By the indulgence of the mortgagee he resided on his estate, near Carmarthen, which he had formerly acquired on his marriage with his second wife. After lingering nearly two years in this secluded situation, he died September 21, 1729. Such was the chequered life of Steele, at one time exulting on the wing of prosperity; at another depressed by all the evils of the most embittered poverty. His frailties were not the offspring of vice, but the effects of habitual carelessness and the want of prudence. Compassionate in his heart; unbounded in his benevolence; no object of distress that he could relieve ever left him with a murmur; and in the hour of prosperity he was ever ready, both with his influence and property, to promote the views of literature and science, and to assist the efforts of unprotected genius. Mental wealth, however poor and humble the possessor, was esteemed by him to be of invaluable worth. {108} Don Saltero’s Coffee House. This well known coffee-house was first opened in the year 1695, by one Salter, who had been a servant to Sir Hans Sloane, and had accompanied him on his travels. The collection of curiosities, which were principally the gift of his master, being the duplicates of his various curious collections, drew from London a multitude of spectators. It existed for more than a century, and was at length sold by public auction in the year 1799. * * * * * In “The Tatler,” No. 34, Sir Richard Steele has given the following humorous description of this once far-famed collection of rarities, and of its eccentric proprietor:—