I thus delineate him, my dear Baron, on more powerful testimony than my own, or that of any individual. individual. He is amongst the few, whose domestic and public reputation may be trusted to, in general a very faithless historian -common report; and although I know him but by a transient view, I have so long been in the habit of hearing him spoken of, by persons very different minds, that whenever by any accident he has met my eye, I have looked at him with as much conscious feeling of being intimate, as if I had seen the transactions which have built up the fair superstructure of his of * character; nay, seen its basis—his generous heart. * The celebration of Marquis Townshend's birthday a few months since in Ireland, was one of the most brilliant, and at the same time the most truly affectionate, to that excellent Nobleman, which has occurred in the course of thirty-one years, since his friends established there this annual tribute of gratitude; the recollection of political benefits is seldom long-lived, and in ordinary cases personal affection does not often survive so many years of absence; yet, we see in the instance of Lord Townshend, the recollection of public services cherished even by the children "FAKENHAM," says one of its old describers, "is famous for nothing, but for having had salt-pits formerly;" - but a young historian of the place, whom I have just met, assures me, it can at present boast of something else. My intelligencer is a female, whose prompt but apt reply to my question, occasioned the following information: the truism it contains, is not diminished by being in verse, even though composed on horseback, and in a canter. I beg to call it THE RULE OF THREE, "Whose house is that, my pretty lass, So gay, one cannot by it pass And that so white, on t'other side? of those on whom they were conferred; and esteem for his private worth evinced by men who could only have learned it from the sincere and grateful testimony of their fathers. So happy and so unanimous a company as that of March 14, the Anniversary of the Marquis, is not often to be met; the occasion seemed to inspire every man with cheerfulness. Amongst the toasts which circulated on this occasion were The Marquis Townshend, the true and long-iried Friend of Ireland, and that the many who love him in "And that, my dear, which doth uplift Its head so high, be-tow'r'd at top?" "There, please you, Sir, dwells parson Thrift, Here, Lawyer Claw, there Doctor Lopp." This answer, Baron, serves for all, Sure as there's physic, gospel, law, In every town at which you call, You'll find a Thrift, a Lopp, and Claw. And such this lucky Trio's lot When you have journey'd England round, You'll see that it has always got The three best things on English ground. Best house, best living, and best pay; And e'er you thrice three leagues have been, I, thrice three pounds, to one will lay You'll note the lucky Wights I mean, of the family of this venerable and amiable Nobleman. Are Doctor, Lawyer-man, and Priest; But if, as sometimes you will view, That takes the lead of t'other two Though still observe, the wights agree, Leave preachments, parchments, drugs in plenty, That load they take; and Priest will tell Quoth he the poor go light to heaven. Then as for physic, when your breath Laud then, O muse! the generous three, It seems worse than a slight, an injustice to nature, and to art, a neglect of some of their best displays, in this fair country, to pass unnoticed the mansion and domain of MR. COKE, at a short and beautiful ride from Fakenham. The truth is, I paid my visit to these, under the most unfavourable circumstances: first from ignorance, or rather forgetfulness, that the house is open to public curiosity only one day in the week, (Tuesday,) and I was luckless enough not to select that one; a circumstance, however, which would not have been an interruption to you, my dear Baron, because foreigners have an exception in their |