ed over and dispersed the most trifling vestiges
and recollections of the past. A truce with your improvements!" said
Crony, combating my attempt to harmonise his feelings; "tell me what
increases the lover's boldness and the maiden's tenderness more than
the fresh and fragrant air, the green herbage, and the quiet privacy of
retired spots, where all nature yields a delightful inspiration to the
mind. There where the lovers find delight, the student finds repose,
secluded from the busy haunts of men, and yet able, by a few strides, to
mingle again at pleasure with the world, the man of

3 Since called the Five-fields, Chelsea; and a favourite
resort of the Westminster scholars of that time, but now
built upon.

~70~~contemplation turns aside to consult his favourite theme, and
having run out his present stock of thoughtful meditation, wheels him
round, and finds himself one of the busy group again.{4} As we advance

4 The Rogent's-park, formerly called Marylebone, is an
improve-ment of this nature. It was originally a park, and
had a royal palace in it, where, I believe, Queen Elizabeth
occasionally resided. It was disbarked by Oliver Cromwell,
who settled it on Colonel Thomas Harrison's regiment of
dragoons for their pay; but at the restoration of Charles
II. it passed into the hands of other possessors; from which
time it has descended through different proprietors, till,
at length, it has reverted to the Crown, by whose public
spirit a magnificent park is secured to the inhabitants of
London. The expense of its planting, &c. must have been
enormous; but money cannot be better laid out than on
purposes of this lasting benefit and national ornament.

The plan and size of the park is in every respect worthy of
the nation. It is larger than Hyde-park, St. James's, and
the Greenpark together; and the trees planted in it about
twelve years ago have already become umbrageous. The water
is very extensive. As you are rowed on it, the variety of
views you come upon is admirable: sometimes you are in a
narrow stream, closely overhung by the branches of trees;
presently you open upon a wide sheet of water, like a lake,
with swans sunning themselves on its bosom; by and by your
boat floats near the edge of a smooth lawn fronting one of
the villas; and then again you catch the perspective of a