lete match for any two of them. In a few days the number
was only four, and in other two days I was sole lord and master.

[He then returns to town.]

At a friend's house, in Berkeley Square, where I met a distinguished
party, a scene took place, just such as Pope describes--

Our courtier walks from dish to dish;
Tastes, for his friend, of fowl and fish:
"That jelly's rich, that malmsey's healing,
Pray dip your whiskers and your tail in."
Was ever such a happy swain?
He stuffs, and swills, and stuffs again.
"I'm quite ashamed--'Tis mighty rude
To eat so much; but all's so good!
I have a thousand thanks to give,
My lord alone knows how to live."--
No sooner said, but from the hall
Rush chaplain, butler, dogs, and all:
"A r--t, a r--t! clap to the door!"--

I, however, made good my exit, and was nothing the worse of a
practical warning to be more cautious in future.

It would be endless for me to describe all my after voyages and
travels. Suffice it to say, I have been both east and west, north
and south; and there is scarcely a part of the habitable globe which
I have not visited. After all, I have come to this conclusion, that
there is no country like Britain. Oh! how I could wish my human
existence had been in such happy times and under such glorious
sovereigns as a George the Third, and George the Fourth!!!

For some years I have remained in this country, enjoying (like a
patriarch of old) a quiet, regular life with my family, which now
amounts to above 2,000. I, however, keep very much to my own room,
as I hate bustle, and like to enjoy my own reflections.

The age to which our species can exist is not ascertained, as never
one of us was known to die in his bed, at least a natural death. A
kind of instinct I have always had, has as yet saved me from arsenic,
stewed corks, traps, stamps, &c.; and my great strength, and a
good deal of science, which is of more consequence, have, as yet,
preserved me in many a deadly combat, both with my own species, and
with the dog, the ferret, the weasel, the hawk, and that green-eyed
monster--the cat. But I am now getting somewhat stiffer, and am not
so sharp as I was. I am not--

"--qualis eram, quum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa
Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos;
Et regem hac Herilum dextra sub Tartara misi!!"

And in some evil hour my time must come.

--I am well aware, indeed, of the fleeting existence even of this
wo