The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-27 00:00:00

GEORGE HI. AND PYE THE POET.

Dr. George Horne was a man of unaffected
piety, cheerful temper, great learning, and, not-
withstanding his propensity to jesting, dignified
manners. He was much beloved in Magdalen
College, of which he was President ; the chief
complaint against him being that he did not re-
side the whole of the time in every year that the
statutes required. He resigned his headship on
being promoted from the Deanery of Canterbury
to the See of Norwich ; the alleged reason was
the incompatibility of the duties, though other
heads of houses, when made Bishops, have re-
tained their academical situations. He never
manifested the least ill-humour himself, and re-
pressed it, but with gentleness, in others. Hav-
ing engaged in a party at whist, merely because
he was wanted to make up the number, and
playing indifferently ill, as he forewarned his
partner would be the case, he replied to the
angry question, " What reason could you possi-
bly have, Mr. President, for playing that card ?"
" None upon earth, I assure you." On the
morning, when news was received in College of
the death of one of the Fellows, a good com-
panion, a bon vivant, Horne met with another
Fellow, an especial friend of the defunct, and
began to condole with him :—" We have lost
poor L—." "Ah ! Mr. President, I may
well say I could have spared a better man."
" Meaning me, I suppose ?" said Horne, with
an air that, by its pleasantry, put to flight the
other's grief.' I was talking with Henry James
Pye, late Poet Laureate, when he happened to
mention the name of Mr. P., a Gentleman of
Berkshire, and M.P., I think, for Reading;
" That is the man," said I, '' who d d the
King's wig in the very presence of his Majesty ;
with great credit, however, to his own loyalty,
and very much to the amusement of the King."
"I do not well see how that could be." " You
shall -hear a story which our President (Pye had
been a Gentleman Commoner of Magdalen Col-
lege) told at his own table. The King was out
a hunting P— was in, and of, the field :
the King's horse fell ; the King was thrown
from the saddle, and his hat and wig were thrown
to a little distance from him ; he got on his feet
again immediately, and began to look about fur
the hat and wig, which he did not really see,
being, as we all know, short-sighted. P—,
very much alarmed by the accident, rides up in
great haste and arrives at the moment when the
King is peering about and saying to the attend-
ants, " Where's my wig ? where's my wig ?"
P----- cries out, " D—n your wig ! is your
_ .

. _
Majesty safe ?"—Personal and Literary Me-
moirs.

SIR SYDNEY SMITH.

Some time ago the Hero of Acre addressed
the Government and other parties, as to the im-
provements of trade with parts of Africa, &c.;
and it is mentioned that he is about to follow up
such subject with a " second part" of documents
and details, illustrative of other matters besides
those merely connected with trade. It is said
that such second part will contain the subsequent
correspondence stating the death of Sheik Sidi
Hishem, and proofs, showing the facility of
intercourse- with 'his successor, as hereditary
Chief of Suez. Sir S. Smith is an advocate for
the formation of a canal at such point, so as to open
a water communication between the Mediterra-
nean and the Red Sea, and opening into the
In
Indian Ocean—an opening that would super-
s de the
Hopery modernreoejle ectc—which, by the way, is not altoge-
ther es
to sail to
India. round
one—he was recently in this
furtherance ra Cape
eff
suchGoodr
a project—which, o o
country. It is remarkable that the neck of land
which here joins two quarters of the globe, Asia
and Africa, and impedes the progress from the
Mediterranean to the Red Sea, is only 125
miles wide ; but some say that one great obstacle
to any ship canal project, which would save the
voyage round the Cape, is, that the water in the
Gulf of Suez is too shallow for ships.
It is added that, in such second part of Sir S.
Smith's recent labours, mention is made of the
place and manner of the death of the lamented
Major Laing, after quitting Timbuctoo, and
the hopes to be entertained of successfully pur-
suing the murderer, who is known, and reco-
vering Major Laing s papers.
tt
proof is also adduced, showing that the island
of Malta is part of the wreck of the ancient sub-
merged Atlanticle Island, as recorded by the
Consul Tiberius Sempronius, Governor of
Africa, An. Urbs. DXXXVI., in an inscription
on the edge of a very ancient Phoenician moult-
went, in the character in use at that very early
period, before the deluge, 2,298 years before the
Christian era. Fac-similes will be given.—
Morning Paper.