It is the very best of physic.

and there have been very excellent physicians, who have confirmed the opinion by their practice.  What did the learned Dr. Sherard, the grave Mr. Petiver, and the apothecary Mr. Tydall, drink in their herborizing tour through Kent?  Why—­punch! and so much were they delighted with it, at Winchelsea, that they made a special note in their journal, in honour of the Mayoress, who made it, that the punch was not only excellent, but that “each succeeding bowl was better than the former!”—­Brande’s Journal.

* * * * *

CHOICE OF A RESIDENCE.—­ADVICE TO BACHELORS.

There is a sort of half-way between town and the country, which some assert combines the advantages, others the defects, of each; and this is a country-town.  Here, indeed, a little money, a little learning, and a little fashion, will go ten times as far as they will in London.  Here, a man who takes in the Quarterly or Edinburgh, is a literary character; the lady who has one head-dress in the year from a Bond-street milliner, becomes the oracle of fashion, “the observed of all observers;” here dinners are talked of as excellent, at which neither French dishes nor French wines were given, and a little raspberry ice would confer wide celebrity on an evening party, and excite much animadversion and surprise.  Here, notwithstanding a pretty strong line of demarcation between the different sets of society, every one appears to know every body; the countenances and names of each are familiar; we want no slave, who calls out the names; but are ready with a proper supply of condescending nods, friendly greetings, and kind inquiries, to dispense to each passenger according to his claims.  Indeed, in calculating the length of time requisite for arriving at a certain point, the inhabitant of a country town should make due allowance for the necessary gossip which must take place on the road, and for the frequent interchange of bulletins of health, which is sure to occur; and after a residence of any length in these sociable places, a sensation of solitude and desertion is felt in those crowded streets of our metropolis, where the full tide of population may roll past us for hours without bringing with it a single glance of recognition or kindness.  Here round games and Casino still find refuge and support amidst a steady band of faithful partizans; here old maids escape ridicule from being numerous, and old bachelors acquire importance from being scarce.  It is, indeed, to this latter description of persons that I would especially recommend a residence in a country town; and, as Dr. Johnson said, that “wherever he might dine, he would wish to breakfast in Scotland;” so, wherever I may pass my youth, let my days of old bachelorship, if to such I am doomed, be spent in a country town.  There the genteel male population forsake their birthplace