334 full vale, drew abundance of vagrant people to come and exercise the idle trade of wandering and begging; but he tooke such courses that there was very suddenly not a beggar left in the country, and all the poore in every towne so maintain'd and provided for, as they never were so liberally maintain'd and reliev'd before nor since. He procur'd unnecessary alehouses to be putt downe in all the townes, and if any one that he heard of sufter'd any disorder or debauchery in his house, he would not suffer him to brew any more: He was a little severe against drunkennesse, for which the drunkards would sometimes raile att him; but so were all the children of darknesse convinc'd by his light, that they were in awe more of his vertue then his authority. In this time he had made himselfe a convenient house,' whereof he was the best ornament, and an ex1'Pained and disgusted as the mind of the· reader must be with the tumults, ana~ chy, and crimes, it has witnessed, how welcome is the contemplation of this ease and leisure, devoted to eleiant studies., virtuous pursuits, useful occupations, gentlemanlike amusements, 1·ational converse, and conciliating hospitality! How difficult will it be to him to believe that this otium cum dignitatc is the honourable retreat of one of those gloomy Fanatics whose tyrapny Rapin says had become intolerable to the nation? About thirty years ago it was the fate of the Editor to v i~t this mansion of his ancestors, in order to bring away a few pictures and some books, all that remained to. him of those possessions, where they had lived with so.much merited love and honour. Although he had not then read these memoirs, yet having heard Col. Hutchinson spoken of as an extraordinary person, and that he had built, planted, and formed, all that was to be seen there; the country adjoining being a dreary waste, many thousand acres together being entirely overrun with gorse or furze; he viewed the whole with the utmost attention . He found there a house, of which he has the drawing, large, handsome, lofty, and convenient, and though but little ornamented, possessing all the grace that size and symmetry could give it. The entrance was by a flight of hand· some steps into a large hall, occupying entirely the center of the house, lighted at the entrance by two large windows, but at the further end by one much larger, in the expanse of which was carried up a stair-case that seemed to be perfectly in the air. On one side of the hall was a long table, on the other a 1arge fire-place; L>oth :;uited .to ancient hospi talit y. On the right halld side of this hall were three handsome rooms
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