The Village Register considered, as containing principally the Annals of the Poor--State of the Peasantry as meliorated by Frugality and Industry--The Cottage of an industrious Peasant; its Ornaments--Prints and Books--The Garden; its Satisfactions--The State of the Poor, when improvident and vicious--The Row or Street, and its Inhabitants--The Dwelling of one of these--A Public House--Garden and its Appendages--Gamesters; rustic Sharpers, &c.--Conclusion of the Introductory Part. PART I. _BAPTISMS._ The Child of the Miller's Daughter, and Relation of her Misfortune--A frugal Couple: their Kind of Frugality--Plea of the Mother of a natural Child: her Churching--Large Family of Gerard Ablett: his Apprehensions: Comparison between his State and that of the wealthy Farmer his Master: his Consolation--An old Man's Anxiety for an Heir: the Jealousy of another on having many--Characters of the Grocer Dawkins and his Friend: their different Kinds of Disappointment--Three Infants named--An Orphan Girl and Village School-mistress--Gardener's Child: Pedantry and Conceit of the Father: his Botanical Discourse: Method of fixing the Embryo-fruit of Cucumbers--Absurd Effects of Rustic Vanity: observed in the Names of their Children--Relation of the Vestry Debate on a Foundling: Sir Richard Monday--Children of various Inhabitants--The poor Farmer--Children of a Profligate: his Character and Fate--Conclusion. Tum porro puer (ut sævis projectus ab undis Navita) nudus humi jacet, infans, indigus omni Vitali auxilio---- Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut æquum est, Cui tantum in vitâ [restet] transire malorum. _Lucret. de Nat. Rerum_, lib. v. [vv. 223--5, 227--8.]