ne time it is recorded, four hundred senators entered the list, and
thought it an honour to be cudgelled and quarterstaffed.[318] I observe,
the Lanistae were the people chiefly employed, which makes me imagine
our Bear Garden copied much after this, the butchers being the greatest
men in it. Thus far the glory and honour of the Bear Garden stood
secure, till fate, that irresistible ruler of sublunary things, in that
universal ruin of arts and politer learning, by those savage people the
Goths and Vandals, destroyed and levelled it to the ground. Thus fell
the grandeur and bravery of the Roman state, till at last the warlike
genius (but accompanied with more courtesy) revived in the Christian
world under those puissant champions, St. George, St. Denis, and other
dignified heroes: one killed his dragon, another his lion, and were all
afterwards canonised for it, having red letters before them to
illustrate their martial temper.[319] The Spanish nation, it must be
owned, were devoted to gallantry and chivalry above the rest of the
world. What a great figure does that great name, Don Quixote, make in
history? How shines this glorious star in the Western world? O renowned
hero! O mirror of knighthood!

_Thy brandished whinyard all the world defies,
And kills as sure as del Tobosa's eyes._

I am forced to break off abruptly, being sent for in haste, with my
rule, to measure the degree of an affront, before the two gentlemen (who
are now in their breeches and pumps ready to engage behind Montague
House[320]) have made a pass.

From my own Apartment, June 18.

It is an unreasonable objection I find against my labours, that my stock
is not all my own, and therefore the kind reception I have met with is
not so deserved as it ought to be. But I hope, though it be never so
true that I am obliged to my friends for laying their cash in my hands,
since I give it them again when they please, and leave them at their
liberty to call it home, it will not hurt me with my gentle readers. Ask
all the merchants who act upon consignments, where is the necessity (if
they answer readily what their correspondents draw) of their being
wealthy themselves? Ask the greatest bankers, if all the men they deal
with were to draw at once, what would be the consequence? But indeed a
country friend has writ me a letter which gives me great mortification;
wherein I find I am so far from expecting a supply from thence, that
some have not heard