How fops and fleas fhould come together I cannot eafily account for; but I doubt not but his ale, rasher, grapes, peaches, and fhrivelled apples, might pit, box, and gallery it well enough. His prologue to Sir Martin Marall is such an exquisite poem, taken from the fame art, that I could with it tranflated into Latin to be prefixed to Dr. Lifter's work. The whole is as follows:

PROLOGUE.

"Fools which each man meets in his difh each day
"Are, yet the great regalia of a play;

"In which to poets you but just appear,

"To prize that higheft which coft them fo dear.
"Eops in the Town more easily will pass;
"One ftory makes a ftatutable afs:

But fuch in plays must be much thicker fown
"Like yolks of eggs, a dozen beat to one.
"Obferving poets all their walks invade,
"As men watch woodcocks gliding thro' a glade,
"And when they have enough for comedy
"They ftow their several bodies in a pie:
"The poet's but the Cook to fashion it;

"For, Gallants! you yourselves have found the wit.
"To bid you welcome would your bounty wrong:
"None welcome those who bring their cheer † along."

The image (which is the great perfection of a poet) is fo extremely lively and well painted, that methinks I fee the whole audience with a dish of buttered eggs in one hand and a woodcock pie in the other. I hope I may be excufed after fo great an example, for I declare I have no design but to encourage learnSome criticks read it chair.

King.

ing, and am very far from any defigns against it: and therefore I hope the worthy gentleman who faid that the Journey to London ought to be burnt by the common hangman, as a book that if received would difcourage ingenuity, would be pleafed not to make his bonefire at the upper end of Ludgate street, for fear of endangering the booksellers' fhops and the cathedral.

I have abundance more to fay upon these fubjects; but I am afraid my first course is fo tedious that you will excufe me both the second course and the deffert, and call for pipes and a candle. But consider the papers come from an old friend, and spare them out of compassion to, Sir, &c.

LETTER VII. TO MR.

SIR,

I Am no great lover of writing more than I am forced to, and therefore have not troubled you with my letters to congratulate your good fortune in London, or to bemoan our unhappiness in the lofs of you here. The occasion of this is to defire your assistance in a matter that I am fallen into by the advice of fome friends; but unless they help me it will be impoffible for me to get out of it. I have had the misfortune to -write; but what is worse, I have never confidered whether any one would read. Nay, I have been fo

wery bad as to defign to print; but then a wicked thought came across me with "Who will buy?" for if I tell you the title you will be of my mind, that the very name will deftroy it; "The Art of Cookery, "in Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry; with some "familiar Letters to Dr. Lifter and others, occafioned "principally by the Title of a Book published by the "Doctor concerning the Soups and Sauces of the "Ancients." To this a beau will cry "Phough! "what have I to do with kitchenftuff?" To which I anfwer, "Buy it, and give it to your fervants:" for I hope to live to fee the day when every mistress of a family, and every steward, shall call up their children and fervants with "Come, Mifs Betty, how much "have you got of your Art of Cookery? Where did 'you leave off, Mifs Ifabel?"" Mifs Kitty, are you no farther than King Henry and the Miller ?" -Yes, Madam, I am come to

-His name thall be enroll'd

In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron 's fram'd of gold. 46 Pray, mother, is that our Master Eftcourt?" "Well, child, if you mind this you shall not be put to your Affembly Catechism next Saturday." What a glorious fight it will be, and how becoming a great family, to fee the butler autlearning the steward, and the painful fcullerymaid exerting her memory far beyond the mumping housekeeper! I am told that if a book is any thing useful the printers have a way of

pirating on one another, and printing other perfons' copies, which is very barbarous; and then shall I be forced to come out with "The true Art of Cookery "is only to be had at Mr. Pindar's, a Pattenmaker's "under St. Dunstan's-church, with the Author's Seal "at the Titlepage, being Three Saucepans in a Bend

Proper, on a Cook's Apron, Argent. Beware of "Counterfeits." And be forced to put out advertisements with "Straps for razors, and the best spectacles, "are to be had only at the Archimedes, &c."

I defign proposals, which I must get delivered to the Cooks' Company, for the making an order that every apprentice shall have The Art of Cookery when he is bound, which he shall say by heart before he is made free; and then he shall have Dr. Lifter's book of Soups and Sauces delivered to him for his future practice. But you know better what I am to do than 1. For the kindness you may fhew me I fhall always endeavour to make what returns lie in my power. I am your's, c.

LETTER VIII. TO MR.

DEAR SIR,

I Cannot but recommend to your perusal a late exquifite comedy called The Lawyer's Fortune, or Love in a Hollow Tree, which piece has its peculiar embellishments, and is a poem carefully framed ac

cording to the nicest rules of The Art of Cookery; for the play opens with a scene of good housewifery, where Favourite the housekeeper makes this complaint to Lady Bonona :

"FAV. The last mutton killed was lean, Madam. "Should not fome fat sheep be bought in?

"BON. What fay you, Letacre, to it?

"LET. This is the worst time of the year for sheep: "the fresh grafs makes them fall away, and they

'begin to taste of the wool: they must be spared a "while, and Favourite must cast to spend some faitmeat and fish. I hope we shall have fome fat calves "shortly."

What can be more agreeable than this to The Art of Cookery, where our Author fays,

But tho' my edge be not too nicely set,
Yet I another's appetite may whet;

May teach him when to buy; when season paft
What's ftale, what 's choice, what 's plentiful, what's

In the fecond a& Valentine, Mrs. Bonona's fon, the confummate character of the play, having in the first act loft his hawk, and confequently his way, benighted and loft, and seeing a light in a distant house, comes to the thrifty widow Furiofa's, (which is exactly according to the rule, "A Prince who in a fo"reft rides aftray!") where he finds the old gentle