XXIV. BEARDS.

*།

FRANCIS I. of France, amusing himself with his courtiers one winter day, was struck on the chin with a piece of a tile, which chanced to be taken up in a snowball. As the wounded part could not be shaved, he let his beard grow; and the fashion was revived after it had been dropped for a century.

It is said, I know not with what truth, that the same prince, having lost his hair and an eye by the venereal disease, introduced the wig and the hat. The latter had before been used in riding, to cover the face from the sun: but the bonnet continued to be the ceremonial covering.

XXV. BEAUTIFUL PROVERBS.

PROVERBS not only present "le bon gros sens qui court les rues," but sometimes are expressed in elegant metaphor. I was struck with an oriental one of this sort, which I met with in some book of travels: "With time and patience the leaf of the mulberry-tree becomes satin."

XXVI. BERNIS AND FLEURY.

CARDINAL de Bernis, when only an Abbé, solicited Cardinal Fleury, then fourscore, for some preferment. Fleury told him fairly he should never have any thing in his time: Bernis replied, "Monseigneur, j'attenrai”

* My lord, I shall wait.

XXVII. BIOGRAPHIA.

I HAD happened to say that the Biographia Britannica was an apology for every body. This reached the ears of Dr. Kippis, who was publishing a new edition; and who retorted that the life of Sir Robert Walpole should prove that the Biographia was not an apology for every body. Soon after I was surprised with a visit from the doctor, who came to solicit materials for my father's life. You may guess I refused.

very civilly

XXVIII. BOLINGBROKE AND MARLBOROUGH.

LORD Bolingbroke discovered a foible of the great duke of Marlborough, that he delighted in tying Miss Jennings's garters. When he repeated the story, he used to add, "What is known to women is known to the world."

XXIX. BOLINGBROKE'S GRATITUDE.

BOLINGBROKE, to show his gratitude to my father for permitting him to return to England, endeavoured to supplant the minister by means of the royal mistresses -but George II. was ruled by his queen, and not by his mistresses*: Queen Caroline, indeed, deserved

* Reminiscences, page 14.

the favour she enjoyed. So attentive was she to her husband, that he could not walk through the gardens without her calling for her cloak, and following him, even when she had a cold, or was otherwise indisposed.

XXX. DUCHESS OF BOLTON.

THE duchess dowager of Bolton, who was natural daughter to the duke of Monmouth, used to divert George I. by affecting to make blunders. Once when she had been at the play of "Love's Last Shift," she called it, La dernière Chemise de l'Amour. Another time she pretended to come to court in a great fright, and the king asking the cause, she said she had been at Mr. Whiston's, who told her the world would be burnt in three years; and for her part she was determined to go to China.

XXXI. BONS-MOTS.

I HAVE made a collection of the witty sayings of Charles II. I have also a collection of bons-mots by people who only said one witty thing in the whole course of their lives.

Charles II. hearing a high character of a preacher in the country, attended one of his sermons. Expressing his dissatisfaction, one of the courtiers replied, that the preacher was applauded to the skies by his congregation. "Ay," observed the king, “I suppose his nonsense suits their nonsense."

NEVER was the noble art of book-making carried to such high perfection as at present. These compilers seem to forget that people have libraries. One vamps up a new book of travels, consisting merely of disguised extracts from former publications. Another fills his pages with Greek and Latin extracts from Aristotle and Quintilian. A third, if possible, more insipid, gives us long quotations from our poets, while a reference was enough, the books being in the hands of every body. Another treats us with old French ana in masquerade; and, by a singular fate, derives advantage from his very blunders, which makes the things look new. Pah! I and an amanuensis could scribble one of those books in twenty-four hours.

XXXIII. BOOKSELLERS.

THE manœuvres of bookselling are now equal in number to the stratagems of war. Publishers open and shut the sluices of reputation as their various interests lead them; and it is become more and more difficult to judge of the merit or fame of recent publications.

XXXIV. BOSSUET.

THE eloquence of Bossuet's Discourse on Universa! History, so highly vaunted in France, I never con taste. The work, by the by, is so wholly occup

with Jewish and ecclesiastical affairs, that it should have been entitled, "A Discourse on Ecclesiastic History." It is not, indeed, like Montaigne's chapter on boots, in which there is not a word about boots, but secular matters are so briefly handled, that the title is completely erroneous.

At the same time I confess that Bossuet's conduct to the meek and inoffensive Fenelon was so infamous, that I do not wish to be pleased with his writings.

XXXV. BOURBON.

THE duke of Bourbon, who succeeded Orleans the regent, in the management of French affairs, during the minority of Louis XV. was but a weak man; and was ruled by his mistress madame de Prye, herself a weak woman. Her portrait, which I have in crayons, seems to confirm the insipidity of her character, but shows that she was beautiful.

The duke had another mistress, a madame Tessier, a woman of the most infamous character.

I suppose the marriage of Louis XV. to the daughter of Stanislaus, the dethroned king of Poland, to have proceeded from female intrigues. The princess was so much unprepared for this high honour, that madame de Prye was obliged to send her shifts and gowns.

XXXVI. BRANTOME.

BRANTOME is a singular and amusing writer. What a composition the first volume of his Dames Galantes! In his account of the Vidame of Chartres he says,