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vol. 2, p. 13.

the King was to pass his hands over them, ❘ tection." - SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, Autob. or into them, and say a prayer; they were to be sprinkled with holy water.

"THAT Paradise Lost of Milton's," says RYMER, "which some are pleased to call a poem!"

QUARLES.

" Small store of manners when the King says come

And feast at court, to say I've meat at home."

Not if the King has dirty cooks, who spoil good meat. It is better then to take of one's own cold fragments at home, or even to dine with the Duke.

ALL persons after sixty ought to wear a wig, says SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, Code of Health, p. 455.

WEARING a wig is an excellent practice for the old, the tender, and the studious.Ibid. p. 460.

"THE abilities and the eloquence of that branch of the Pitt family who were created Earls of Chatham and Lords Camelford was owing to a fortunate connection they made with a Miss Innes of Redhall, in the Highlands of Scotland. And the talents of the family of Dundas of Arniston have also been attributed to the marriage of one of their ancestors with a Miss Sinclair, of the family of Stevenson, in East Lothian."Ibid. Appendix, p. 11.

This is given in proof that " the talents and structure of the mind are derived from the mother, and that the abilities of many families may be traced to one distinguished female who introduced talent into it, or, according to a common expression, mother wit." Ibid. p. 11.

" I BELIEVE they call a provincial horse, not known on the great arena of Newmarket, a blind horse, whose pedigree and history may be falsified, without easy de

"KENT'S style of architecture predominated during his life, and his oracle was so much consulted by all who affected taste, that nothing was thought complete without his assistance. He was not only consulted for furniture, as frames of pictures, glasses, chairs, &c. but for plate, for a barge, and even for a cradle. And so impetuous was fashion, that two great ladies prevailed on him to make designs for their birthday gowns. The one he dressed in a petticoat

decorated with columns of five orders; the other like bronze, in copper-coloured satin, with ornaments of gold. He was not more happy in other works to which he applied his genius."-Biographical Sketches of Eminent Artists.

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were

Curst in their very cradles, I do mean
When they were upon their stocks."

WEBSTER, vol. 2, p. 49, Devil's

Law Case.

BOYLE describes a colt with one double eye in the middle of the forehead; the two orbits being united into one very large round one, into which there entered one pretty large optic nerve.-Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. 1, p. 29.

THE horses of Asios Hyrtacides1 (17. xii. 97), which Homer calls αἴθωνες, are called by

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2 "After reading a portion of Homer in our daily studies, he would make me read aloud the The passage alluded to is, “Τὲς δὲ Νισαίες same portion in every translation he possessed, ἵππος οἷς ἐχρῶντο οἱ βασιλεῖς ἀρίστοις ἐσι καὶ | Pope, Cowper, Chapman, and Hobbes." Life μεγίστοις, κ. τ. έ." p. 525, C.-J. W. W. and Correspondence, vol. vi. p. 241.-J. W. W.

LL

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS WITH

FRAGMENTS OF JOURNALS.

HE Quixote Bowles frequently
visited at Christ Church. I have
heard of him from Biddlecombe

and the Jacksons. This man's memory was uncommonly strong; Grose, who loved to play upon his eccentricities, would often affirm that he quoted wrongly. This used to irritate Bowles, he would offer to wager that he was right, rise from dinner, bring the book, and prove to Grose, what he never doubted, that he was exact to a word in his quotation.

Bowles had a great love for pigs; he thought them the happiest of all God's creatures, and would walk twenty miles to see one that was remarkably fat. This love extended to bacon, he was an epicure in it, and whenever he went out to dinner took a piece of his own curing in his pocket, and requested the cook to dress it.

she struck her bonnet against the roof of the porch at our lodgings; the blow would not have injured a butterfly's wing, but she declared that it was Providence who had made her put on a bonnet that morning, which for many months she had not worn. There is an idiot in the workhouse at Christ Church: what is very singular his forehead shows no marks of idiotcy, or any of his countenance but his eyes; they have an open wild look, but it is the wildness of folly not of madness. The old countess believes like the Turks that all idiots are inspired, and she sent for this poor fellow to know whether her husband Bowes would live another year.

