the levée. His lordship was at home | lings a pound in those days). When my Lady Sparkish sent her footman out to my Lady Match to come at six o'clock and play at quadrille, her ladyship warned the man to follow his nose, and if he fell by the way not to stay to get up again. And when the gentlemen asked the hall-porter if his lady was at home, that functionary replied, with manly waggishness, "She was at home just now, but she's not gone out yet." to dinner at three o'clock to receive his guests; and we may sit down to this meal, like the Barmecide's, and see the fops of the last century before us. Seven of them sat down at dinner, and were joined by a country baronet, who told them they kept court hours. These persons of fashion began their dinner with a sirloin of beef, fish, a shoulder of veal, and a tongue. My Lady Smart carved the sirloin, my Lady Answerall helped the fish, and the gallant Colonel cut the shoulder of veal. All made a considerable inroad on the sirloin and the shoulder of veal with the exception of Sir John, who had no appetite, having already partaken of a beefsteak and two mugs of ale, besides a tankard of March beer as soon as he got out of bed. They drank claret, which the master of the house said should always be drunk after fish; and my Lord Smart particularly recommended some excellent cider to my Lord Sparkish, which occasioned some brilliant remarks from that nobleman. When the host called for wine, he nodded to one or other of his guests, and said, "Tom Neverout, my service to you." After the puddings, sweet and black, the fritters and soup, came the third course, of which the chief dish was a hot venison pasty, which was put before Lord Smart, and carved by that nobleman. Besides the pasty, there was a hare, a rabbit, some pigeons, partridges, a goose, and a ham. Beer and wine were freely imbibed during this course, the gentlemen always pledging somebody with every glass which they drank; and by this time the conversation between Tom Neverout and Miss Notable had grown so brisk and lively, that the Derbyshire baronet began to think the young gentlewoman was Tom's sweetheart; on which Miss remarked, that she loved Tom "like pie." After the goose, some of the gentlemen After the first course came almond- took a dram of brandy, "which was pudding, fritters, which the Colonel very good for the wholesomes," Sir took with his hands out of the dish, John said; and now having had a in order to help the brilliant Miss tolerably substantial dinner, honest Notable; chickens, black puddings, Lord Smart bade the butler bring up and soup; and Lady Smart, the the great tankard full of October to clegant mistress of the mansion, find- Sir John. The great tankard was ing a skewer in a dish, placed it in passed from hand to hand and mouth her plate with directions that it to mouth, but when pressed by the should be carried down to the cook, noble host upon the gallant Tom and dressed for the cook's own dinner. Neverout, he said, "No, faith, my Wine and small beer were drunk dur-lord; I like your wine, and won't ing this second course; and when the Colonel called for beer, he called the butler Friend, and asked whether the beer was good. Various jocular remarks passed from the gentlefolks to the servants; at breakfast several persons had a word and a joke for Mrs. Betty, my lady's maid, who warmed the cream and had charge of the canister (the tea cost thirty shil put a churl upon a gentleman. Your honor's claret is good enough for me.” And so, the dinner over, the host said, "Hang saving, bring us up a ha'porth of cheese." The cloth was now taken away, and a bottle of burgundy was set down, of which the ladies were invited to partake before they went to their tea. When they withdrew, the gentlemen promised to join them in an hour: fresh bottles were brought; the "dead men," meaning the empty bottles, removed; and "D'you hear, John ? bring clean glasses," my Lord Smart said. On which the gallant Colonel Alwit said, "I'll keep my glass; for wine is the best liquor to wash glasses in." After an hour the gentlemen joined the ladies, and then they all sat and played quadrille until three o'clock in the morning, when the chairs and the flambeaux came, and this noble company went to bed. Such were manners six or seven score years ago. I draw no inference from this queer picture let all moralists here present deduce their own. Fancy the moral condition of that society in which a lady of fashion joked with a footman, and carved a sirloin, and provided besides a great shoulder of veal, a goose, hare, rabbit, chickens, partridges, black puddings, and a ham for a dinner for eight Christians. What-what could have been the condition of that polite world in which people openly ate goose after almondpudding, and took their soup in the middle of dinner? Fancy a Colonel in the Guards putting his hand into a dish of beignets d'abricot, and helping his neighbor, a young lady du monde! Fancy a noble lord calling out to the servants, before the ladies at his table, Hang expense, bring us a ha'porth of cheese! Such were the ladies of Saint James's such were the frequenters of "White's ChocolateHouse," when Swift used to visit it, and Steele described it as the centre of pleasure, gallantry, and entertainment, a hundred and forty years ago! Dennis, who ran amuck at the literary society of his day, falls foul of poor Steele, and thus depicts him : Sir John Edgar, of the county of in Ireland, is of a middle stature, broad shoulders, thick legs, a shape like