I then took my leave of this virtuoso, and returned to my chamber, meditating on the various occupations of rational creatures.
[259] In the _Postman_ for August 19, 1702, the person mentioned in Dr. Burnet's Travels from Basel, in Switzerland, advertises his arrival, and his having brought several sorts of wind-guns and horse-pistols, made for the late K. William, to be shown at the price of sixpence apiece; but he hopes the nobility will be induced to give more, as he has some curiosities besides, not mentioned.
"There is in Basel a gunsmith that maketh wind-guns, and he showed me one, that as it received at once air for ten shot, so it had this peculiar to it, which he pretends is his own invention, that he can discharge all the air that can be parcelled out in ten shot at once to give a home blow. I confess those are terrible instruments, and it seems the interest of mankind to forbid them quite." (Burnet's "Letters," &c., 1687, page 236, quoted by Nichols.)
[261] Thoinet Arbeau, a dancing-master at Paris, who was the inventor of the art of writing dances in characters, called orchesography. Music, about the year 1709, was generally printed in most countries, as well as in England, on letterpress types. Engravings on copperplates were used almost eighty years before in Italy, and the music of many single songs was engraved here about the year 1700, by one Thomas Cross. (See Hawkins's "History of Music," 1776, ii. 132-133, v. 107.)
From _Tuesday, Nov. 1_, to _Thursday, Nov. 3, 1709_.
Rura mihi placeant, riguique in vallibus amnes, Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius.
I have received this short epistle from an unknown hand:[262]
"I have no more to trouble you with, than to desire you would in your next help me to some answer to the enclosed concerning yourself. In the meantime I congratulate you upon the increase of your fame, which you see has extended itself beyond the bills of mortality.
"'That the country is barren of news, has been the excuse time out of mind for dropping a correspondence with our friends in London; as if it were impossible out of a coffee-house to write an agreeable letter. I am too ingenuous to endeavour at the covering of my negligence with so common an excuse. Doubtless, amongst friends bred as we have been, to the knowledge of books as well as men, a letter dated from a garden, a grotto, a fountain, a wood, a meadow, or the banks of a river, may be more entertaining than one from Tom's,[263] Will's, White's, or St. James's. I promise therefore to be frequent for the future in my rural dates to you: but for fear you should, from what I have said, be induced to believe I shun the commerce of men, I must inform you, that there is a fresh topic of discourse lately risen amongst the ingenious in our part of the world, and is become the more fashionable for the ladies giving into it. This we owe to Isaac Bickerstaff, who is very much censured by some, and as much justified by others. Some criticise his style, his humour, and his matter; others admire the whole man: some pretend, from the informations of their friends in town, to decipher the author; and others confess they are lost in their guesses. For my part, I must own myself a professed admirer of the paper, and desire you to send me a complete set, together with your thoughts of the squire and his lucubrations.'"