clofet, I found a box of fea-biskets, many flasks of oil for eating, and jars of it for the lamp; honey, falt, and vinegar; four dozen of quart bottles of meath, and two stone bottles, that held three gallons each, full of brandy: this I fuppofe was against the days of weakness or fickness. He had not used a pint of this liquor.

Having found these things within doors, I proceeded from the house to the garden, which lay at a fmall distance from the little thatched manfion, and contained about four acres; it had been very beautifully laid out, and filled with the beft fruit-trees, and all the vegetables: but it was run to ruin and high weeds, and fhewed that its owner had been long dead. I fuppofe he died foon after the date of his paper; for, I obferved, that many prior dates had been ftruck out; and had he lived after the year 1701, he would, in all probability, have razed that likewise, and fet down 1702. Some fudden fickness must have seized him; and perhaps, when he found himself sinking, he laid himfelf out naked on the wooden couch where I found his skeleton. I can no otherwise account for his having no kind of covering over him. As to his bones being fo clean, that to be sure was performed by the ants. I took notice of many nefts here of the larger ants, in holes under the roots of great

trees.

2

That

That the pifmires are the best preparers of a fkeleton is not only certain from the account the miffionaries give of the coming on of the ants in Pegu; when in one night's time, the vast swarms of them that approach, reduce every human creature they can fasten on to clean bones; which makes the people fet fire to their habitations, when they have notice given them by a kind of small monkey they keep for the purpose of the motion of this terrible enemy: but it is plain from what I have often experimented.

When I want to make a fkeleton of any fmall animal, I put the dead creature in a box with holes in it among the ants, in their habitations, or nefts, or in fuch parts of the houfe as a whole tribe will often march to, through feveral rooms, in one track or certain road, to eat fugar or fweatmeats they have discovered, and then in two or three days, they will perform what the finest knife cannot execute. The big ants which are larger than a common house fly, and are feldom less than fix thousand in a neft, will clear the bones of a rat in half a night's time.

There was a pretty little wooden fummerhouse in the centre of the garden, and in it had been in pots fome curious plants and flowers. Here were various tools, and many inftruments of gardening. It appeared from

them,

them, and the great variety of things in the ground, that Mr. Orton must have used himself to hard labour, and found great pleasure in his improvements and productions. There was a deal of art and ingenuity to be traced in the wild wilderness the garden was grown into. It was plain from a book, called the Carthufian gardener, which lay on a table in the fummer-house, that he had made that business his ftudy. Round this fummerhoufe were the remains of many hives on benches, but the bees were all gone, and the ftock ruined.

54. All these things, and the place, fet A scheme, me a thinking,, and foon fuggefted to my fancy, that in my condition, I could not do better than fucceed Mr. Orton on the premiffes; but, without turning hermit. Here is (I faid) a pretty small thatched mansion, that might easily be enlarged, if more rooms were wanting; and a garden, which labour would foon restore to its usefulness and beauty, and make it produce the best vegetables in plenty. Here is fish in the waters, fowl of every kind, and deer on the mountains. Here are goats in great herds, for milk, for kids, and when cut, for excellent venifon. Here is the finest water, and by getting bees, as Mr. Orton had, meath may be made that will be equal to the best foreign wine. As to the fituation, it is moft delightful. No

thing can be more charming than these shores and breaking waters, the rocky precipices and the woody hills, which furround this little region. What then fhould hinder but that I here fit down, and put an end to my adventures; as the few things that are want ing may be had at the next town, and a ftock for years be in a few days fecured? The man I am looking for may never be found; and if I fhould meet with him, his circumftances and temper may be changed: then, as to the world, I know not how to deal in any kind of bufinefs; and to live on the fmall fortune in my poffeffion, muft reduce me to poverty very foon. Here then it is good for me to refide, and make myself as happy as I can, if it be not in my power to be as happy as I would. I have two lads with me, who are active, useful young men, willing to work, and pleafed to ftay whereever I am; and if I can commence a matrimonial relation with fome fenfible, goodhumoured, dear delightful girl of the muntains, and perfuade her to be the chearful partner of my fill life, nature and reafin will create the higheft fcenes of felicity, and we shall live as it were in the fuburbs of heaven. My lads too may pick up among the hills, upon fcripture principles, two bouncing females: and a tate will in a little time be formed. This is fine. For

once

once in my life I am fortunate. And fuppofe, this partner I want in my folitude could be Mifs Melmoth, one of the wifeft and most discreet of women; a thinking bloom, and good-humour itself in a human figure; then indeed I must be happy in this filent, romantic station. This fpot of earth would then have all the felicities. — Refolved. Conclufum eft contra Manicheos, faid the great St. Aufin, and with a thump of his fift, he cracked the table.

scene.

55. Thus was my head employed, while A fine rural I fmoaked a pipe after fupper, and I determined to return to Orton's mansion, after I had found a way out of Stanemore: but the previous question was, how I fhould get out of the place I was in, without going back, as there appeared no paffage onwards. I tried every angle the next morning, to no purpose, and in vain attempted some hills that were too steep for the horfes. Down then again I went to the bottom of the black and narrow glin afore-mentioned, and with lights obferved the rumbling deep river. It appeared more frightful than the first time I saw it, and there was no venturing into it. This troubled me not a little, as the water was not above eight yards broad, and there was an afcending glin on the other fide of it, that appeared to rife into a fine woody coun-. try. It was not half the length of that we

had