10. The perverse widow, whom I have given some account of, was the death
of several foxes; for Sir _Roger_ has told me, that in the course of his
amours he patched the western door of his stable. Whenever the widow was
cruel, the foxes were sure to pay for it. In proportion as his passion
for the widow abated and old age came on, he left off fox-hunting; but a
hare is not yet safe that sits within ten miles of his house.

11. There is no kind of exercise which I would so recommend to my
readers of both sexes as that of riding, as there is none which so much
conduces to health, and is every way accommodated to the body, according
to the idea which I have given of it. Dr. _Sydenham_ is very lavish in
its praise; and if the _English_ reader will see the mechanical effects
of it described at length, he may find them in a book published not many
years since, under the title of _Medicina Gymnastica_.

12. For my own part, when I am in town, for want of these opportunities,
I exercise myself an hour every morning upon a dumb bell that is placed
in a corner of my room, and pleases me the more because it does
everything I require in the most profound silence. My landlady and her
daughters are so well acquainted with my hours of exercise, that they
never come into my room to disturb me whilst I am ringing.

13. When I was some years younger than I am at present, I used to employ
myself in a more laborious diversion, which I learned from a _Latin_
treatise of exercise, that is written with great erudition: It is there
called the _Skimachia_, or the fighting with a man's own shadow, and
consists in the brandishing of two short sticks grasped in each hand,
and loaded with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the chest,
exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing, without