I had some difficulty in understanding her toothless tone, but she began by hoping I was very loyal, and expressed a very great respect for men of letters: and yet after she had been listening one day to a conversation upon Sir I. Newton, she suddenly exclaimed, 'and what is Sir Isaac Newton compared to a nobleman!'

CROWE was going to Jersey in a smuggling vessel, he smoaked and drank with the crew, and pleased them with his conversaI am told that she speaks Italian and tion. It chanced that they were becalmed | Spanish with great fluency and elegance:

on a Sunday, and he stood up and preached an extempore sermon. This completely delighted the smugglers; ever after they and their acquaintance were glad to treat the smuggling parson with his passage.

I am certain, however, that she knows very little of the literature either of Spain or Italy. She told me Lope de Vega was her favourite author; that the translation of Don Quixote was one of the best in our language, and that it was ridiculous to talk Soon after my arrival at Christ Church of the great superiority of the original. the old Countess of Strathmore paid me a Hannah More observed to me once that she visit. This is a strange woman, every cir- never knew the excellence of Don Quixote cumstance that occurs to her is miraculous; till she read it in Spanish. I add this as as the servants lifted her into her carriage | connected with this subject, not to blas

pheme Hannah More by a comparison with Lady Strathmore.

Bowles used to say that if every other book were bad, we might learn every useful art and science from Don Quixote.

A MRS. MORGAN lived with Lady Strathmore; she had been useful to her in her

difficulties, and though they were always quarrelling the old Countess appeared in all the parade of grief upon her death. Her carriage was covered with black, and she intreated Jackson to let her have a key to the church, that she might indulge her feelings and visit the grave at midnight when she pleased. Rickman picked up an elegy which she had been trying to compose upon this occasion; it began 'There are, who, though they may hate the living, love the dead,' and two or three vain attempts followed to versify this. Common-place ideas were given in a language neither prose nor poetry; but the most curious part was a memorandum written on the top of the sheet. 'The language to be rich and flowing.' With all this ostentatious sorrow, six weeks after the death of Mrs. Morgan she turned her daughter out of doors because she was attached to a country apothecary.

LORD BUTE was uncommonly haughty towards his equals and superiors. Gustavus Brander called on him one morning, "My Lord, (said he) the Archbishop of Canterbury is in this neighbourhood, and requests permission to see High Cliff." Bute looked sternly up-" I don't know him, Sir!" Jackson, then Curate of Christ Church, begged the same favour for one of his friends, and the reply was, "I have business at Ringwood and may as well do it to-morrow; your friend may see the house then."

GUSTAVUS BRANDER was walking with Emanuel Swedenburg in Cheapside, when the Baron pulled off his hat and made a very respectful bow. Who are you bowing to? said Brander. You did not see him, replied Swedenburg. It was St. Paul, I knew him very well.

I SAW Major Cartwright (the sportsman, not the patriot) in 1791. I was visiting with the Lambs at Hampstead, in Kent, at the house of Hodges his brother-in-law; we had nearly finished dinner when he came in. He desired the servant to cut him a plate of beef from the side board; I thought the footman meant to insult him; the plate was

piled to a height which no ploughboy after a hard day's fasting could have levelled; but the moment he took up his knife and fork and arranged the plate, I saw this was no common man. A second and third supply soon vanished: Mr. and Mrs. Lamb, who had never before seen him, glanced at each other; but Tom and I with school-boys' privilege, kept our eyes riveted upon him with what Dr. Butt would have called the gaze of admiration. 'I see you have been looking at me (said he when he had done); I have a very great appetite. I once fell in with a stranger in the shooting season, and we dined together at an inn; there was a leg of mutton which he did not touch, I never make more than two cuts of a leg of mutton, the first takes all one side, the second all the other; and when I had done this I laid the bone across my knife for the marrow.' The stranger could refrain no longer-'By God, Sir, (said he) I never saw a man eat like you.'

