The Comical Pilgrim; or, Travels of a Cynick Philosopher... / Thro' the most Wicked Parts of the World, Namely, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Holland

G Thorton Scul.
Thro’ the most Wicked Parts of the World,
Namely,
WITH
His Merry Observations on the English Stage, Gaming-Houses, Poets, Beaux, Women, Courtiers, Politicians, and Plotters. Welsh Clergy, Gentry, and Customs. Scotch Manners, Religion, and Lawyers. Irish Ceremonies in their Marriages, Christenings, and Burials. And Dutch Government, Polity, and Trade.
BEING A General Satyr on the Vices and Follies of the Age.
The Second Edition.
LONDON , Printed for S. Briscoe , at the Bell Savage, Ludgate-Hill , and the Sun against John ’s Coffee-House Swithin ’s-Alley, Cornhill, 1722

As Prefaces now are become common to every Production of the Press, I am resolv’d to be in the Fashion likewise, to let my Reader understand that I am not an Ascetick, or one of those devout Pilgrims, who will travel on Foot to see the holy Sepulchre, the Chapel of Loretto , or some strange Relique; but a comical merry Traveller that would take a Perigrination, on Horseback or by Water, beyond the Devil ’s Arse i’th’ Peak, to see the Religion, Customs, and Manners of foreign People, as well as knowing those of my own Country; contrary to the Sentiments of Claudian , who mentions it as a Happiness, for Birth, Life, and Burial, to be all in one Parish.
Some Pilgrims may brag of their having seen a Vial full of the Virgin Mary ’s Milk; another Vial full of Mary Magdalen ’s repenting Tears; the Pummel of the Sword with which the Ear of Malchus , the high Priest’s Servant, was cut off; the Bill of the Cock which crow’d after Saint Peter had deny’d his Master, set in Silver; an Ell Flemish of the Cord with which Judas hang’d himself; a Linnen Apron worn by our Saviour’s hæmorrhoidal Patient; a Piece of the seemless Garment, for which the Jewish Soldiers cast Lots; one of Saint John the Baptist’s Eye-Teeth, set in Gold; Saint Paul ’s Cloak, which he left at Troas , never the worse for wearing; and talk also of their often meeting with the wandering Jew in their Travels; these, I say, were Curiosities I valu’d not seeing; but in all Places wherever I came, I made general Observations on the Folly and Vices of the Inhabitants, thereby to correct my own Manners, which, indeed, is a very fine Thing, in either Man or Beast.