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The defcription of the family of Wakefield; in which a kindred likeness prevails as well of minds as of perfons.

I

WAS ever of opinion, that the honeft man who married and brought

up a large family, did more fervice than he who continued fingle, and only talked of population. From this motive, I had fcarce taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chofe my wife as fhe did her wedding gown, not for a fine gloffy furface, but fuch qualities as would wear well. To do her juftice, fhe was a good-natured notable woman; and as for breeding, there were few country ladies who could fhew more. She could read any English book without much spelling; but for pickling, preferving, and cookery, none could exA 5

cel

cel her. She prided herself also upon being an excellent contriver in house-keeping; tho' I could never find that we grew richer with all her contrivances.

However, we loved each other tenderly, and our fondness encreased as we grew old. There was in fact nothing that could make us angry with the world, or each other. We had an elegant house, situated in a fine country, and a good neighbourhood. The year was spent in a moral or rural amufement; in vifiting our rich neighbours, and relieving fuch as were poor. We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fire-fide, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

As we lived near the road, we often had the traveller or ftranger visit us to tafte our gooseberry wine, for which we had great reputation; and I profess with the veracity of an hiftorian, that I never knew one of them find fault with it.

Our

coufins

coufins too, even to the fortieth remove, all remembered their affinity, without any help from the herald's office, and came very frequently to fee us. Some of them did us no great honour by these claims of kindred; as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt amongst the number. However, my wife always infifted that as they were the fame flesh and blood, they should fit with us at the same table. So that if we had not very rich, we generally had very happy friends about us; for this remark will hold good thro' life, that the poorer the guest, the better pleased he ever is with being treated; and as fome men gaze with admiration at the colours of a tulip, or the wing of a butterfly, fo I was by nature an admirer of happy human faces. However, when any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome gueft, or one we defired to get rid of, upon his leaving my houfe, I ever took care to lend him a riding coat, or a pair of boots, or fometimes an horse of small value, and I always had A 6

the

the fatisfaction of finding he never came back to return them. By this the house was cleared of fuch as we did not like; but never was the family of Wakefield known to turn the traveller or the poor dependant out of doors.

Thus we lived feveral years in a state of much happinefs, not but that we fometimes had thofe little rubs which Providence fends to enhance the value of its favours. My orchard was often robbed by fchool-boys, and my wife's custards plundered by the cats or the children.: The 'Squire would fometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic parts of my fermon, or his lady return my wife's civilities at church with a mutilated curtefy. But we foon got over the uneafiness caused by fuch accidents, and ufually in three or four days began to wonder how they vext us..

My children, the offspring of temperance, as they were educated without foft. nefs, fo they were at once well formed and healthy;

healthy my fons hardy and active, my daughters beautiful and blooming. When. I ftood in the midft of the little circle, which promised to be the fupports of my declining age, I could not avoid repeating the famous ftory of Count Abensberg, who, in Henry II.'s progrefs through Germany, while other courtiers came with their treasures, brought his thirty-two children, and prefented them to his fovereign as the moft valuable offering he had to bestow. In this manner, though I had but fix, I confidered them as a very valuable present made to my country, and confequently looked upon it as my debtor. Our eldest fon was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thousand pounds. Our fecond child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Griffel, but my wife, who during her pregnancy had been reading romances, infifted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and how I was determined that Griffel fhould be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to ftand

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