This man had strength and perseverance charactered in every muscle. He eat three cucumbers with a due quantity of bread and cheese for his breakfast the following morn

ing. I was much pleased with him, he was good humoured and communicative, his long

residence on the Labrador coast made his conversation as instructive as interesting; I had never before seen so extraordinary a man, and it is not therefore strange that my recollection of his manner, and words, and countenance should be so strong after an interval of six years.

I read his book in 1793, and strange as it may seem, actually read through the three quartos. At that time I was a verbatim reader of indefatigable patience, but the odd simplicity of the book amused me; the importance he attached to his traps delighted me, it was so unlike a book written for the world-the solace of a solitary evening in Labrador; I fancied him blockaded by the snows, rising from a meal upon the old, tough, high-flavoured, hard-sinewed wolf, and sitting down like Robinson Crusoe to his journal. The annals of his campaigns among the foxes and beavers interested me more than ever did the exploits of Marlbro' or Frederic; besides I saw plain truth and the heart in Cartwright's book-and in what history could I look for this?

The print is an excellent likeness. Let me add that whoever would know the real history of the beaver, must look for it in this work. The common accounts are fables. Coleridge took up a volume one day, and was delighted with its strange simplicity. There are some curious anecdotes of the Esquimaux. When they entered London with him, one of them cried, putting up his hand to his head, 'Too much noise-too much people-too much house-oh for Labrador!' an interesting fact for the history of the human mind.

I HAVE learnt at Christ Church the history of Lady Edward Fitzgerald, the Pamela, of whom such various accounts are given.

The Duke of Orleans, of seditious celebrity, was very desirous of getting an English girl as a companion for his daughter; her parents were wholly to resign her. Forth, secretary to Lord Stormont the then embassador at Paris, was commissioned to find such a child, and he employed Janes, a man of Christ Church, known by the name of Bishop Janes for his arrogance, though he was only a priest. A Bristol-woman, her name Sims, then resided at Christ Church, with an only daughter, a natural child, about four or five years old, of exceeding beauty. The offer was made to this woman: her poverty consented, and her wisdom; assuredly she was right. Some small sum was annually paid her, and she knew the situation of her child.

This is a strange history, and they who have seen Pamela would think any thing interesting that related to her. I once sat next her in the Bath theatre, Madame Sillery was on the seat with her; but, with physiognomical contrition I confess that while my recollection of Pamela's uncommon beauty is unimpaired, I cannot retrace a feature of the authoress. They who study education should read the writings of this woman. I have derived from them much pleasure and much instruction. After reading her journal of their education I almost idolized the young Egalités. Dumouriez taught me how to estimate them justly. Should there ever again be a king in France (which God forbid!) it will be the elder of these young men. He will be a happier and a better man as an American farmer." August 4, 1797.

I MUST add an anecdote of Bishop Janes. He took as his motto, "Gens ingenti nomine." His father kept the little mill behind the church.

RICKMAN, alluding to his electioneering duplicity, said that "Jane bifrons" had been a better motto.

I ENQUIRED of Dr. Stack concerning Thomas Dermody. He was of mean parentage, but his talents were patronized; he was always a welcome visitor at Moira House,and all his misfortunes sprung from his own profligacy. Twice he enlisted as a soldier, and was twice bought off; afterwards he entered the navy-and I could learn nothing more of the fate of Dermody, a man certainly of uncommon genius. He was gloomy at times and it appeared like the gloom of remorse. They represent him to me as totally devoid of any moral principle. -Feb. 19, 1798.

This is a remarkable passage, and I think there can be no objection to printing it exactly as it stands in the MSS. I may add, that no omissions have ever been made in these volumes, except to spare the feelings of individuals. J. W. W.

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