The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-24 00:00:00

asked a man without a sense of tune in him. " Because it
haunts me." "No wonder," said Foote, "you are ever
murdering it." _

Foote praising the hospitality of the Irish, after one of
his trips to the sis:..! kingdom, a gentleman asked him
whether he had ever been at Cork. " No, sir," replied
Foote ; " but I have seen many drawings of it."
Why iearned men are to be found in rich men's houses,
and rich men never to be seen in those of tho learned, VI as
once asked of Foote. " Why," said he, " the first know
what they want, but the latter do not."

TILE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
The story of the production of this delicious little novel,
is one of the best known episodes in Goldsmith's history.
No ins dent of an author's life has become more popular •
painters have transferred it to their canvas, and biographers
to their pages, and our anecdote life of the novelist would
be incomplete without it.
The work had been no hasty effort, but a labour of love.
whenever the author could shift off the yoke of translation
or compilation. It is thought to have been commenced so
early as 1761, and it lay by him until the spring of 1763.
The circumstances attending its sale are too singular to be
told in any other words than those of Johnson, as reported
by Bos well :
" I received one morning," says Johnson, a message
from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as
it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would
come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and
promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went
as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady
had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent
passion—l perceived that he had already changed my
guinea, and had a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him.
I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm,
and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be
extricated. He then told me he had a novel ready for the
press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its
merit; told the landlady I should soon return; and,
having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I
brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent,
not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having
used him so ill." _ _ _

Mrs. Piozzi gives the same anecdote with some varia-
tions; among others, that Johnson found Goldsmith with
his bottle of Madeira in the evening not the morning; and
Mr. Croker inclines to adopt this more favourable account.
Another version of the story is that Goldsmith insisted
on the landlady joining him in a bowl of punch.
Nearly two years elapsed ere the " Vicar of Wakefield"
was published ; when it rapidly obtained a popularity
which has lasted down to our time, and which is likely to
last as long as our language. It came out nn the 27th of
March, 1755 ;, before the end of May a second edition was
called for ; in three months more, a third ; and so it went
on, widening a popularity that has never flagged.
Yet Johnson was deceived as to its succeeding : speaking
of the work to Boswell, some time subsequent to its publi-
cation. he observed, "I myself did not think it would have
had much success. It was written and sold to a bookseller
before the 'Traveller,' but published after, so little expec-
tation had the bookseller from it. Had it been sold after the
' Traveller,' he might have had twice as much money,
though sixty guineas was no mean price."