occasion.
If he has a mind to know where these several characters are to be met
with, I could direct him to a whole club of drums; not to mention
another of bagpipes, which I have before given some account of in my
description of our nightly meetings in Sheer Lane. The lutes may often
be met with in couples upon the banks of a crystal stream, or in the
retreats of shady woods and flowery meadows; which for different reasons
are likewise the great resort of your hunting-horns. Bass-viols are
frequently to be found over a glass of stale beer and a pipe of tobacco;
whereas those who set up for violins, seldom fail to make their
appearance at Will's once every evening. You may meet with a trumpet
anywhere on the other side of Charing Cross.

That we may draw something for our advantage in life out of the
foregoing discourse, I must entreat my reader to make a narrow search
into his life and conversation, and upon his leaving any company, to
examine himself seriously, whether he has behaved himself in it like a
drum or a trumpet, a violin or a bass-viol; and accordingly endeavour to
mend his music for the future. For my own part, I must confess, I was a
drum for many years; nay, and a very noisy one, till having polished
myself a little in good company, I threw as much of the trumpet into my
conversation as was possible for a man of an impetuous temper, by which
mixture of different musics, I look upon myself, during the course of
many years, to have resembled a tabor and pipe. I have since very much
endeavoured at the sweetness of the lute; but in spite of all my
resolutions, I must confess with great confusion, that I find myself
daily degenerating into a bagpipe; whether it be the effect of my old
age, or of the company I keep, I know not. All that I can do, is to keep
a watch over my conversation, and to silence the drone as soon as I find
it begin to hum in my discourse, being determined rather to hear the
notes of others, than to play out of time, and encroach upon their parts
in the concert by the noise of so tiresome an instrument.

I shall conclude this paper with a letter which I received last night
from a friend of mine, who knows very well my notions upon this subject,
and invites me to pass the evening at his house with a select company of
friends, in the following words:

"DEAR ISAAC,

"I intend to have a concert at my house this evening, having by
great chance got a harpsichord, which I am