Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

"I have heard frequent use, (said the late Lord Sandwich, in a debate on the Test-laws,) of the words Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy; but I confess myself at a loss to know precisely what they mean. Orthodoxy, my Lord, (said Warburton, in a whisper,) Orthodoxy is my doxy,- Heterodoxy is another man's doxy." PRIESTLEY'S Memoirs 1, 372.

See Robert Robinson's Works 1. p. CLII.

CXII. Smith-Curran.

ELIOT SMITH, the good-natured and bland auctioneer and upholsterer of Cambridge, is a man of immense corporeal rotundity, which caused the following epigram to be written by a student of the University,

If FLESH be GRASS, as some folks say,

Eliot Smith's a LOAD OF HAY!

CURRAN, the Irish orator, was walking in Dublin with the late Lord Castlereagh, and on approaching the house of parliament-his Lordship said, 'Egad, CURRAN, how miserable our old house looks!' 'Aye, aye,' replied Curran, 'it is usual for murderers to be afraid of ghosts.'

During CURRAN's last illness some person observed to him 'that he had got a bad cough.' He said 'that he did not know how that could be, for he had been practising all night.'

CXIII. WE ARE SEVEN.

1.

A simple child, dear Brother Jim,

That lightly draws its breath,

And feels its life in every limb,

What should it know of death ?

2.

I met a little cottage-girl:

She was eight years old, she said: Her hair was thick with many a curl,

That cluster'd round her head.

3.

She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad:
Her eyes were fair, and very fair,
Her beauty made me glad.

4.

"Sisters, and Brothers, little Maid,

"How many may you be?

"

"How many? Seven in all," she said,

And wondering look'd at me:

[blocks in formation]

"And where are they? I pray you tell :

She answer'd, "Seven are we,

"And two of us at Conway dwell,

"And two are gone to sea;

6.

"Two of us in the Church-yard lie,

"My Sister, and my Brother,

"And in the Church-cottage, I

"Dwell near them with my Mother."

7.

"You say that two at Conway dwell,
"And two are gone to sea,

"Yet you are seven; I pray you tell,
"Sweet Maid, how this may be?"

8.

Then did the little Maid reply:
"Seven Boys and Girls are we:

[ocr errors]

r

Two of us in the Church-yard lie,
Beneath the Church-yard tree."

9.

“You run about, my little Maid,
Your limbs they are alive:
If two are in the Church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five."

10.

"Their graves are green, they may be seen," The little Maid replied,

"Twelve steps, or more, from my Mother's door, And they are side by side.

[blocks in formation]

And, when the ground was white with snow,

And I could run and slide,

My Brother John was forced to go,
And he lies by her side."

16.

"How many are you then," said I,
"If they two are in heaven ?"
The little maiden did reply:

"O Master! we are seven."

17.

"But they are dead, those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven: "

Twas throwing words away; for still

The little Maid would have her will,
And said, "Nay, we are seven!"

CXIV. Anecdotes of the Rev. T. Barker.

He was once in company with an officer, who had let out that he had killed a gentleman of Ipswich in a duel; Mr Barker invited him to dine with him on the following day, Sunday, that he might hear him preach. The invitation was accepted, but when Mr B. ascended the pulpit, and gave out his text, with a slight variation from the received version, Wilt thou slay me as thou didst the Ipswichian (Egyptian) yesterday ? ' the officer was thunderstruck.

He had once a very rich manure heap, and used to say that the farmers of Cherry-Burton were so eager to get possession it, that they offered to eat one half of it, if he would give the other half to them.

He had a female servant, who married a man that was shortly after the marriage chosen to serve in the militia. His intimacy with Mr Bethell, who was the Colonel of the Regiment, induced him to try to get the husband excused from serving; he accor

dingly proceeded to Mr Bethell's seat at Rise, and, as the Colonel was at Scarborough, proceeded thither, and succeeded in effecting his object. As he was entering the Rectory, on his return to Cherry-Burton, his man-servant met him at the gate, and said with a woeful countenance, 'Lord, Sir, I have some bad news to tell you, the haystack has fallen down.' 'Never heed,' replied MR BARKER, 'I have some good news to prop up,-I have got the man off.'

it

He was highly amused with a little boy of the village, who had done him some small service, and whom he invited into his parlour, that he might reward him with a glass of wine, and a biscuit; he poured out a glass of wine, and taking a biscuit out of a saucer, was going to restore it to the cubbard, when the boy looked up and said, 'You need not to cubbard them, I shall want some more.'

He was told by a gentleman in anger that his gown protected him, but Mr Barker replied, 'Sir, you lie, it protects you and not me.'

CXIV. Tiger-boy, &c.

G. W. M. Reynolds had a tiger-boy about eleven years of age, an imaginative genius; his master found three or four knives and forks, rusted in the garden; he asked him how that came to pass? Lord bless you, Sir,' said he, "those mischievous ducks, if I do but leave them a minute, fetch the articles away, and bury them in the soil!' When the ducks were killed, he very coolly said to his master, The ducks, Sir, will now steal no more knives and forks!' When he was one day sent to Mr Thoms's printing-office, he staid four hours, and when Mr Reynolds asked him why he had been so long? Why,

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »