'It is not to be doubted, but that this fashion took its rise among the ladies from their fondness for equipage; and I dare say, that every fair one, who carries a coach and six upon her head, would be glad to be carried with equal splendour in a coach of her own. I would therefore propose a scheme, which might render this whimsical mode of some kind of service to both sexes; by which the ladies may give a tacit hint of their inclinations without the least breach of modesty, the men may prevent the danger and inconvenience attending the present method of advertising for wives, and the whole course of a modern courtship may be carried on, by means of this new head-dress. 'Instead of a capriole, suppose this capital decoration was called a scutcheon of pretence, which must not be here understood as a term of heraldry, but as an invitation to matrimony. Thus, if a lady presumes that she has a right, either from her wit, beauty, merit, or fortune, to pretend to a set of horses, let six bright bays, blacks, or grays, prance down one side of her head; and according to the rank she insists upon, let a ducal or an earl's coronet, or a bloody hand, be distinguished upon her capriole. The females of less ambition may likewise express their inclinations by a post-chariot and pair; and even those who, from a due consideration of the low condition of the funds, are so condescending as to stoop to a plain cit, have nothing to do but to fix upon their heads a single-horse chaise, filled with a loving couple, sticking as close together as two dried figs. As to those who have rashly vowed virginity, if their great proneness to censure the rest of their sex, and the fretfulness of their aspect, be not sufficient indications to keep the men at a distance, they may erect upon their noddles a formal female seated in a sulky, foolishly pleased with hav ing the whole vehicle to herself, and awkwardly exercising the imaginary power of having the sole command of the reins. As a farther means of facilitating this new method of courtship, I must beg leave to propose, that every lady's bosom should, instead of a pendent cross, which savours of popery, be ornamented with a chain and locket, something like those bottletickets, which direct us to port, claret, or burgundy, upon which might be curiously engraved the numbers two hundred, five hundred, or a thousand, according to the settlement expected. But to those female Quixotes who scorn the capriole, and erect windmills upon their heads instead of it, I shall offer a word of advice worthy their attention; which is, that they would provide a pipe of communication, to be conveyed from these machines to the brain, and constituted upon the model of the ingenious Dr. Hale's ventilators, that, whenever the sails of the windmill are put into motion by the external air, they may draw off all pernicious vapours, which may occasion a vertigo in the inside, as well as on the outside of their heads. I am, Sir, your humble servant, H.' I am much pleased with the proposal of my ingenious correspondent, and think it particularly well adapted to the present disposition of the ladies. A fondness for showy equipages is now become one of their darling passions; and the splendour in which they are to be maintained, seems to be one of the chief considerations in modern matches. If a fine lady can be carried to court in a chair richly ornamented, or roll to the opera in a gilt chariot, she little considers with how disagreeable a companion. she goes through the journey of life and a polite female would no more fix her affections on a man, who drives but a beggarly pair, than she could be contented with being tumbled down to his countryseat, like Punch's wife to Rumford, in a wheelbarrow. The ladies having thus strongly manifested their passion for equipage, the gentlemen, I suppose, out of mere gallantry, and in order to further the gratification of their desires, have taken great pains to convert themselves into coachmen, grooms, and jockeys. The flapped hat, the jemmy frock with plate buttons and a leathern belt, and the pride which some young men of quality take in driving, are all calculated the better to qualify them for being the ladies' humble servants. I am therefore for extending my correspondent's scheme: and as the ladies now adorn their heads with the sign of a coach and six, like the door of a mew's alehouse, I would have the gentlemen also bear these emblematical vehicles; by which the other sex may, by a single glance at a lover's head, see in what state they will be supported; as we know a clergyman by his rose, or an officer by his cockade. The pretty fellows, who study dress, might shew a great deal of invention in suiting their caprioles to their circumstances. Any nobleman or gentleman, who has the honour to be a knowing one, might shew his affection for the turf by carrying the horse and jockey; another, who is an excellent driver, might bear his own figure exalted in a phaeton; and a third, who thinks of picking up a partner for life, that can be pleased with a tête-à-tête or sober piquet party with her husband, may bear a vis-à-vis. In a word, all the different proposals of various suitors might be made by means of these ornaments, which might be worn over the foreheads of the beaux, like the white horse in the grenadiers' caps; and the ladies might be as much smitten with a pro mising capriole on the head of a lover, as heretofore with an elegant periwig. If this mode should prevail, the concluding a treaty of marriage between two persons of quality might be considered in the same light, and expressed in the same terms, as making a match at Newmarket; and instead of the hackneyed phrases at present used by our news-writers, we might perhaps see the important articles, concerning marriages, drawn up after the following manner. We hear that a match will be shortly made between the mourning coach and six of a merchant's widow with a great jointure, and a hunter, in fine order, belonging to a younger brother of a noble family. A running horse, highly valued for his blood, is expected to start soon with a young filly from Yorkshire. Many thousand pounds are depending on this match. A few days ago a young fellow from Ireland, mounted on a single horse, attacked an heiress in her coach and six. The lady made little or no resistance, and suffered herself to be taken out of the coach, and carried off behind him. A gay coach and six belonging to a young heir just of age, came to town last week in great splendour, and was intended to be matched with an equipage of the same kind: but having unfortunately run against Arthur's chocolate-house, it broke down and the owner was very much hurt. We hear from Bath, that the post-chaise of a young lady of great beauty lately made its appearance in the long room, and soon after went off with the landau of a neighbouring country squire. We are also informed from the same place, that an old-fashioned two-wheel chaise with a single horse, contrived to hold only one person, had driven about the walks for some time; but having jostled against the sulky of an old bachelor, in his grand climacteric, it was judged expedient to join them together; when they formed a most agreeable vis-àvis, for the mutual accommodation of both parties. N° 113. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1756. O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Juv. O hallow'd ground! a grove here rev'rend nods, VIRTU is almost the only instance in which the appearance of literary knowledge is affected in the present age; and our persons of rank acquire just enough scholarship to qualify themselves for Connoisseurs. This sort of students become sufficiently acquainted with the customs of the ancients, to learn the least interesting particulars concerning them. They can distinguish a Tiberius from a Trajan, know the pantheon from the amphitheatre, and can explain the difference between the prætexta and the tunica; which (only supposing the present times to have elapsed some hundred years) is just as deep knowledge, as if some future antiquary should discover the difference between a Carolus and an Anna, or St. Paul's church and Drury-lane playhouse, or a full-trimmed suit and a French frock. But the full display of modern polite learning is exhibited in the decorations of parks, gardens, &c. and centred in that important monosyllable Taste. Taste comprehends the whole circle of the polite arts, and sheds its influence on every lawn, avenue, grass |