Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-04-17
Table talk of Samuel Rogers.

Ere. Post.
Table talk of Samuel Rogers.
Doctor Fordyce sometimes drank good
deal at dinner. He was summonedone. eve
ming to see lady patient, when he was
more than half-seas-over, and conscious that
he was so. Feeling her pulse, and finding
himself unable to count its beats, he NUT
tered, "Drunk-!" Next morning, re-
collecting the circumstance, he was greatly
vexed; and just as he was thinkingwhat ex-
PLANTATION of his behavior he could offer to
the lady, letter from her was put into his
hand. "She too well knew" said the letter,
"that he had discovered the unfortunate con-
dition in which she was when he last visited
her; and she entreated him to keep the mat
ter secret in consideration of the inclosed
/ IA flOO bank note.)''
My friend Lord Holland, though a kind
hearted man, does not mind killing flies &
wasps; he says, 81 have no feeling for
insects" When | was on the Continent
with Richard Sharp, we one day observed a
woman amusing her child by holding what
we at first thought was mouse tied to a
string, with which a cat was playing
Sharp was all Indignation at the sight; till,
on looking more closely, he found that the
supposed mouse was a small rat; upon
which he exclaimed, "Oh, have no pity for
rats" People choose to give the term
ucrmin to those animals that happen to like
what they themselves like; wasps eat peach
es, and they call them vermin.
The head dresses of the ladies', during
my youth, were of truly preposterous size.
have gone to Ranelagh in a coach with a
lady who was obliged to sit upon a stool
placed in the bottom of the coach, the
height of her head dress not allowing her
to occupy the regular seat. Their tight la
cling was equally absurd. Lady Crewe
| told me, that, on returning home from Ran
elagh, she has rushed up to her bedroom
and desired her maid to cut her laces with
out delay, for fear she should faint.
Sir George Beaumont once met Quin at
a very small dinner party There was de-
licious pudding, which the master of the
house, pushing the dish towards Quin, beg
ged him to taste. A gentleman had just be-
fore helped himself to an immense piece of
it. pray" said Quin, looking first at the
gentleman's plate and then at the dish,
(which is the pudding,"
The stanza which Gray threw out of his
Elegy is better than some of the stanzas
he has retained.
"There scatterd oft, the earliest of the year,
BY hands unscen are showers of violes found;
! The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground"
During my youth umbrellas were far from
common. At that time every gentleman's
family had one umbreua,--a huge thing,
made of coarse cotton,-which used to be
taken out with the carriage, and, which, if
there was rain. the footman held over the
ladies' heads. as they entered, or alighted
from, the carriage.
How incapable of estimating Burns's
genius were the worthy folks Of Edinburgh!
Henry Mackenzie (who ought to have
known better) advised him to take for his
model in song-writing Mrs. John Hunter!
DR. Parr had horror of the cast wind;
and Tom Sheridan once kept him prisoner
in the house for fortnight by fixing the
weathercock in that direction
! was present on the second day of Has
tings's trial in Westminster Hall; when
Sheridan was listened to with such attenti-
on that you might have heard pin drop
During one of these days, Sheridan having
| observed Gibbon among the audience, took
occasion to mention "the luminous author of
The Decline and Fall" After he had finish
ed, one of his friends reproached him with
flatterng Ghbon. "Why, what did say
of hm!" asked Sheridan. "You called him
the luminous author" &c. Luminous! oh,
| meant--uouminous.
Sheridan once said to me, "XVhen postcr-
ty read the speeches of Burke, they will har-
dly be able to believe that, during his life
time, he was not considered as a frst-rate
speaker, not even as a second-rate one"
When the Duke of York was obliged to
retreat before the French, Sheridan gave us
toast, 1.-The Duke Of York and his brave
followers"
Fox used to declare of himself that he
was "a most painstaking person. When he
came into Office, finding that his haEdwri-
ting was very bad, he took lessons to i'm
prove it.
Fox once told me that the extracts
which he had seen from Hippocrates had
given him high opinion of that writer;
that one of his aphorisms was excellent
"The second best remedy is better that the
best;"- that he intended to read his
works.
Burke said to Mrs. Crewe: ga dull pro-
ser is more cndurable than dull joker"
He also said to her: "England is a
moon shune upon France has all things
within herself; and she possesses the power
of recovering from the severest blows
England is an artificial country: take away
her commerce, and what has she!
| If Moore had made me his confdant in
the business, should have protested warm
" against the destruction of the Memoirs
(Byron's, written by himselO. But he
chose Lultrell, probably because he thought
him more fashionable man; and Luttrell,
who cared nothing about the matter, readi-
ly voted that they should be put into the
fire. There we're, understand, some gross
things in the manuscript; But read only a
portion of it, and did not light upon them.--
| remember tha, it contained this anecGote:
On his marriage night, Byron suddenly star
ted out of his first sleep. A taper which
burned in the room was casting ruddy
glare through the crimson curtains OF the
LoJ ,,J 10 c,,Id not holm exclaiminr, in