1725.

ture from

Yeoverin

My friend replied, that he had no objection to make he was quite fatisfied; and obliged to me for my advice. Thus ended the converfation between Bob Berrisfort and Jack Buncle.

94. The 3d day of July, I left Leoverinmy depar. Green, and fet out again for Ulubra, to get my horfes and portmanteau, but proceeded Green, and now on foot, becaufe, by climbing over a arrival at a high mountain, which it was impoffible for bog, at the a horfe to afcend, and then walking half a mile over a fhaking bog, where a beast could

thaking

bottom of

a moun

not go,
I was to fave many miles; and befide,
Mr. Berrisfort was fo obliging as to fend one of
his fervants back with Mr. Harcourt's horses,
which I knew not which way to return.
With my pole in my hand then I fet out,
and after I had bid adieu to my friends, who
walked with me a couple of miles to the
foot of the hills, I began to mount the Alp
at fix in the morning, and at eight arrived
on its fummit. Here I had a fine road, due
fouth, for an hour, till I came to a very steep
defcent, that led to the fhaking-bog, as my
paper of directions informed me. It was an
ugly way down, and the better to go it, I
refolved first to breakfaft, and bid Tim fee
what he had got in his wallet. Imme-
diately he produced a roaft fowl, a man-
chet, and a bottle of cyder, and among
fome trees, on the brow of a hill, by the

fide

95.

fide of a fpring, that ran off the way I was to go, I fat down to the repaft. I gave my Lad half the Bird, and the other half I difpatched in a very short time, drank a pint of Cyder, and was on my feet again. I then began to defcend, and in an hour made a shift to get to the bottom, tho' the way was bad; being very steep, wet, and flippery. I came to a dirty lane, about two hundred yards long, and that ended at the fhakingbog. This kind of bog I take to be an abyss The nature of ftanding water, covered with a thin arch of a fhakof earth, that is, a water communicating with the abyss fo covered, or weakly vaulted over and of this opinion I find the right reverend Erich Pontoppidan is, in his natural history of Norway. The bishop does not tell his reason for fo thinking; but mine is, that I have feen in Ireland the arches of feveral of those bogs broken, and a deep unfathomable water at fome diftance from the arch. They are very dangerous, frightful places, and many of them play up and down, like a long plank, in a very furprizing man

ner.

ing bug.

bog

mountain,

96. To go half a mile over fuch a bog, we return and the most elaftic of them I had ever from the tried, was what I did not much like; tho' to the the author of my paper of directions, an old and arrive fervant of Mr. Berrisfort, affirmed it quite fafe; and as to Tim, he would K k

at a fir

was mer's
not,

house.

on

An account

of Mr.

and his two

on any confideration, crofs it. He was pofi tive we should fink beyond recovery. What to do then, was the question? I tried for fome time to go round the bog, at the bottom of the enclosing mountains, but that was foon found impoffible, and therefore, it only remained, to go up again to the top of the hill, and try onwards for fome other defcent beyond the bog. We did fo, and after walking two hours fouth-west, at a good rate, had a view of a deep glin, to which we descended by an easy flope, and marched thro' it, to the weft, and north-west for two hours, till it ended at a wood. This we paffed without any difficulty, as there were walks cut through it, and came out into a broad valley, that had a river very near us, and a sweet pretty cottage on the margin of the flood. I went up to the house to afk my way, and found at the door three men, the eldest of whom seemed to be about thirty years old. They afked me very civilly to walk in, and feemed to wonder not a little at feeing me and my man, in fuch a place, with our poles in our hands.

97. These men were three brothers, and Fleming, Roman catholics. Two of them were gentlebrothers. men-farmers, who lived together, and jointly managed the country bufinefs. The eldest was a Francifcan frier, who came to vifit them. Their good manners, in their plain dress, furprized me; and their benevolence, made me wonder a great deal more. Their maid

laid a clean cloth in a minute, and brought fome cold roast beef, good bread, and fine ale. They bid me heartily welcome many times, and were fo frank and generous, fo chearful and gay; efpecially the eldest of the farmers, who fang feveral good fongs over a bowl of punch after dinner, that I could not think of leaving them immediately, if I had known my road, and was eafily prevailed on to ftay feveral days. A friendship commenced immediately between the eldest Fleming and me, and there was not one cold or crofs minute in it for the few years that he lived. He loved me as his brother from the first day he saw me, and I had fo great a regard for him, that with a forrow I cannot help, I think of his death to this day. How to account for fuch fudden paffions I know not. The thing has always appeared to me very ftrange. Mr. Fleming to be fure was a man of a bright and very extraordinary underftanding, though no more than a farmer in this world, had a moft happy temper, a generofity too great for his fortune, and was for ever chearful and free; but these things, however pleafing, could not be the cause of the fudden and lafting friendfhip between us, as I have been acquainted with men of fortune who equalled him in these refpects, and yet they never ftruck me more than for the prefent Time. Whatever might be the caufe, the fact is Kk 2 certain.

certain. No two men ever liked one another more than we did from the first hour of our acquaintance, and as I had the happiness of converting him to the proteftant religion, it is poffible, that might cement a friendship, which a fameness of difpofition had helped to produce (44). This is all I can say as to the

(44.) The arguments I ufed to make a convert of Mr. Fleming, the reader will find in the appendix to this journal, among other interefting matters, that are too long to be inferted in the story of my life. I shall print, them in hopes they may be of fervice to some other foul. They were introduced the first day I was at Mr. Fleming's house, by his faying to me, after dinner,

Dear fir, will you give me leave to afk you, by what ftrange caufe it has happened, that you are thus travelling on foot in this unvifited country. It must be an extraordinary affair I am fure.Sir, I replied, my cafe is very uncommon. 1 do not believe that any thing like it ever was before, and, perhaps, fuch ancther affair may never happen again. I little thought then, that I should afterwards meet with two instances of the fame kind of thinking and refolution in the female world, to wit, Mifs Chaucer and Mifs Janfon z whofe hiftories I have given in the firft volume of my Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, p. 41---64. The Critics, I remember, had fome doubts as to the reality of thefe two cafes: but to this I anfwer, that they may as well doubt the truth of my own story; and from thence proceed to deny the reality of my existence; because feveral incidents in my life are strange, and such as they have not heard of before. It is not, however, in the power of criticism to invalidate what I deliver as facts. I will tell you my story and fo began to relate the religious Difpute between my father and me, and how it was brought to a Head by the de