N ° 38 .
THE GUARDIAN .
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fant fellow, a correſpondent of mine, that puts in for that appellation even to highwaymen . I muſt confeſs the gentleman he perſonates is very apparently ſuch , though I did not look upon that fort of fellow in that light, till he favoured me with his letter, which is as follows:
Mr. IRONSIDE , “ I HAVE been upon the highway theſe fix years, in the Park , at the Play , at Bath ,
Tunbridge, Epſom, and at every other place where I could have any proſpect of ſtealing a for tune ; but have met with no ſucceſs, being dif appointed either by fome of your
damned Iron
fide race, or by old curſed curs, who put more bolts on their doors and bars in their windows
than are in Newgate. All that ſee me own I am a ' gentleman-like man ; and, whatever raſcally things the grave folks ſay I am guilty of, they themſelves acknowledge I am a gentlemanly
kind of man,' and in every reſpect accompliſhed for running away with a lady. I have been bred up to no buſineſs, am illiterate, have ſpent the ſmall fortune I had in purchaſing favours from the fair ſex. The bounty of their purſes I have received, as well as the endearments of their per
fons, but I have gratefully diſpoſed of it among themſelves , for I always was a keeper when I was kept. I am fearleſs in my behaviour , and
never fail of putting your bookiſh fort of fellows, your men of merit, forſooth , out of countenance.
I triumph when I ſee a modeſt young woman -bluſh at an afſembly, or a virgin betrayed into tears at a well-wrought ſcene in a tragedy. I
