Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1855-08-29

ling their insect warfare Cardinal Richeeu used
to see amusement in violent exercise, and was
found by De Gammont jumping with his servant,
to see which could leap the highest The great
logican, Samuel Clarke, was equally fond ofsuch
satatory interludes to his hours of meditation, and
has been discovered leapiig over tables and chairs.
Once, observing the approach of pedant, he
said: "Now we must leave off, for fool is COM
inc n!" The learned Peiavius used to twirl his
chair round and round for five minutes, at the end
of every two hours. Tycho Brahe diverted him.
self with polishing glasses spectacles. Paley,
the author of .NafmaL Iheology,was so much CIV
ing to angling. that he had his portrait painted
with rod and line in his hand. Louis XVI, OF
sad memory, amused himself with lock making
Salvador Rosa used to perform IN extempore
comedies, and take the character Of mountebank
in the streets of Rome. Anthony Magliabeechi,
the famous librarian to the Duke Of Tuscany took
great interest in the spiders that thronged his
apartments and while sitting among his noun
tains of books, would caution his visitors mot
to hurt the spiders!'' Moses Mendelss0hn, sur
named the Jewish Socrates, would sometimes
seek relief from too much thought in standing at
his window and counting the tiles upon his neigh
boris roof. Thomas Warton the poelical antigua
rian. used to associate with the schoolboys, while
visiting his brother, DR.. j. Warton. Campbell
saws: "When engaged with them in some cul-
mary occupation and when alarmed by the sudden
approach OF the master be has been known to hide
himself in dark corner of the kitchen, and has
been draoqed from thence by the doctor, who had
taken him for some great boy. Cowper kept hares,
and made bird .cages Dr. johnson was so fond
of his cat. that he would even go himself 10 buy
oysters for Puss because his servant was too proud
TO do so. Goethe kept rame snake, but hated
dogs. Ariosto delighted 10 gardening; but he de
stroyed all he planted, by turning up the mould
to see if the seeds were terminating. Thomson
had his garden at Richmond, respecting which
the old story of how he ale peaches off the trees
with his hands in his pocket is related. GIbbon
was lazy man. Coleridge was content to sit
from morning till right threading the dreamy
mazes of his own mind. Gray said that he wish.
ed to be always lying on sofas, reading eternal
new novels of Crebiun and Marivaux. tenton,
the eminent scholar, died from sheer inactivity:
he rose late, and when he had risen, sat down to
his books and papers. A woman who had waited
upon him in his lodging said, that "he would lie
a-bed and be fed with a spoon" Contrary ex,
ampes to that of Sir Walter Scott, who wrote all
his finest works before breakfast
TO return to the recreatiOns of celebrated per-
sons. Oliver Cromwell is said to have sometimes
cast aside his Puritan gravity ,and played at blind
mans buff with his daughters and aitendants.-
Henri Quatre delighted to 90 about in disguise "a
mong the peasanlry. Charles IFS most innocent
amusement consisted in feeding the ducks in st.
James's Park, and in rearing numbers OF those
beautiful spanieIs that still bear his name. Bee
thoven would splash in cold water at all times OF
the day, till his chamber was swamped, and the
wafer oozed through the flooring to the rooms be-
meath /: he would also walk out in the dewy fields
at night or morning without shoes or stockings.
Shelby took an unaccountable delight in floating
little paper boats on any piece of water he chan
ced to be near There is pond on Hampstead.
heath which has often borne his tiny fleets; and
there is an anecdote related of him-rather too
good, we fear, to be true-which says, that being
one day beside the Serpentine, and having no 9th
er paper in his pocket wherewith to indulge his
passion for hip-buidng, he actually folded
bank-bil for fifty pounds in the desired shape
launched the little craft upon It's voyage watched
its steady progress with paternal anxiety; and
finally went over and received it in safety at the
opposite side.
This paper might be extended almost indehn'-
tely but there must be limits, even in an essay,
and certainly TO the good nature of our readers