well aware that his own family and younger friends constantly talked of him under this sobriquet. Many a little note have I had from him (and so probably has Peter also), reproving, or perhaps encouraging, Tory mischief, and signed, "Thine, PEVERIL."

with perfect equanimity the novel by, like a good cavalier, he took to usage to which her chintz was ex- the designation kindly. He was posed. The Shepherd, however, remarked nothing of all this dined heartily and drank freely, and, by jest, anecdote, and song, afforded plentiful merriment to the more civilized part of the company. As the liquor operated, his familiarity increased and strengthened; from "Mr. Scott," he advanced to "Sherra," and thence to "Scott," "Walter," and "Wattie," until at supper, he fairly convulsed the whole party by addressing Mrs. Scott as "Charlotte."

OF THE PAUNCH.

WORDSWORTH'S FAREWELL VISIT TO

SCOTT.

A few days before Scott's departure for Italy in search of health, in 1831, Mr. Wordsworth and his daughter arrived from WestmorePEVERIL OF THE PEAK, AND PETER land to take farewell of him. This was a very fortunate circumstance; One morning (says Mr. Lock-nothing could have gratified Sir hart, in his Life of Scott) soon after Walter more, or sustained him Peveril came out, one of our most better, if he needed any support famous wags (now famous for bet- from without. On the 22d-all ter things), namely, Mr. Patrick his arrangements being completed, Robertson, commonly called by and Laidlaw having received a the endearing Scottish diminutive paper of instructions, the last arti"Peter," observed that tall conical cle of which repeats the caution to white head advancing_above_ the be " very careful of the dogs"crowd towards the fireplace, where these two great poets-who had the usual roar of fun was going through life loved each other well, on among the briefless, and said, and, in spite of very different theo"Hush, boys, here comes old Peve- ries as to art, appreciated each ril-I see the Peak." A laugh en- other's genius more justly than sued, and the Great Unknown, as inferior spirits ever did either of he withdrew from the circle after them-spent the morning together a few minutes' gossip, insisted that in a visit to Newark; hence the I should tell him what our joke last of the three poems by which upon his advent had been. When Wordsworth has connected his enlightened, being by that time name to all time with the most the half-way across babbling romantic of Scottish streams. But hall," towards his own Division, I need not transcribe a piece so he looked round with a sly grin, well known as the Yarrow Reand said, between his teeth, "Ay, visited. ay, my man, as weel Peveril o' the Peak ony day, as Peter o' the Painch" (paunch)-which, being transmitted to the brethren of the stove school, of course delighted all of them, except their portly Coryphæus. But Peter's application stuck; to his dying day, Scott was in the Outer House Peveril of the Peak, or Old Peveril—and, by and

66

Sitting that evening in the library, Sir Walter said a good deal about the singularity that Fielding and Smollett had both been driven abroad by declining health, and never returned-which circumstance, though his language was rather cheerful at this time, he had often before alluded to in a darker fashion; and Mr. Words

worth expressed his regret that who had laid a foundation for a neither of those great masters of society which proposed that their romance appeared to have been whole studies should be directed to surrounded with any due marks of the investigation of the arcana of respect in the close of life. I hap-nature, and added, with that pecupened to observe that Cervantes, liar gravity of countenance he on his last journey to Madrid, met usually wore on such occasions, with an incident which seemed to that among such learned men he have given him no common satis- now hoped for a solution to a faction. Sir Walter did not re- question which had long puzzled member the passage, and desired him. The case he thus stated :me to find it out in the Life by Suppose two pails of water were Pellicer, which was at hand, and fixed in two different scales that translate it. I did so, and he lis- were equally poised, and which tened with lively though pensive weighed equally alike, and two live interest. Our friend Allan, the bream, or small fish, were put into historical painter, had also come either of these pails; he wanted to out that day from Edinburgh, and know the reason why that pail, he lately told me, that he remem- with such addition, should not weigh bers nothing he ever saw with so more than the other pail which was much sad pleasure as the attitudes against it. Every one was ready and aspect of Scott and Words- to set at quiet the royal curiosity; worth as the story went on. Mr. but it appeared that every one was Wordsworth was at that time, I giving a different opinion. One at should notice though indeed his length offered so ridiculous a solunoble stanzas tell it-in but a tion, that another of the members feeble state of general health. He could not refrain from a loud laugh; was, moreover, suffering so much when the king, turning to him, infrom some malady in his eyes, that sisted that he should give his senhe wore a deep green shade over timents as well as the rest. This them. Thus he sat between Sir he did without hesitation; and Walter and his daughter: absit told his majesty, in plain terms, omen—but it was no wonder that that he denied the fact; on which Allan thought as much of Milton the king, in high mirth, exclaimed: as of Cervantes. The anecdote of "Odds fish, brother, you are in the the young student's raptures on right!" The jest was not ill dediscovering that he had been rid- signed. The story is often useful ing all day with the author of Don Quixote, is introduced in the preface to Count Robert, and Castle Dangerous, which (for I may not return to the subject) came out at the close of November in four volumes, as the Fourth Series of Tales of My Landlord. (Lockhart.)

