ADDISON

227 it with dignity, must have caused him great annoyance, and he was but poorly served by the "little senate" of second-class writers which he collected around him at Button's, although the faithful friendship, amounting almost to adoration, which was displayed by Tickell cannot but have gratified Addison. But the latter began to age early, and already, no doubt, was apt to sit "attentive to his

Marcas there is already printed Tour Volumes of the spectators which
Include from Number one to thamber Three hundred Thority our in
and Whereas there is two volumes more now fuighing which will take
in from Number Three hundred houty one to to number fou buria
drights, or thereabouts Whirl will made itse Wames. And What-
it is inter Das Pf the author whose names are hereinafter moonrons
to Continue writing the kid Spectator to the end of this present
Month of Movinber which will make a Severitt vold.

How Know all Men by these presents that Joseph addison of St James
M.Amit Go and Richard Hoole of Festless in the firm's bad for
and ni consideration of the shine of Five hundred Koruty and
five pounds to them orone of them in hand paid by Samuel
Barkley of Lorison printer a Bookseller the Resist where of.

Lett.

They the said Josephaddison & Rishard Fool's for houby Holestand
Acknowledge they, the sand Joseph roditor and Rishard
and work and sitter of them Houth Grand Bargaimed Sold
Aligned Transpired and how over and by those presents they_
the reid Joseph addison and Richard Ala Bod and rash and
either of Kim Botte Grant Pargain Sell assign
over into the said Samuil Buckley his Excentors &dministrator
Ransfer and Sew-
and assigns all that their full and Sole right and Fitte of in and to
on moiety or full half Thare of the Copys of all and every the.
Above meuroned Promu volumes
Moroty or full half have to remain unto the said Samuel
of pectators which said
Shockley has heires and Astions for Ever In Minits where of
The sad loseph addison and Rishard Acete hoor hrun

Lets their hands & heals this Feuth day of Normber Annage
Your 1712.

Witress & Richard Jhwaite,
David Verdon

at the Fountain tavern.

the Shand

Facsimile of the Assignment of the "Spectator," signed by Addison and Steele

own applause," and to offer those features of human weakness which the cruel penetration of Pope has preserved for posterity in the venomous portrait of Atticus. The energies of Addison were now distributed between politics, in which he represented the most moderate of the Whigs, and the composition of an apologetic work on the history of Christianity, which he left unfinished. At the death of Anne, Addison returned with the Whigs to office, and was Chief Secretary in Ireland for some months of 1714-15. When he resigned this post he began to

edit a newspaper in the interests of the Government, namely, the Freeholder (1715-16). This journal ceased when its work was done, and Addison was made a Commissioner for Trade. In the summer of 1716 he married the widowed Countess of Warwick, to whom he had been long attached, but there is more than a fear that Addison found "wedded discord with a noble wife." In 1717, when Sunderland became Prime Minister, he appointed Addison a Secretary of State, but the essayist was not conspicuously successful as a politician. particular, during the ten years during which he sat for Malmesbury in the House of Commons he spoke but once, and then broke down in speaking: "he had too beautiful an imagination," one of his contemporaries said, "to make a man of business." In March 1718 Addison resigned his office, his health beginning to give him serious anxiety. It is painful to record that the last year of Addison's life was embittered by an acrimonious controversy with his old and close friend, Steele. Worn out with asthma and dropsy, Addison was now sinking, and on the

Jo Dr Jonathan Swift,
да

The most Agreeable Companion
The Fruest Friend

And the Greatest Genius of the Age
This Thook is presented by his mot
Humble Servant the Authout.

Autograph Inscription of Addison's to Jonathan Swift

17th of June 1719 he died at Holland House, having lately entered his forty-eighth year. He called his stepson, the Earl of Warwick, to his bedside, and bid him “see in what peace a Christian can die." Addison lay in state in Jerusalem Chamber, and then was buried "by midnight lamps" in Westminster Abbey, as Tickell has described in his beautiful and touching elegy. Addison's only child, an unmarried daughter, survived until 1797

WILL WIMBLE.

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 county, 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 with angle-rods. As he is a good-natured officious fellow, and very much esteemed on account of his family, he is a very welcome guest at every house, and keeps

up a good correspondence among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a tuliproot 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 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.

HAUNTED.

At a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms, which are shot up so very high, that when one passes under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the tops of them seem to be cawing in another region. I am very much delighted with this sort of noise, which I consider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who supplies the wants of his whole creation, and who, in the beautiful language of the Psalms, feedeth the young ravens that call upon him. I like this retirement the better, because of an ill report it lies under of being haunted; for which reason (as I have been told in

Patron of Addison

After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller at Bayfordbury

the family) no living creature ever walks in it besides the chaplain. My good friend the butler desired me with a very grave face not to venture myself in it after sunset, for that one of the footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits by a spirit that appeared to him in the shape of a black horse without an head to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids coming home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard such a rustling among the bushes that she let it fall.

I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder-bushes, the harbours of several solitary birds which seldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. The place was formerly a churchyard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is such an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you stamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the sound repeated. At the same time the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens which from time to time are heard from the tops of them, looks exceeding solemn and venerable. These objects naturally raise seriousness and attention; and