which had rested there ever since. As soon as the valuable discovery was made known, Louis XVIII. despatched an agent to secure the precious relic. A share of the glorious beverage was presented to the French Consul, who had assisted at its discovery, and thus it came into the cellars of the Duke de Raguse. Only four-and-forty bottles were remaining, and these were literally sold for their weight in gold to Rothschild, who was opposed by Véron and Milland. Véron was angry, because he declared that he had made the reputation of the wine, by mentioning it in his Memoirs, on the occasion of the dinner given to Taglioni by the Duchess de Raguse, whereat the famous "1814" was produced as the greatest honour to be paid to the great artist.

SAVING A BOTTLE OF WINE.

Dr. King relates an odd story of saving a bottle of port wine at the expense of a life, at Colby House, Kensington, opposite the road leading to the Palace. Here lived Sir Thomas Colby, who was his own butler, and inadvertently had left the key of the wine-cellar on his parlour-table; when, fearing his servants might seize the key, and steal a bottle of wine, Sir Thomas rose from his bed in the middle of the night, when he was in a very profuse perspiration, the effect of medicine he had taken: he walked downstairs and secured the key, but took cold, and died in a few days, intestate, leaving more than 200,0007. in the funds, which was shared among five or six daylabourers, his nearest relations.

THE CHANCELLOR'S "CONSTANTIA."

Sheridan was dining with Lord Thurlow, when his Lordship produced some fine Constantia, which had been sent him from the Cape of Good Hope. The wine tickled the palate of Sheridan, who saw the bottle emptied with uncommon regret, and set his wits to work to get another. The old Chancellor was not to be so easily induced to produce his curious Cape in such profusion, and foiled all the attempts to get another glass. Sheridan being piqued, and seeing the inutility of persecuting the immovable pillar of the law, turned towards a gentleman seated further down, and said, Sir, pass me up that decanter; for I must return to Madeira, since I cannot double the Cape."

RELIGIONS AND SAUCES.

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When Ude, the celebrated French cook, first came to this country, two peculiarities struck him: the number of churches and chapels in London, and the frequency with which melted butter appeared at

our tables. "What an extraordinary nation !" he exclaimed; "they have twenty religions, and only one sauce.'

A PUN OF A DISH.

It was suggested to a distinguished gourmet what a capital thing a dish all fins (turbot's fins) might be made. "Capital," said he; "dine on it with me to-morrow." "Accepted." Would you believe it? when the cover was removed, the sacrilegious dog of an Amphytrion had put into the dish, "Cicero, De finibus." "There is a work all fins," said he.

EATING OLIVES.

There is etiquette in eating olives. Cardinal Richelieu is said to have detected an adventurer, who was passing himself off as a nobleman, by his helping himself to olives with a fork; it being comme il faut to use the fingers for that purpose.

A DISTINCTION.

A gentleman discharged his coachman for overturning him in his carriage, on his road home from a dinner-party. The man, the next morning, craved pardon, by acknowledging his fault: "I had certainly drunk too much, sir," said he; "but I was not very drunk, and gentlemen, you know, sometimes get drunk." "Why," replied the master (the Hon. B. C., renowned for the smartness of his answers), "I don't say you were very drunk for a gentleman, but you were d-d drunk for a coachman. So get about your business."

COSTLY EPICURISM.

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One day an epicure, entering the Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden, inquired, "What have you for dinner, John!" "Anything you please, sir," replied the waiter. "Oh, but what vegetables The légumes in season were named; when the customer, having ordered two lamb-chops, said, "John, have you cucumbers ?" "No, sir, we have none yet, 'tis so very early in the season; but, if you please, I will step into the market and inquire if there are any. The waiter did so, and returned: "Why, sir, there are a few, but they are half-a-guinea apiece." Half-a-guinea apiece! are they small or large?" "Why, sir, they are rather small." "Then buy two." This anecdote has been related of various epicures: it occurred to Charles Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1815.

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On an early summer's day, a gourmet entered the shop of a fruiterer in New Bond-street, and desired to be handed one of two very small baskets of strawberries from out the window: he ate the fruit, and

then coolly desired to have the other basket; and having eaten this also, inquired what he had to pay: "Six-and-thirty shillings," was the reply, and the demand was quickly paid.

WEARING ROUGE.

There was a certain Bishop of Amiens, who was a saint, and yet had a good deal of wit. A lady went to consult him whether she might wear rouge: she had been with several directeurs, but some were so severe, and some so relaxed, that she could not satisfy her conscience, and therefore was come to Monseigneur to decide for her, and would rest by his sentence. "I see, Madam," said the good prelate, "what the case is: some of your casuists forbid rouge totally; others will permit you to wear as much as you please. Now, for my part, I love a medium in all things, and therefore I permit you to wear rouge on one cheek only."

A HARMLESS CASE.

Once, when Lord Onslow was absent from home for a fortnight, Lady Onslow invited an officer to keep her company, to the great scandal of a prudish lady her neighbour, and of whom she asked leave to carry him into her pew at church, which the other, though with marks of indignation and surprise, could not help permitting. Sunday came, and my Lady and the Major; yet, though the minister had begun the service, the prude could not help whispering Lady O., "You did not not tell me the Major had grey hair."