A ROYAL PROBLEM IN SCIENCE.

When King Charles II. dined with the members on the occasion of constituting them a Royal Society, towards the close of the evening he expressed his satisfaction at being the first English monarch

to cool the enthusiasm of the scientific visionary, who is apt to account for what never existed.

"EDINBURGH REVIEW."

Sir Walter Scott ascribes the great success of this periodical to two circumstances:-that it was above the influence of the puffing booksellers, and that the recompense per sheet was not only liberal in itself, but was actually forced on all contributors, however high their rank and fortune, by the editor whose saying was, that Czar Peter, when working in the trenches, re

BOOK-STALL READERS.

There is a class of street-readers

ceived pay as a common soldier. This general rule removed all scruples of delicacy, and fixed the services of men of talent and enter- whom I can never contemplate prise, who were glad of a handsome apology to work for fifteen or twenty guineas, though they would not willingly have been considered as hackney writers.

VULGAR PRONUNCIATION.

without affection-the poor gentry who, not having wherewithal to buy or hire a book, filch a little learning at the open stalls; the owner, with his hard eye, casting envious looks at them all the while, and thinking when they will have done. Venturing tenderly, page after page, expecting every moment when he shall interpose his interdict, and yet unable to deny themselves the gratification, they "snatch a fearful joy."

BURKE AND THE RIOT ACT.

One of the peculiarities of vulgar English pronunciation is to put the letter r at the end of words ending with a vowel. Some of the inhabitants of London, if they had to speak the following sentence, "A fellow broke the window, and hit Isabella on the elbow, as she was During one of the debates on the playing a sonata on the piano," affairs of America, Hartley, the would give it in the following member for Hull, after having manner :—“ A fellor broke the win-driven four-fifths of a very full dor, and hit Isabellar on the elbor, house from the benches by an unas she was playing a sonatar on usually dull speech, at length rethe pianar." Others adopt the quested that the Riot Act might contrary plan, and leave out ther be read, for the purpose of elucias often as they can. There are dating one of his propositions. magistrates of high pretensions to Burke, who was impatient to adeducation, who would say, "The dress the house himself, immeconduct of the prisna' and his ge- diately started up and exclaimed, neral characta' render it propa' The Riot Act, my dearest friend: that he should no longa' be a memwhy, in the name of everything ba' of this community." Equally that's sacred, have the Riot Act glaring is the taking away of h read? The mob, you see, is already from places where it is required, dispersed." Peals of laughter foland giving it where its absence is lowed the utterance of this comic desirable. The termination of words appeal, which Lord North frequently ending in ing with a k, as somethink, declared to be one of the happiest is not less incorrect or less disagree-instances of wit he ever heard." able. It is worth while occasionally to point out these errors, as many must be disposed to correct them, on being made aware of their

existence.

SERVANTS.

66

THE CALCULATING MACHINE.

Mr. Babbage, the inventor of this machine, has (in his Bridgewater Treatise) referred to its present state. He mentions that, as early as 1821, he undertook to superinIn France, servants always walk tend for the Government the conbefore their masters. It is other-struction of an engine for calculating wise in Italy. Masters walk be- and printing mathematical and asfore their servants in summer, on tronomical tables. Early in 1833 account of the dust, and in winter a small portion of the machine was behind them, on account of the put together, and it performed its badness of the roads. work with all the precision which

COBBETT'S EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

281

had been anticipated. At that cule them, he sent for a diploma period circumstances caused a sus-| for his footman, which was granted. pension of its progress, and the Go- He next sent for another for his vernment, on whose decision the horse. This, however, was too gross continuance or discontinuance of an affront for even Dutchmen to the work depends, have not yet communicated to Mr. Babbage their wishes on the question. Since the commencement of the original machine, Mr. Babbage has projected another and far more powerful engine; the former could employ about 120 figures in its calculations, the latter is intended to compute

with about 4000.

LORD CHATHAM.

It is said of the eloquence of the Earl of Chatham, that "his voice, even when it sank to a whisper, was heard to the remotest benches; when he strained it to its full strength, the sound rose like the swell of an organ of a great cathedral, shook the house with its peal, and was heard through lobbies and down staircases to the Court of Requests and the precincts of Westminster Hall."

DR. PITCAIRNE AND ACADEMIC
DEGREES.

