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THE DOCTOR.                 313
draught of cold small beer, because, as the
Poet in his own experience assured them,
Destruction lurks within the poisonous dose,
A fatal fever, or a pimpled nose.*
CHAPTER CXXVI.
MR. BAXTER S OFFICES. MILLER'S CHARACTER
OF MASON; WITH A FEW      REMARKS IN
VINDICATION OF GRAY S FRIEND AND THE
DOCTOR'S ACQUAINTANCE.
_ Te sonare quis mi/si
Genique vien dabit tui ?
Stylo quis eequor hocce arase charteum,
En area per papyrina
Sate loquace seminare literas?
JANUS DOUSA.
THAT dwelling house which the reader May
find represented in Miller's History of Don-
caster, as it was in his time, and in the
Doctor's, and in mine,-that house in which
the paper-hangers and painters were em-
ployed during the parenthesis, or to use a
more historical term, the Interim of this
part of our history, -that house which
when, after an interval of many years, I saw
it last, had the name R. Dennison on the
lo)r, is now, the Sheffield Mercury tells me,
occupied as Mr. Baxter's Offices. I mean
no disrespect to Mr. R. Dennison. I mean
no disrespect to Mr. Baxter. I know nothing
of these gentlemen, except that in 1830 the
one had his dwelling there, and in 1836 the
other his offices. But for the house itself,
which can now be ascertained only by its
site, totally altered as it is in structure and
appearance, without and within, -when I
think of it I cannot but exclaim, in what
Wortlsworth would call "that inward voice"
with which we speak to ourselves in solitude,
" If thou be'est it," with reference to that
alteration, - and with reference to its change
of tenants and present appropriation, I
cannot but carry on the verse, and say
"but oh how fallen, how changed !"
In that house Peter Hopkins had enter-
tained his old friend Guy; and the elder
* SOAME JENYNS.
Daniel once, upon an often pressed and
special invitation, had taken the longest
journey lie ever performed in his life, to
pass a week there. For many years Mr.
Allison and Mr. Bacon made it their house
of call whenever they went to Doncaster.
In that house Miller introduced Herschel to
Dr. Dove; and Mason, when he was AIr.
Copley's guest, never failed to call there, and
inquire of the Doctor what books he had
added to his stores, -for to have an oppor-
tunity of conversing with him was one of
the pleasures which Mason looked for in his
visits at Netherhall.
Miller disliked Mason: described him as
sullen, reserved, capricious and unamiable;
and this which he declared to be " the real
character of this celebrated poet," he inserted,
he said, "as a lesson to mankind, to show
them what little judgment can be formed of
the heart of an author, either by the sub-
limity of his conceptions, the beauty of his
descriptions, or the purity (of his sentiments."
Often as Miller was in company with
Mason, there are conclusive proofs that the
knowledge which he attained of Mason's
character was as superficial as the poet's
knowledge of music, for which, as has here-
tofore been intimated, the Organist regarded
him with some contempt.
He says that the reason which Mason as-
signed for making an offer to the lady whom
he married, was, that he had been a whole
evening in her company with others, and oh-
served. that during all that time she never
spoke a single word. Mason is very likely
to have said this; but the person who could
suppose that lie said it in strict and serious
sincerity, meaning that it should be believed
to the letter, must have been quite in-
capable of appreciating the character of the
speaker.
Mason whom Gray described, a little
before this offer, as repining at his four-and-
twenty weeks' residence at York, and long-
ing for the flesh-pots and coffee-houses of
Cambridge, was notwithstanding in his friend-
and fellow-poet's phrase, a long while marn-
turient, " and praying to heaven to give him
a good and gentle governess." " No man,"