t was Nonsense for me to be Impudent at
first among those who knew me: My Character for Modesty was so
notorious wherever I had hitherto appeared, that I resolved to shew my
new Face in new Quarters of the World. My first Step I chose with
Judgment; for I went to _Astrop_, [3] and came down among a Crowd of
Academicks, at one Dash, the impudentest Fellow they had ever seen in
their Lives. Flushed with this Success, I made Love and was happy.
Upon this Conquest I thought it would be unlike a Gentleman to stay
longer with my Mistress, and crossed the Country to _Bury:_ I could
give you a very good Account of my self at that Place also. At these
two ended my first Summer of Gallantry. The Winter following, you
would wonder at it, but I relapsed into Modesty upon coming among
People of Figure in _London_, yet not so much but that the Ladies who
had formerly laughed at me, said, Bless us! how wonderfully that
Gentleman is improved? Some Familiarities about the Play-houses
towards the End of the ensuing Winter, made me conceive new Hopes of
Adventures; and instead of returning the next Summer to _Astrop_ or
_Bury_, [4] I thought my self qualified to go to _Epsom_, and followed
a young Woman, whose Relations were jealous of my Place in her Favour,
to _Scarborough_. I carried my Point, and in my third Year aspired to
go to _Tunbridge_, and in the Autumn of the same Year made my
Appearance at _Bath_. I was now got into the Way of Talk proper for
Ladies, and was run into a vast Acquaintance among them, which I
always improved to the _best Advantage_. In all this Course of Time,
and some Years following, I found a sober modest Man was always looked
upon by both Sexes as a precise unfashioned Fellow of no Life or
Spirit. It was ordinary for a Man who had been drunk in good Company,
or passed a Night with a Wench, to speak of it next Day before Women
for whom he had the greatest Respect. He was reproved, perhaps, with a
Blow of the Fan, or an Oh Fie, but the angry Lady still preserved an
apparent Approbation in her Countenance: He was called a strange
wicked Fellow, a sad Wretch; he shrugs his Shoulders, swears, receives
another Blow, swears again he did not know he swore, and all was well.
You might often see Men game in the Presence of Women, and throw at
once for more than they were worth, to recommend themselves as Men of
Spirit. I found by long Experience that