poplar, and a very luxuriant growth of underwood. The traveller who has but a relifh of the charms of verdure in him, cannot be weary of admiring thefe, and many other objects; though, (when he reflects on the general character, and indeed, the general furface of Holland,) he will be apt to wonder "How the devil they got here." You foon arrive at the barrier from whence, to your furprise, and it may happen to fome difpofitions of mind to your diflike, you find yourself in the |