excellent man, and what was rare, indeed, at
this period of bitter religious strife, of singularly
liberal opinions. This is proved by his
sending his son to be apprenticed, not to any
of the high Church booksellers—although
those were the days of the Five-mile and
Conventicle Acts—but "to the most eminent
presbyterian bookseller in the three kingdoms,"
Mr. Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible
and Three Crowns, in Cheapside, near
Mercers' Chapel.

It was in the year sixteen hundred and
seventy-three that John Dunton made his
début in our city; and it is curious to remember
how few of the famed sights of London
could then have met his view. London was but
newly rising from the ashes of her great fire,
the Royal Exchange was not, Old St. Paul's
was not, but only wide, deep foundations,
where the masterpiece of Wren was years
afterwards to rise; all the city gates had
vanished, almost all the beautiful London
churches—even Bow bells—could no longer
fling their encouraging chime upon the eager
ear of the London apprentice; how strange
and sad must the city have looked to the
young stranger; but how much sadder to the
aged man, the born and bred London citizen!
Building was, however, rapidly going on.
One of the most ostentatious rows of tall red-
brick houses in the new-built city—still
remaining on the north side of Cheapside, and
belonging to the Mercers' Company—were
already finished; and here Mr. Parkhurst
had opened his shop, and here was John
Dunton to spend the seven years of his
apprenticeship. It is pleasant to find John, more
than thirty years afterwards, speaking of his
Honoured Master in terms so respectful
and affectionate. "He was scrupulously
honest in all things, a good master, and very
kind to all his relations. Indeed, I was most
kindly received by him, and I cannot but say
that if ever an apprenticeship was easy and
agreeable, it was that which I served."

Time passed on; the worthy bookseller
well satisfied with his apprentice, who tells
us that from disliking his book, he even
began to be very fond of reading, when, alas!
a Miss Susanna S——, came on a visit to the
Bible and Three Crowns. That she was
beautiful, at least to the eyes of the young
'prentice, there is no doubt, and perhaps she
looked kindly on him. However, a roguish
fellow apprentice brought a mysterious note,
pretending it came from the young lady;
John Dunton, overjoyed, forthwith set about
inditing his first billet-doux, wherein, full of
gratitude for her notice, he prayed her to
meet him the following evening in Grocers'
Hall garden. The reader may here be told,
in parenthesis, that the pleasant gardens
belonging to the City companies, were then,
and at a much later period, the scenes of
many a city courtship. We have heard the
story how one of our grandmothers, a fair
young maiden in black velvet hat and blush-
rose ribbons, stood, shepherdess-like, under
the trees in Drapers' Garden, contemplating
the Cupid and swan, which we believe still
grace the fountain there; and how a
studious young man, ordered to walk for his
health, unhappily one springtide evening
wandered thither, and received an incurable
wound from the black velvet hat, and blush-
rose ribbons, or rather from the soft blue
eyes beneath. And how he pined and was
thought to be in a decline, until a kind
lady worth ten doctors (and so like one of
the discreet old ladies in the Arabian
Nights, that we should respect her for
that, if for nothing else), recommended him
to resume his walks in Drapers' Garden,
and seek the remedy from the same source
that had given the wound. Often did
the old people discourse pleasantly on
this love passage of their youth, and
always did they enjoy a walk in Drapers'
Garden.

Not so fortunate was our young apprentice.
The young lady came to Grocers'
Garden, "but so soon as I revealed the
occasion, she told me she was ignorant of it."
The "'prentice bold" as the ice had been
broken, seems to have thought it a pity so
good an opportunity of "keeping company"
should be lost, so he began to pay the young
lady due attention, and sport was becoming
earnest, when, "my master making a timely
discovery," sent Miss Susanna back into the
country.

Next year John Dunton went to see his
worthy father, then on his death-bed, and on
his return seems to have settled again soberly
to business. On one point only, does there
seem to have been any difference
between master and apprentice; this was
a fancy Dunton had of late taken to
attend Mr. Doolittle's meeting, then held in
Barber Surgeons' Hall, Monkwell Street.
Now, this Nonconformist minister was a
most worthy man, and highly respected, but
according to the strict arrangements of well-
ordered families in the seventeenth century all
who ate their Sunday pudding and roast
meat together, were expected also to attend
public worship together; so "Mr. Parkhurst
told me that I broke the order and
harmony of his family." A severe punishment
was in store for the wayward apprentice.
"One Sunday," when doubtless
instead of busily setting down the heads
and particulars of the good man's sermon
in his little table-book, his eyes were
wandering about, "the beautiful Rachael Seaton
gave me a fatal wound."

Again did the young apprentice set about
inditing love letters, and there were stolen
visits, and "much time stolen too from my
master's business, at Mr. Dawson's dancing-
school." It is provoking to find him breaking
off here with the apology, that to relate
"all these extravagancies would be almost
to commit the same error over again." He