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    <span style="crey">An old song, made by an aged old pate,</span>

    <span style="crey">Of an old worshipful gentleman who had a great estate,</span>

    <span style="crey">That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,</span>

    <span style="crey">And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate.</span>

    <span style="crey">With an old study ?lld full of learned old books,</span>

    <span style="crey">With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks,</span>

    <span style="crey">With an old buttery-hatch worn quite off the hooks,</span>

    <span style="crey">And an old kit that maintained half-a-dozen old cooks.</span>

    <span style="crey">Like an old courtier, etc.--Old Song.</span>

    THERE is no species of humor in which the English more excel than that which sists in caricaturing and giving ludicrous appellations or niames. In this way they have whimsically designated, not merely individuals, but nations, and in their fondness for pushing a joke they have not spared even themselves.

    One would think that in personifying itself a nation would be apt to picture something grand, heroid imposing; but it is characteristic of the peculiar humor of the English, and of their love for what is blunt, id familiar, that they have embodied their national oddities in the ?gure of a sturdy, corpulent old fellow with a three-ered hat, red waistcoat, leather breeches, and stout oaken cudgel. Thus they have taken a singular delight in exhibiting their most private foibles in a laughable point of view, and have been so successful in their deliions that there is scarcely a being in actual existence more absolutely present to the publid than that etric personage, John Bull.

    Perhaps the tinual plation of the character thus drawn of them has tributed to ?x it upoion, and thus to give reality to what at ?rst may have been painted in a great measure from the imagination. Me to acquire peculiarities that are tinually ascribed to them. The on orders of English seem wonderfully captivated with the beau ideal which they have formed of John Bull, and endeavor to act up to the broad caricature that is perpetually before their eyes.

    Unluckily, they sometimes make their boasted Bullism an apology for their prejudice rossness; and this I have especially noticed among those truly homebred and genuine sons of the soil who have never migrated beyond the sound of Bow bells. If one of these should be a little uncouth in speed apt to utter impertiruths, he fesses that he is a real John Bull and always speaks his mind. If he now and then ?ies into an   unreasonable burst of passion about tri?es, he observes that John Bull is a choleric old blade, but then his passion is over in a moment and he bears no malice. If he betrays a coarseness of taste and an insensibility tn re?s, he thanks Heaven for his ignorance--he is a plain John Bull and has no relish for frippery and kniacks. His very proo be gulled by strangers and to pay extravagantly for absurdities is excused uhe plea of muni?ce, for John is always menerous than wise<s>藏书网</s>.

    Thus, uhe name of John Bull he will trive tue every fault into a merit, and will frankly vict himself of being the ho fellow ience.

    However little, therefore, the character may have suited in the ?rst insta has gradually adapted itself to the nation, or rather they have adapted themselves to each other; and a stranger who wishes to study English peculiarities may gather much valuable information from the innumerable portraits of John Bull as exhibited in the windows of the caricature-shops. Still, however, he is one of those fertile humorists that are tinually throwing out new portraits and presenting different aspects from different points of view; and, often as he has been described, I ot resist the temptation to give a slight sketch of him such as he has met my eye.

    John Bull, to all appearance, is a plain, dht, matter-of-fact fellow, with much less of poetry about him than rich prose. There is little of roman his nature, but a vast deal of strong natural feeling. He excels in humor more than in wit; is jolly rather than gay; melancholy rather than morose;  easily be moved to a sudden tear or surprised into a broad laugh; but he loathes se and has no turn fht pleasantry. He is a boon panion, if you allow him in to have his humor and to talk about himself; and he will stand by a friend in a quarrel   with life and purse, however soundly he may be cudgelled.

    In this last respect, to tell the truth, he has a propensity to be somewhat too ready. He is a busy-minded personage, who thinks not merely for himself and family, but for all the try round, and is most generously disposed to be everybodys champion. He is tinually volunteering his services to settle his neighbors affairs, and takes it i dudgeon if they engage in any matter of sequehout asking his advice, though he seldom engages in any friendly of?ce of the kind without ?nishing by getting into a squabble with all parties, and then railing bitterly at their ingratitude. He unluckily took lessons in his youth in the noble sce of defence, and having aplished himself in the use of his limbs and his ons and bee a perfect master at boxing and cudgel-play, he has had a troublesome life of it ever since. He ot hear of a quarrel between the most distant of his neighbors but he begins intily to fumble with the head of his cudgel, and sider whether his i or honor does not require that he should meddle in the broil. Indeed, he has extended his relations of pride and .polipletely over the whole try that   take place without infringing some of his ?nely-spun rights and dignities. Couched in his little domain, with these ?laments stretg forth in every dire, he is like some choleric, bottle-bellied old spider who has woven his web over a whole chamber, so that a ?y ot buzz nor a breeze blow without startling his repose and causing him to sally forth wrathfully from his den.

