vict Dr Johnson of ignorance as well as of arrogance concerning the subject upon which he stalked forth as the infallible decider in those boasted and ever-erroneous Lives; while that preface and those notes of Warton's contain passages which, in luminous beauty of ideas, grace of expression, and harmony of period, oratory knows not how to excel.-Seward.

123.

POPE and I (notes King, in his "Anecdotes of

his Own Time "), with my Lord Orrery and Sir Harry Bedingfield, dined with the late Earl of Burlington. After the first course Pope grew sick, and went out of the room. When the dinner was ended, and the cloth removed, my Lord Burlington said he would go out and see what was become of Pope. And soon after they returned together. But Pope, who had been casting up his dinner, looked very pale, and complained much. My Lord asked him if he would have some mulled wine or a glass of old sack, which Pope refused. I told my Lord Burlington that he wanted a dram. Upon which the little man expressed some resentment against me, and said he would not taste any spirits, and that he abhorred drams as much as I did. However, I persisted, and assured my Lord Burlington that he could not oblige our friend more at that instant than by ordering a large glass of cherry-brandy to be set before him. This was done, and in less than half an hour, while my Lord

was acquainting us with an affair which engaged our attention, Pope had sipped up all the brandy. Pope's frame of body did not promise long life; but he certainly hastened his death by feeding much on high-seasoned dishes and drinking spirits.

124.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE HOLT, who was

very wild in his youth, was once out with some of his rakish companions on a journey into the country. They had spent all their money; and, after many consultations what to do, it was resolved that they should part company, and try their fortunes separately. Holt got to an inn at the end of a straggling village; and putting a good face on the matter, ordered his horse to be well taken care of, called for a room, bespoke a supper, and looked after his bed. He then strolled into the kitchen, where he saw a lass, about thirteen years of age, shivering with an ague. He inquired of the landlady, a widow, who the girl was, and how long she had been ill. The good woman told him that she was her daughter, an only child, and that she had been ill near a year, notwithstanding all the assistance she could procure from physic, at an expense which had almost ruined her. Holt shook his head at the mention of the doctors, and bade the parent be under no further concern, for that her daughter should never have another fit. He then wrote a few unintelligible words, in a

court hand, on a scrap of parchment which had been used as the direction to a hamper, and, rolling it up, ordered it to be bound on the girl's wrist, and remain there till she was quite recovered. The ague, however, returned no more; and Holt, after having continued there a whole week, called for his bill with as much courage as if his pockets had been filled with gold. "Ah! God bless you!" said the old woman, "you are nothing in my debt, I am sure; I wish I was able to pay you for the cure you have performed on my daughter; and, if I had had the happiness to have seen you ten months ago, it would have saved me forty pounds in my pocket." Holt, after some altercation, accepted of his week's accommodation as a gratuity, and rode away.

Many years afterwards, when he had become one of the Judges of the King's Bench, he went on a circuit into the same county; and, among other criminals whom he was appointed to try, there was an old woman charged with witchcraft. To support this charge, several witnesses swore that she had a spell, with which she could either cure, such cattle as were sick, or destroy those that were in health. In the use of this spell, they said, she had been lately detected; and, it having been found upon her, was ready to be produced in court. The judge then desired it might be handed up to him; when it appeared to be a dirty ball, covered with rags, and bound round with packthread. These

coverings he removed, one after another, with great deliberation; and at last came to a piece of parchment, which he immediately perceived to be the same he had once used as an expedient to supply his want of money. At the recollection of this incident he changed colour, and was silent for some time. At length, however, recovering himself, he addressed the jury in the following manner:"Gentlemen, I must now relate a circumstance of my life, which very ill suits my present character, and the station in which I sit; but, to conceal it, would be to aggravate the folly for which I ought to atone, to endanger innocence, and to countenance superstition. This bauble, which you suppose to have the power of life and death, is a senseless scrawl which I wrote with my own hand, and gave to this woman, whom for no other cause they accuse as guilty of witchcraft." He then related the particular circumstances of the transaction, which had such an effect on the minds of her accusers, that they blushed at the folly and cruelty of their zeal; and Judge Holt's quondam hostess was the last person ever tried for witchcraft in that county.

D

125.

ASHWOOD'S financial statement had been confused and absurd beyond belief, and had been received by the House with roars of laughter. He had sense enough to be conscious of his unfitness for the high situation which he held, and ex

claimed, in a comical fit of despair, "What shall I do? The boys will point at me in the street, and cry, 'There goes the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer that ever was.'" George Grenville came to the rescue, and spoke strongly on his favourite theme, the profusion with which the late war had been carried on. "That profusion," he said, "had made taxes necessary." He called on the gentlemen opposite to him to say where they would have a tax laid, and dwelt on this topic with his usual prolixity. "Let them tell me where," he repeated, in a monotonous and somewhat fretful tone. "I say, sir, let them tell me where. I repeat it, sir ; I am entitled to say to them, Tell me where?" Unluckily for him, Pitt had come down to the House that night, and had been bitterly provoked by the reflections thrown on the war. He revenged himself by murmuring, in a whine resembling Grenville's, a line of a well-known song, "Gentle shepherd, tell me where." "If," cried Grenville, "gentlemen are to be treated in this way— Pitt, as was his fashion, when he meant to mark extreme contempt, rose deliberately, made his bow, and walked out of the House, leaving his brotherin-law in convulsions of rage, and everybody else in convulsions of laughter. It was long before Grenville lost the nickname of the Gentle Shepherd.-Macaulay.