This infamous piece of good-breeding, which reigns among the coxcombs of
the town, has not yet made its way into the country; and as it is
impossible for such an irrational way of conversation to last long,
among a people that make any profession of religion or show of modesty,
if the country gentlemen get into it they will certainly be left in the
lurch. Their good-breeding will come too late to them, and they will be
thought a parcel of lewd clowns, while they fancy themselves talking
together like men of wit and pleasure.

As the two points of good-breeding which I have hitherto insisted upon,
regard behaviour and conversation, there is a third which turns upon
dress. In this too the country are very much behind-hand. The rural
beaux are not yet got out of the fashion that took place at the time of
the Revolution, but ride about the country in red coats and laced hats,
while the women in many parts are still trying to outvie one another in
the height of their headdresses.

But a friend of mine, who is now upon the western circuit, having
promised to give me an account of the several modes and fashions that
prevail in the different parts of the nation through which he passes, I
shall defer the enlarging upon this last topick till I have received a
letter from him, which I expect every post. L.




NO. 120. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18.

_Equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis
Ingenium._