State, but to the delightful
painter of contemporary manners; the man who, when in good humour himself,
was the pleasantest companion in all England. I should like to go into
Lockit's with him, and drink a bowl along with Sir R. Steele (who has just
been knighted by King George, and who does not happen to have any money to
pay his share of the reckoning). I should not care to follow Mr. Addison
to his secretary's office in Whitehall. There we get into politics. Our
business is pleasure, and the town, and the coffee-house, and the theatre,
and the Mall. Delightful _Spectator!_ kind friend of leisure hours! happy
companion! true Christian gentleman! How much greater, better, you are
than the king Mr. Secretary kneels to!

You can have foreign testimony about old-world London, if you like; and my
before-quoted friend, Charles Louis, Baron de Poellnitz, will conduct us to
it. "A man of sense," says he, "or a fine gentleman, is never at a loss
for company in London, and this is the way the latter passes his time. He
rises late, puts on a frock, and, leaving his sword at home, takes his
cane, and goes where he pleases. The Park is commonly the place where he
walks, because 'tis the Exchange for men of quality. 'Tis the same thing
as the Tuileries at Paris, only the Park has a certain beauty of
simplicity which cannot be described. The grand walk is called the Mall;
is full of people at every hour of the day, but especially at morning and
evening, when their Majesties often walk with the royal family, who are
attended only by a half-dozen yeomen of the guard, and permit all persons
to walk at the same time with them. The ladies and gentlemen always appear
in rich dresses, for the English, who, twenty years ago, did not wear gold
lace but in their army, are now embroidered and bedaubed as much as the
French. I speak of persons of quality; for the citizen still contents
himself with a suit of fine cloth, a good hat and wig, and fine linen.
Everybody is well clothed here, and even the beggars don't make so ragged
an appearance as they do elsewhere." After our friend, the man of quality,
has had his morning or undress walk in the Mall, he goes home to dress,
and then saunters to some coffee-house or chocolate-house frequented by
the persons he would see. "For 'tis a rule with the English to go once a
day at least to houses of this sort, where they talk of business and news,
read the papers, and often look at one another without ope