Under the character of a countryman who has come up to see the world, he
gives us some amusing glimpses of the metropolis, for instance. He goes
to dine with some beaux at a tavern, and gives the following description
of the entertainment:--
"As soon as we came near the bar, a thing started up all ribbons,
lace, and feathers, and made such a noise with her bell and her
tongue together, that had half-a-dozen paper-mills been at work
within three yards of her, they'd have signified no more to her
clamorous voice than so many lutes to a drum, which alarmed two or
three nimble-heel'd fellows aloft, who shot themselves downstairs
with as much celerity as a mountebank's Mercury upon a rope from
the top of a church-steeple, every one charged with a mouthful of
'coming! coming!' This sudden clatter at our appearance so
surprised me that I looked as silly as a bumpkin translated from
the plough-tail to the play-house, when it rains fire in the
tempest, or when Don John's at dinner with the subterranean
assembly of terrible hobgoblins. He that got the start and first
approached us of these greyhound-footed emissaries, desir'd us to
walk up, telling my companion his friends were above; then with a
hop, stride and jump, ascended the stair-head before us, and from
thence conducted us to a spacious room, where about a dozen of my
schoolfellow's acquaintances were ready to receive us.
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