[_Strikes the letter down with his stick._ _Enter ~James~ hastily._ _James._ Sir, Sir, do you hear the news? they are all a-coming. Unc. _Rich._ Ay, sirrah, I hear it with a pox to it. _James._ Sir, here's _John Moody_ arriv'd already; he's stumping about the streets in his dirty boots, and asking every man he meets, if they can tell where he may have a good lodging for a parliament-man, 'till he can hire such a house as becomes him; he tells them his lady and all the family are coming too, and that they are so nobly attended, they care not a fig for any body. Sir, they have added two cart-horses to the four old geldings, because my lady will have it said, she came to town in her coach and six, and (ha, ha,) heavy _George_ the plowman rides postillion. Unc. _Rich._ Very well; the journey begins as it shou'd do----_James_. _James._ Sir. Unc. _Rich._ Dost know whether they bring all the children with them? _James._ Only 'Squire _Humphry_, and Miss _Betty_, Sir; the other six are put to board at half a crown a week a head, with _Joan Growse_, at _Smoke-Dunghill_ farm. Unc. _Rich._ The Lord have mercy upon all good folks! what work will these people make! dost know when they'll be here? _James._ _John_ says, Sir, they'd have been here last night, but that the old wheezy-belly horse tir'd, and the two fore-wheels came crash down at once in _Waggonrut_-lane. Sir, they were cruelly loaden, as I understand; my lady herself, he says, laid on four mail trunks, besides the great deal-box, which fat _Tom_ sat upon behind. Unc. _Rich._ Soh! _James._ Then within the coach there was Sir _Francis_, my Lady, and the great fat lap-dog, 'Squire _Humphry_, Miss _Betty_, my Lady's maid Mrs. Handy, and _Doll Tripe_ the cook; but she puked with sitting backward, so they mounted her into the coach-box. Unc. _Rich._ Very well. _James._ Then, Sir, for fear of a famine, before they should get to the baiting-place, there was such baskets of plumb-cake, Dutch-gingerbread, Cheshire-cheese, Naples-biscuits, Macaroons, Neats-tongues, and cold boil'd beef----and in case of sickness, such bottles of usquebaugh, black cherry-brandy, cinamon-water, sack, tent, and strong beer, as made the old coach crack again. Unc. _Rich._ Well said! _James._ And for defence of this good cheer, and my Lady's little pearl necklace, there was the family basket-hilt sword, the great Turkish cimiter, the old blunderbuss, a good bag of bullets, and a great horn of gunpowder. Unc. _Rich._ Admirable!