" The small distance of this place
" from London, is just enough for reco-
" vering my weariness, and recruiting
" my spirits so as to make me better
" than before I set out, for either busi-
" ness or pleasure.  At the mentioning
" the last of these, methinks I see you
" smile; but I confess myself so changed
" (which you maliciously, I know, will
" call decayed) as to my former en-
" chanting delights, that the company
" I commonly find at home is agreeable
" enough to make me conclude the eve-
" ning on a delightful terrace, or in
" a place free from late visits except of
" familiar acquaintance.

" By this account you will see that
" most of my time is conjugally spent
" at home; and consequently you will
" blame my laziness more than ever, for
" not employing it in a way which your
" partiality is wont to think me capable
" of: therefore I am obliged to go on
" with this trifling description, as some
" excuse for my idleness.  But how such
" a description itself is excusable, is
" what I should be very much in pain
" about, if I thought any body could see
" it besides yourself, who are too good a
" judge in all things to mistake a friend's

" The avenues to this house are along
" St. James's Park, through rows of
" goodly elms on one hand, and gay
" flourishing limes on the other; that
" for coaches, this for walking; with
" the Mall lying betwixt them.  This
" reaches to my iron pallisade that en-
" compasses a square court, which has in
" the midst a great bason with statues and
" water-works; and from its entrance
" rises all the way imperceptibly, till we
" mount to a terrace in the front of a
" large hall, paved with square white
" stones mixed with a dark-colour'd
" marble; the walls of it covered with
" a set of pictures done in the school of
" Raphael.  Out of this on the right
" hand we go into a parlour thirty-three
" feet by thirty-nine, with a niche fif-
" teen feet broad for a beaufette, paved
" with white marble, and placed within
" an arch with pilasters of divers colours,
" the upper part of which as high as the
" ceiling is painted by Ricci.

" From hence we pass through a suite
" of large rooms, into a bedchamber of
" thirty-four feet by twenty-seven; with-
" in it a large closet, that opens into