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Transcriber’s Note: The spelling in this text is appropriate for the period in which it was written and published. The text has been checked for errors and a list of changes that have been made appears at the end. Where there was any doubt, the original wording was kept.
Italicised text is indicated _like this_, text that is upright within italic passages or spaced for emphasis ~like this~.
THE Comical _PILGRIM_; OR, TRAVELS OF A Cynick PHILOSOPHER,
Thro’ the most Wicked Parts of the WORLD,
ENGLAND, }{ IRELAND, WALES, }{ and SCOTLAND, }{ HOLLAND.
His _Merry_ Observations on the _English_ Stage, Gaming-Houses, Poets, Beaux, Women, Courtiers, Politicians, and Plotters. _Welsh_ Clergy, Gentry, and Customs. _Scotch_ Manners, Religion, and Lawyers. _Irish_ Ceremonies in their Marriages, Christenings, and Burials. And _Dutch_ Government, Polity, and Trade.
A General SATYR on the Vices and Follies of the Age.
_LONDON_, Printed for _S. Briscoe_, at the _Bell Savage, Ludgate-Hill_, and the _Sun_ against _John_’s Coffee-House _Swithin_’s-Alley, Cornhill, 1722
_As Prefaces now are become common to every Production of the Press, I am resolv’d to be in the Fashion likewise, to let my Reader understand that I am not an Ascetick, or one of those devout Pilgrims, who will travel on Foot to see the holy Sepulchre, the Chapel of ~Loretto~, or some strange Relique; but a comical merry Traveller that would take a Perigrination, on Horseback or by Water, beyond the ~Devil~’s ~Arse~ i’th’ Peak, to see the Religion, Customs, and Manners of foreign People, as well as knowing those of my own Country; contrary to the Sentiments of ~Claudian~, who mentions it as a Happiness, for Birth, Life, and Burial, to be all in one Parish._
_Some Pilgrims may brag of their having seen a Vial full of the Virgin ~Mary~’s Milk; another Vial full of ~Mary Magdalen~’s repenting Tears; the Pummel of the Sword with which the Ear of ~Malchus~, the high Priest’s Servant, was cut off; the Bill of the Cock which crow’d after Saint ~Peter~ had deny’d his Master, set in Silver; an Ell ~Flemish~ of the Cord with which ~Judas~ hang’d himself; a Linnen Apron worn by our Saviour’s hæmorrhoidal Patient; a Piece of the seemless Garment, for which the ~Jewish~ Soldiers cast Lots; one of Saint ~John~ the Baptist’s Eye-Teeth, set in Gold; Saint ~Paul~’s Cloak, which he left at ~Troas~, never the worse for wearing; and talk also of their often meeting with the wandering ~Jew~ in their Travels; these, I say, were Curiosities I valu’d not seeing; but in all Places wherever I came, I made general Observations on the Folly and Vices of the Inhabitants, thereby to correct my own Manners, which, indeed, is a very fine Thing, in either Man or Beast._