    Though really a good-hearted, good-tempered old fellow at bottom, yet he is singularly fond of being in the midst of tention. It is one of his peculiarities, however, that he only relishes the beginning of an affray; he always goes into a ?ght with alacrity, but es out of it grumbling even when victorious; and though no one ?ghts with more obstinacy to carry a tested   point, yet whetle is over and he es to the reciliation he is so much taken up with the mere shaking of hands that he is apt to let his antagonist pocket all that they have been quarrelling about. It is not, therefore, ?ghting that he ought so much to be on his guard against as making friends. It is dif?cult to cudgel him out of a farthing; but put him in a good humor and you may bargain him out of all the money in his pocket. He is like a stout ship which will weather the roughest storm uninjured, but roll its masts overboard<var>99lib?</var> in the succeeding calm.

    He is a little fond of playing the magni?co abroad, of pulling out a long purse, ?inging his money bravely about at boxing-matches, horse-races, cock-?ghts, and carrying a high head among &quot;gentlemen of the fancy:&quot; but immediately after one of these ?ts of extravagance he will be taken with violent qualms of ey; stop short at the most trivial expenditure; talk desperately of being ruined and brought upon the parish; and in such moods will not pay the smallest tradesmans bill without violent altercation. He is, in fact, the most punctual and distented paymaster in the world, drawing his  out of his breeches pocket with in?nite reluce, paying to the uttermost farthing, but apanying every guinea with a growl.

    With all his talk of ey, however, he is a bountiful provider and a hospitable housekeeper. His ey is of a whimsical kind, its chief object being to devise how he may afford to be extravagant; for he will begrudge himself a beefsteak and pint of port one day that he may roast an ox whole, broach a hogshead of ale, and treat all his neighbors on the .

    His domestic establishment is enormously expensive, not so much from any great outarade as from the great ption of solid beef and pudding, the vast number of followers he feeds and clothes, and his singular disposition to pay hugely for small   services. He is a most kind and indulgent master, and, provided his servants humor his peculiarities, ?atter his vanity a little now and then, and do not peculate grossly on him before his face they may manage him to perfe. Everything that lives on him seems to thrive and grow fat. His house-servants are well paid and pampered and have little to do. His horses are sleek and lazy and prance slowly before his state carriage; and his house-dogs sleep quietly about the door and will hardly bark at a housebreaker.

    His family mansion is an old castellated manor-house, gray with age, and of a most venerable though weather-beaten appeara has been built upon nular plan, but is a vast accumulation of parts erected in various tastes and ages. The tre bears evident traces of Saxon architecture, and is as solid as ponderous stone and old English oak  make it. Like all the relics of that style, it is full of obscure passages, intricate mazes, and dusty chambers, and, though these have been partially lighted up in modern days, yet there are many places where you must still grope in the dark. Additions have been made to the inal edi?ce from time to time, and great alterations have taken place; towers and battlements have beeed during wars and tumults: wings built in time of peace; and out-houses, lodges, and of?ces run up acc to the whim or venience of different geions, until it has bee one of the most spacious, rambling tes imaginable. Aire wing is taken up with the family chapel, a reverend pile that must have been exceedingly sumptuous, and, indeed, in spite of having been altered and simpli?ed at various periods, has still a look of solemn religious pomp. Its walls withioried with the mos of Johns aors, and it is snugly ?tted up with soft cushions and well-lined chairs, where such of his family as are ined to church services may doze fortably in the discharge of their duties.

    To keep up this chapel has cost John much money; but he is staun his religion and piqued in his zeal, from the circumstahat many dissenting chapels have beeed in his viity, and several of his neighbors, with whom he has had quarrels, are strong papists.

    To do the duties of the chapel he maintains, at a large expense, a pious and portly family chaplain. He is a most learned and decorous personage and a truly well-bred Christian, who always backs the old gentleman in his opinions, winks discreetly at his little peccadilloes, rebukes the children when refractory, and is of great use in exh the tenants to read their Bibles, say their prayers, and, above all, to pay their rents punctually and without grumbling.

    The family apartments are in a very antiquated taste, somewhat heavy and often inve, but full of the solemn magni?ce of former times, ?tted up with rich though faded tapestry, unwieldy furniture, and loads of massy, geous old plate. The vast ?replaces, ample kits, extensive cellars, and sumptuous baing-halls all speak of the r hospitality of days of yore, of which the moderivity at the manor-house is but a shadow. There are, however, plete suites of rooms apparently deserted and time-worn, and towers and turrets that are t to decay, so that in high winds there is danger of their tumbling about the ears of the household.