GRACE MAL-A-PROPOS.

A milliner's apprentice, about to wait upon a duchess, was fearful of committing some error in her deportment. She therefore consulted a friend as to the manner in which she should consult this great personage, and was told that, on going before the duchess, she must say her Grace, and so on. Accordingly, away went the girl, and, on being introduced, after a very low curtsey, she said. "For what I am going to receive, the Lord make me truly thankful." To which the duchess answered: "Amen!"

THE DUKE OF QUEENSBURY.

This long-lived voluptuary pursued pleasure with as much ardour at fourscore as he had done at twenty. Known to be immensely rich, destitute of issue, and unmarried, he formed a mark at which every necessitous man or woman throughout the metropolis directed their aim. When he lay dying in his house in Piccadilly, opposite

the Green Park, in December, 1810, his bed was covered with billets and letters to the number of at least seventy, mostly, indeed, addressed to him by females of every description and of every rank, from duchesses down to ladies of the easiest virtue. Unable, from his weak state, to open or peruse these letters, he ordered them, as they arrived, to be laid on his bed, where they remained, the seals unbroken, till he expired.

*

Sir Nathaniel Wraxall denies the truth of stories which were circulated and believed of the Duke; as among others, that he wore a glass eye, that he used milk bath, and other idle tales. It is, however, a fact that the Duke performed, in his own drawing-room, the scene of "Paris and the Goddesses." Three of the most beautiful women to be found in London presented themselves before him, precisely as the divinities of Homer are supposed to have appeared to Paris on Mount Ida; while he, habited like the Dardan Shepherd, holding a gilded apple in his hand, conferred the prize on her whoni he deemed the fairest.

Mr. Wilberforce records having, when a young man, dined with the Duke at his Richmond villa: Pitt, Lord and Lady Chatham, the Duchess of Gordon, and George Selwyn [the latter continued in society till he really looked like the wax-work figure of a corpse]. The dinner was early, that some of the party might be ready to attend the Opera. The views from the villa were enchanting, and the Thames in all its glory; but the Duke looked on with indifference. "What is there," he said, "to make so much of in the Thames?-I am quite tired of it,-there it goes, flow, flow, flow, always the same."

Latterly the Duke confined himself almost entirely to his mansion in Piccadilly, where, in fine sunny weather, he would sit

"Sunning himself in Huncamunca's eyes."

A parasol was held over his head, as he watched every attractive form and ogled every pretty face that met his eye in the street. He retained in his household a French physician; and the Duke is known to have promised a large salary to his medical attendant, the late Mr. Fuller, on condition that the latter should keep him alive. [For his services, during seven years, sleeping in his Grace's house 1215 nights, and during that time making 9340 visits of two hours

*There are many persons still living who remember the almost universal prejudice against drinking milk which prevailed in the metropolis, in consequence of its being supposed that this common necessary of life might have been retailed from the daily lavations of the Duke of Queensbury.-J. H. JESSE, 1843.

each, Mr. Fuller recovered from the Duke's executors, by an actionat-law, 75001.] The Duke died at the age of eighty-six; and it was said he would have lived longer but for his imprudent indulgence in eating fruit.

RESOLUTE SCOTTISH LADIES.

Some amusing stories are told* of the "resolute" class of old ladies whom no misfortune or bereavement could daunt. Mrs. Baird, of Newbyth, the mother of General Sir David Baird, had always been spoken of as a grand specimen of this class. When the news arrived from India of the gallant but unfortunate action of '84 against Hyder Ali, in which her son, then Captain Baird, was engaged, it was stated that he and other officers had been taken prisoners, and chained together two and two. The friends were careful in breaking such sad intelligence to the mother, who was, however, too Spartan in her nature to require such considerate treatment. When she was made fully to understand the position of her son and his gallant companions, disdaining all weak and useless expressions of her own grief, and knowing well the restless and athletic habits of her boy, all she said was, "Lord pity the chiel that's chained to our Davey.' Another story illustrates the liberal view which a Scottish maiden could take of her own privileges, or of those of her accepted admirer. On her marriage day, the youth to whom she was about to be united said to her, in a triumphant tone, "Weel, Jenny, haven't I been unco ceevil?" alluding to the circumstance that during their whole courtship he had never even given her a kiss. Her quiet reply was, "Oo, ay, man-senselessly ceevil."

When one of these dames was dying, and her friends were round her bed, she overheard one of them saying to another, "Her face has lost its colour; it grows like a sheet of paper." "Then I'm sure it maun be brown paper,' was the cool comment of the dying

woman.

A notion of the stiff manner in which these old ladies could vindicate their principles or their personal dignity is afforded by the various stories told of Mrs. Helen Carnegy, of Craigo. On one occasion, as she sat in an easy chair, having assumed the habits and privileges of age, Mr. Mollison, the minister of the established kirk, called on her to solicit for some charity. She did not like being asked for money, and, from her Jacobite principles, she certainly did not respect the Presbyterian kirk. When he came in she made only an inclination of the head, and when he said, deprecatingly, "Don't get up, madam," she at once replied, "Get up? I wadna

By Dean Ramsay, in his entertaining Reminiscencem