cottage: by which I mean to the life of a little country gentleman.

You ask me my opinion of the winter here. If you can bear a degree
of cold, of which Europeans can form no idea, it is far from being
unpleasant; we have settled frost, and an eternal blue sky. Travelling
in this country in winter is particularly agreable: the carriages are
easy, and go on the ice with an amazing velocity, though drawn only by
one horse.

The continual plain of snow would be extremely fatiguing both to the
eye and imagination, were not both relieved, not only by the woods in
prospect, but by the tall branches of pines with which the road is
marked out on each side, and which form a verdant avenue agreably
contrasted with the dazzling whiteness of the snow, on which, when the
sun shines, it is almost impossible to look steadily even for a moment.

Were it not for this method of marking out the roads, it would be
impossible to find the way from one village to another.

The eternal sameness however of this avenue is tiresome when you go
far in one road.

I have passed the last two months in the most agreable manner
possible, in a little society of persons I extremely love: I feel
myself so attached to this little circle of friends, that I have no
pleasure in any other company, and think all the time absolutely lost
that politeness forces me to spend any where else. I extremely dread
our party's being dissolved, and wish the winter to last for ever, for
I am afraid the spring will divide us.

Adieu! and believe me,
Yours,
Ed. Rivers.

LETTER 52.

To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

Silleri, Jan. 9.

I begin not to disrelish the winter here; now I am used to the cold,
I don't feel it so much: as there is no business done here in the
winter, 'tis the season of general dissipation; amusement is the study
of every body, and the pains people take to please themselves
contribute to the general pleasure: upon the whole, I am not sure it is
not a pleasanter winter than that of England.

Both our houses and our carriages are uncommonly warm; the clear
serene sky, the dry pure air, the little parties of dancing and cards,
the good tables we all keep, the driving about on the ice, the
abundance of people we see there, for every body has a carriole, the
variety of objects new to an European, keep the spirits in a continual
agreable hurry, that is difficult to describe, but very pleasant to
feel.

Sir George (w