    John has frequently been advised to have the old edi?ce thhly overhauled, and to have some of the useless parts pulled down, and the others strengthened with their materials; but the old gentleman always grows testy on this subject. He swears the house is an excellent house; that it is tight aher-proof, and not to be shaken by tempests; that it has stood for several hundred years, and therefore is not likely to tumble down now; that as to its being inve, his family is   aced to the inveniences and would not be fortable without them; that as to its unwieldy size and irregular stru, these result from its being the growth of turies and being improved by the wisdom of every geion; that an old family, like his, requires a large house to dwell in; new, upstart families may live in modern cottages and snug boxes; but an old English family should inhabit an old English manor-house.

    If you point out any part of the building as super?uous, he insists that it is material to the strength or decoration of the rest and the harmony of the whole, and swears that the parts are so built into each other that if you pull down one, you run the risk of having the whole about your ears.

    The secret of the matter is, that John has a great disposition to proted patronize. He thinks it indispensable to the dignity of an a and honorable family to be bounteous in its appois and to be eaten up by depes; and so, partly from pride and partly from kiedness, he makes it a rule always to give shelter and mainteo his superannuated servants.

    The sequence is, that, like many other venerable family establishments, his manor is incumbered by old retainers whom he ot turn off, and an old style which he ot lay down. His mansion is like a great hospital of invalids, and, with all its magnitude, is not a whit toe for its inhabitants. Not a nook or er but is of use in housing some useless personage.

    Groups of veteran beef-eaters, gouty pensioners, aired heroes of the buttery and the larder are seen lolling about its ways, crawling over its lawns, dozing us tree, or sunning themselves upon the be its doors. Every of?d out-house is garrisoned by these supernumeraries and their families; for they are amazingly proli?d when they die off are sure to leave John a legacy of hungry mouths to be provided for. A mattock ot be struck against the most mouldering   tumble-down tower but out pops, from some y or loophole, the gray pate of some superannuated hanger-on, who has lived at Johns expense all his life, and makes the most grievous outcry at their pulling down the roof from over the head of a worn-out servant of the family. This is an appeal that Johns ho heart never  withstand; so that a man who has faithfully eaten his beef and pudding all his life is sure to be rewarded with a pipe and tankard in his old days.

    A great part of his park also is turned into paddocks, where his broken-down chargers are turned loose to graze undisturbed for the remainder of their existences--a worthy example of grateful recolle which, if some of his neighbors were to imitate, would not be to their discredit. Indeed, it is one of his great pleasures to point out these old steeds to his visitors, to dwell on their good qualities, extol their past services, and boast, with some little vain-glory, of the perilous adventures and hardy exploits through which they have carried him.

    He is given, however, to indulge his veion for family usages and family encumbrao a whimsical extent. His manor is ied by gangs of gypsies; yet he will not suffer them to be driven off, because they have ied the place time out of mind and been regular poachers upon every geion of the family. He will scarcely permit a dry branch to be lopped from the great trees that surround the house, lest it should molest the rooks that have bred there for turies. Owls have taken possession of the dovecote, but they are hereditary owls and must not be disturbed. Swallows have nearly choked up every ey with their s; martins build in every frieze and ice; crows ?utter about the towers and per every weather-cock; and old gray-headed rats may be seen in every quarter of the house, running in and out of their holes undauntedly in broad daylight.

    In short, John has such a reverence for everything that has been long in the family that he will not hear even of abuses being   reformed, because they are good old family abuses.

    All these whims and habits have curred woefully to drain the old gentlemans purse; and as he prides himself on punctuality in money matters and wishes to maintain his credit in the neighborhood, they have caused him great perplexity iing his es. This, too, has been increased by the altercations a-burnings which are tinually taking pla his family. His children have been brought up to different callings and are of different ways of thinking; and as they have always been allowed to speak their minds freely, they do not fail to exercise the privilege most clamorously in the present posture of his affairs. Some stand up for the honor of the race, and are clear that the old establishment should be kept up in all its state, whatever may be the cost; others, who are more prudent and siderate, ehe old gentleman to retrench his expenses and to put his whole system of housekeeping on a more moderate footing. He has, indeed, at times, seemed ined to listen to their opinions, but their wholesome advice has been pletely defeated by the obstreperous duct of one of his sons. This is a noisy, rattle-pated fellow, of rather low habits, who s his busio frequent ale-houses--is the orator of village clubs and a plete oracle among the poorest of his fathers tenants. No sooner does he hear any of his brothers mention reform or retrehan up he jumps, takes the words out of their mouths, and roars out for aurn.

