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tance from each other: the first rough draught or loose minutes of an essay have often travelled in the stage coach from town to country, and from country to town; and we have frequently waited for the postman, whom we expected to bring us the precious remainder of a Connoisseur, with the same anxiety, as we should wait for the half of a bank note, without which the other half would be of no value. These our joint labours, it may easily be imagined, would have soon broke off abruptly, if either had been too fondly attached to his own little conceits, or if we had conversed together with the jealousy of a rival, or the complaisance of a formal acquaintance, who smiles at every word that is said by his companion. Nor could this work have been carried on with so much cheerfulness and good humour on both sides, if the Two had not been as closely united, as the two students, whom the Spectator mentions, as recorded by a Terræ Filius of Oxford, "to have had but one mind, one purse, one chamber, and one hat."

It has been often remarked, that the reader is very desirous of picking up some little particulars concerning the author of the book which he is perusing. To gratify this passion, many literary anecdotes have been published, and an account of their life, character, and behaviour, has been prefixed to the works of our most celebrated writers. Essayists are commonly expected to be their own biographers; and perhaps our readers may require some further intelligence concerning the authors of the Connoisseur. But, as they have all along appeared as a sort of Sosias in literature, they cannot now describe themselves any otherwise, than as one and the same person; and can only satisfy the curiosity of the public, by giving a short account of that respectable personage Mr. Town, considering

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him as of the plural, or rather, according to the Grecians, of the dual number.

Mr. Town is a fair, black, middle sized, very short man. He wears his own hair, and a periwig. He is about thirty years of age, and not more than four and twenty. He is a student of the law, and a bachelor of physic. He was bred at the university of Oxford; where having taken no less than three degrees, he looks down on many learned professors, as his inferiors: yet, having been there but little longer than to take the first degree of bachelor of arts, it has more than once happened, that the Censor General of all England has been reprimanded by the Censor of his College, for neglecting to furnish the usual essay, or, in the collegiate phrase, the theme of the week.

This joint description of ourselves will, we hope, satisfy the reader, without any further information. For our own parts, we cannot but be pleased with having raised this monument of our mutual friendship; and if these essays shall continue to be read, when they will no longer make their appearance as the fugitive pieces of the week, we shall be happy in considering, that we are mentioned at the same time. We have all the while gone on, as it were, hand in hand together; and while we are both employed in furnishing matter for the paper now before us, we cannot help smiling at our thus making our exit together, like the two Kings of Brentford smelling at one nosegay.

TWO

END OF VOL. XXVI.

G. Woodfall, Printer,

Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

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