SIR ROGER'S FAMILY.

Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de
Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last
week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some
time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my
ensuing Speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted
with my humour, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at
his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and say
nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the
country come to see him, he only shews me at a distance. As I
have been walking in his fields I have observed them stealing a
sight of me over an hedge, and have heard the Knight desiring
them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.
I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists
of sober and staid persons; for as the Knight is the best master
in the world, he seldom changes his servants; and as he is
beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving
him; by this means his domesticks are all in years, and grown old
with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his
brother, his butler is gray-headed, his groom is one of the
gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks
of a privy-counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even
in the old house-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the
stable with great care and tenderness out of regard to his past
services, tho' he has been useless for several years.

I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure the joy
that appeared in the countenance of these ancient domesticks upon