Dr. Alexander Pitcairne, who died in 1713, and who was long remembered most distinctly in Scotland for his strong Jacobitism, his keen wit, and his eminence as a physician, studied his profession in Holland, where he was for some time the preceptor of Boerhaave. His political principles causing him to be no friend to the republican Dutch, he amused himself with satirizing them in verse. Dull, however, as the Dutch are generally esteemed, they had once paid him very smartly in his own coin. Pitcairne, it seems, took great offence at the facility with which the University of Leyden, like some of those in this country at a more recent period, conferred degrees upon those applying for them. To ridi

swallow. In a spirit of resentment an answer was returned, to the effect, that "search having been made in the books of the University, they could not find one instance of the degree of doctor having been ever conferred upon a horse, although, in the instance of one Dr. Pitcairne, it appeared that the degree had once been conferred on an ass."

company

with

"How are

DRS. BARTON AND NASH. Dr. Barton was in Dr. Nash, just as he was going to publish his work on the antiquities of Worcestershire. "I fear," said Dr. Barton, "there will be a great many inaccuracies in your books when they come out." errors to be avoided?" said Dr. Nash, "Very easily," said Dr. Barton. "Are you not a justice of peace?" "I am," said Dr. Nash. Why, then," replied the old warden, "you have nothing to do but to send your books to the house of correction."

COBBETT'S EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

Perhaps, in Cobbett's voluminous writings, there is nothing so fine as the following picture of his boyish scenes and recollections. It has been well compared to the most simple and touching passages in Richardson's Pamela:

"After living within a hundred yards of Westminster Hall, and the Abbey Church, and the bridge, and looking from my own window into St. James's Park, all other buildings and spots appeared mean and insignificant. I went to-day to see the house I formerly occupied. How small! It is always thus: the words large and small are carried about with us in our minds, and we forget

real dimensions. The idea, such as works. What a nothing! But now it was received, remains during our came rushing into my mind, all at absence from the object. When I once, my pretty little garden, my returned to England in 1800, after little blue smock-frock, my little an absence from the country parts nailed shoes, my pretty pigeons that of it for sixteen years, the trees, the I used to feed out of my hands, the hedges, even the parks and woods, last kind words and tears of my seemed so small! It made me laugh gentle, and tender-hearted, and afto hear little gutters, that I could fectionate mother. I hastened back jump over, called rivers. The into the room. If I had looked a Thames was but a creek.' But moment longer, I should have when, in about a month after my dropped. When I came to reflect, arrival in London, I went to Farn- what a change! What scenes I had ham, the place of my birth, what gone through! How altered my was my surprise! Everything was state! I had dined the day before become so pitifully small! I had at a secretary of state's, in company to cross in my post-chaise the long with Mr. Pitt, and had been waited and dreary heath of Bagshot; then, upon by men in gaudy liveries. I at the end of it, to mount a hill had had nobody to assist me in the called Hungry Hill; and from that world; no teachers of any sort; hill I knew that I should look down nobody to shelter me from the coninto the beautiful and fertile vale sequence of bad, and nobody to of Farnham. My heart fluttered counsel me to good, behaviour. I with impatience, mixed with a sort felt proud. The distinctions of rank, of fear, to see all the scenes of my birth, and wealth, all became nochildhood; for I had learned, before, thing in my eyes; and from that the death of my father and mother. moment (less than a month after There is a hill not far from the my arrival in England) I resolved town, called Crooksbury Hill, which never to bend before them." rises up out of a flat in the form of Cobbett was, for a short time, a a cone, and is planted with Scotch labourer in the kitchen-grounds of fir-trees. Here I used to take the the Royal Gardens at Kew. King eggs and young ones of crows and George the Third often visited the magpies. This hill was a famous gardens to inquire after the fruit object in the neighbourhood. It and esculents; and one day he saw served as the superlative degree of Cobbett here, then a lad, who, with height. 'As high as Crooksbury a few halfpence in his pocket, and Hill,' meant with us the utmost degree of height. Therefore the first object my eyes sought was this hill. I could not believe my eyes! Literally speaking, I for a moment thought the famous hill removed, and a little heap put in its stead; for I had seen in New Brunswick, a single rock, or hill of solid rock, ten times as big, and four or five times as high! The postboy, going down hill, and not a bad road, whisked me in a few minutes to the Bush Inn, from the garden of which I could see the prodigious sand hill where I had begun my gardening

Swift's Tale of a Tub in his hand, had been so captivated by the wonders of the Royal Gardens, that he applied there for employment. The king, on perceiving the clownish boy, with his stockings tied about his legs by scarlet garters, inquired about him, and specially desired that he might be continued in his service.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

Shelley had a pleasure in making paper boats, and floating them on the water. The New Monthly has the following curious anecdote on