    When his tongue is once going nothing  stop it. He rants about the room; hectors the old man about his spendthrift practices; ridicules his tastes and pursuits; insists that he shall turn the old servants out of dive the broken-down horses to the hounds, send the fat chaplain pag, and take a ?eld-preacher in his plaay, that the whole family mansion shall be levelled with the ground, and a plain one of brid mortar built in its place. He rails at every social eai and family festivity, and skulks away growling to the ale-house   whenever an equipage drives up to the door. Though stantly plaining of the emptiness of his purse, yet he scruples not to spend all his pocket-money iavern vocations, and even runs up scores for the liquor over which he preaches about his fathers extravagance.

    It may readily be imagined how little such thwarting agrees with the old cavaliers ?ery temperament. He has bee so irritable from repeated crossings that the mere mention of retre or reform is a signal for a brawl between him and the tavern oracle.

    As the latter is too sturdy and refractory for paternal discipline, having grown out of all fear of the cudgel, they have frequent ses of wordy warfare, which at times run so high that John is fain to call in the aid of his son Tom, an of?cer who has served abroad, but is at present living at home on half-pay.

    This last is sure to stand by the old gentleman, right , likes nothing so much as a rocketing, roistering life, and is ready at a wink or nod to out sabre and ?ourish it over the orators head if he dares to array himself against parental authority.

    These family dissensions, as usual, have got abroad, and are rare food for sdal in Johns neighborhood. People begin to look wise and shake their heads whenever his affairs are mentioned.

    They all &quot;hope that matters are not so bad with him as represented; but when a mans own children begin to rail at his extravagahings must be badly mahey uand he is med over head and ears and is tinually dabbling with money-lenders. He is certainly an open-handed old gentleman, but they fear he has lived too fast; ihey never knew any good e of this fondness for hunting, rag revelling, and prize-?ghting. In short, Mr. Bulls estate is a very ?ne one and has been in the family a long while, but, for all that, they have known many ?es e to the hammer.&quot;

    What is worst of all, is the effect which these peiary embarrassments and domestic feuds have had on the poor man himself. Instead of<bdo></bdo> that jolly round corporation and smug rosy face which he used to present, he has of late bee as shrivelled and shrunk as a frost-bitten apple. His scarlet gold-laced waistcoat, which bellied out so bravely in those prosperous days when he sailed before the wind, now hangs loosely about him like a mainsail in a calm. His leather breeches are all in folds and wrinkles, and apparently have much ado to hold up the boots that yawn on both sides of his ourdy legs.

    Instead of strutting about as formerly with his three-ered hat on one side, ?ourishing his cudgel, and bringing it down every moment with a hearty thump upon the ground, looking every ourdily in the fac<tt></tt>e, and trolling out a stave of a catch or a drinking-song, he now goes about whistling thoughtfully to himself, with his head drooping down, his cudgel tucked under his arm, and his hands thrust to the bottom of his breeches pockets, which are evidently empty.

    Such is the plight of ho John Bull at present, yet for all this the old fellows spirit is as tall and as gallant as ever.

    If you drop the least expression of sympathy or , he takes ?re in an instant; swears that he is the richest and stoutest fellow in the try; talks of laying out large sums to adorn his house or buy another estate; and with a valiant swagger and grasping of his cudgel longs exceedingly to have another bout at quarter-staff.

    Though there may be something rather whimsical in all this, yet I fess I ot look upon Johns situation without strong feelings of i. With all his odd humors and obstinate prejudices he is a sterlied old blade. He may not be so wonderfully ?ne a fellow as he thinks himself, but he is at least twice as good as his neighbors represent him. His virtues   are all his olain, homebred, and ued. His very faults smack of the raess of his good qualities. His extravagance savors of his generosity, his quarrelsomeness of his ce, his credulity of his open faith, his vanity of his pride, and his bluntness of his siy. They are all the redundancies of a rid liberal character. He is like his own oak, rough without, but sound and solid within; whose bark abounds with excresces in proportion to the growth and grandeur of the timber; and whose branches make a fearful groaning and murmuring in the least storm from their very magnitude and luxuriahere is something, too, in the appearance of his old family mansion that is extremely poetical and picturesque; and as long as it  be rendered fortably habitable I should almost tremble to see it meddled with during the present ?ict of tastes and opinions. Some of his advisers are no doubt good architects that might be of service; but many, I fear, are mere levellers, who, when they had o to work with their mattocks on this venerable edi?ce, would op until they had brought it to the ground, and perhaps buried themselves among the ruins. All that I wish is, that Johns present troubles may teach him more pruden future--that he may cease to distress his mind about other peoples affairs; that he may give up the fruitless attempt to promote the good of his neighbors and the pead happiness of the world, by dint of the cudgel; that he may remain quietly at home; gradually get his house into repair; cultivate his rich estate acc to his fancy; husband his ine--if he thinks proper; bring his unruly children into order--if he ; rehe jovial ses of a prosperity; and long enjoy on his paternal lands a green, an honorable, and a merry old age.

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