The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'Steele, Richard, Sir
General
The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
Steele, Richard, Sir
English essays
I desire you to accept of a jack[53], which is the best I have
caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and
see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed with some
concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green, that your
whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I
twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all the time you are
in the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six days last
past, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to
his learning hugely. I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
WILL WIMBLE.
This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made me very
curious to know the character and quality of the gentleman who sent them;
which I found to be as follows. Will Wimble is younger brother to a
baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now
between forty and fifty; but, being bred to no business and born to no
estate, he generally lives with his elder brother as superintendent of
his game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country, and
is very famous for finding out a hare. He is extremely well-versed in all
the little handicrafts of an idle man: he makes a May-fly to a miracle;
and furnishes the whole country[54] with angle-rods. As he is a
good-natured officious[55] fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of
his family, he is a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good
correspondence[56] among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a
tulip-root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy
between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides of
the county. Will is a particular favourite of all the young heirs, whom
he frequently obliges with a net that he has weaved, or a setting dog
that he has made[57] himself: he now and then presents a pair of garters
of his own knitting to their mothers or sisters; and raises a great deal
of mirth among them, by inquiring as often as he meets them _how they
wear_? These gentleman-like manufactures and obliging little humours make
Will the darling of the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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