gno
Ruris honorum opulenta cornu._

HOR. _Od._ xvii. l. i. ver. 14.

Here to thee shall plenty flow,
And all her riches show.
To raise the honour of the quiet plain.

CREECH.

Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley
to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him
thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house,
where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who
is very well acquainted with my humour[34], lets me rise and go to bed
when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit
still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of
the country come to see him, he only shows me at a distance: as I have
been walking in his fields, I have observed them stealing a sight of me
over an hedge, and have heard the Knight desiring them not to let me see
them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober
and staid persons; for, as the Knight is the best master in the world, he
seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his
servants never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics are all
in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his _valet de
chambre_ for his brother, his butler is grey-headed, his groom is one of
the gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of
a privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even in the old
house-dog, and in a grey pad[35] that is kept in the stable with great
care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has
been useless for several years.

I could not but observe, with a great deal of pleasure, the joy that
appeared in the countenance of these ancient domestics upon my friend's
arrival at his country seat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at
the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do
something for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not employed. At
the same time the good old Knight, with a mixture of the father and the
master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with
several kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and
good-nature engages everybody to him, so that when he is pleasant
upon[36] any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so much
as the person w