the picture of somebody over a farmer's chimney-a short chin, a short nose, a short forehead, a broad flat face, and a dusky coun tenance. Yet with such a face and such a shape, he discovered at sixty that he took himself for a beauty, and appeared to be more mortified at being told that he was ugly, than he was by any reflection made upon his honor or understanding. "He is a gentleman born, witness himself, of very honorable family; certainly of a very ancient one, for his ancestors flourished in Tipperary long before the English ever set foot in Ireland. He has testimony of this more authentic than the Herald's office, or any human testimony. For God has marked him more abundantly than he did Cain, and stamped his native country on his face, his understanding, his writings, his actions, his passions, and, above all, his vanity. The Hibernian brogue is still upon all these, though long habit and length of days have worn it off his tongue. " "Your years are about sixty-five, an ugly, vinegar face, that if you had any command you would be obeyed out of fear, from your ill-nature pictured there; not from any other motive. Your height is about some five feet five inches. You see I can give your exact measure as well as if I had taken your dimension with a good cudgel, which I promise you to do as soon as ever I have the good fortune to meet you. "Your doughty paunch stands before you like a firkin of butter, and your duck legs seem to be cast for carrying burdens. "Thy works are libels upon others, and satires upon thyself; and while they bark at men of sense, call him knave and fool that wrote them. Thou hast a great antipathy to thy own species; and hatest the sight of a fool but in thy glass." Steele had been kind to Dennis, and once got arrested on account of a pecu niary service which he did him. When John heard of the fact -"S'death!" cries John; "why did not he keep out of the way as I did?" The Answer" concludes by mention ing that Cibber had offered Ten Pounds for the discovery of the authorship of at the ordinary: or he was in hiding, or worse than in hiding, in the lockup house. What a situation for a man! for a philanthropist — for a lover of right and truth for a mag Although this portrait is the work of a man who was neither the friend of Steele nor of any other man alive, yet there is a dreadful resemblance to the original in the savage and exaggerated traits of the caricature, and every-nificent designer and schemer! Not body who knows him must recognize Dick Steele. Dick set about almost all the undertakings of his life with inadequate means, and, as he took and furnished a house with the most generous intentions towards his friends, the most tender gallantry towards his wife, and with this only drawback, that he had not wherewithal to pay the rent when quarter-day came, so, in his life, he proposed to himself the most magnificent schemes of virtue, forbearance, public and private good, and the advancement of his own and the national religion; but when he had to pay for these articles so difficult to purchase and so costly to maintain poor Dick's money was not forthcoming: and when Virtue called with her little bill, Dick made a shuffling excuse that he could not see her that morning, having a headache from being tipsy overnight; or when stern Duty rapped at the door with his account, Dick was absent, and not ready to pay. He was shirking at the tavern; or had some particular business (of somebody's else) to dare to look in the face the Religion which he adored and which he had offended to have to shirk down back lanes and alleys, so as to avoid the friend whom he loved and who had trusted him; to have the house which he had intended for his wife, whom he loved passionately, and for her ladyship's company which he wished to entertain splendidly, in the possession of a bailiff's man; with a crowd of little creditors, grocers, butchers, and small-coal men - lingering round the door with their bills and jeering at him. Alas! for poor Dick Steele! For nobody else, of course. There is no man or woman in our time who makes fine projects and gives them up from idleness or want of means. When Duty calls upon us, we no doubt are always at home and ready to pay that grim taxgatherer. When we are stricken with remorse, and promise reform, we keep our promise, and are never angry, or idle, or extravagant any more. There are no chambers in our hearts, destined for family friends and affections, and now occupied by some Sin's emis Dennis's pamphlet; on which, says Stecle, sary and bailiff in possession. There -"I am only sorry he has offered so are no little sius, shabby peccadilloes, much, because the twentieth part would importunate remembrances, or disapI know the fellow that he keeps to give an- pointed holders of our promises to reswers to his creditors will betray him; for form, hovering at our steps, or knockhe gave me his word to bring officers on the ing at our door! Of course not. We top of the house that should make a hole are living in the nineteenth century; through the ceiling of his garret, and so bring him to the punishment he deserves. and poor Dick Steele stumbled and Some people think this expedient out of got up again, and got into jail and the way, and that he would make his es-out again, and sinned and repented, cape upon hearing the least noise. I say so too; but it takes him up half an hour every night to fortify himself with his old hair trunk, two or three joint-stools, and some other lumber, which he ties together with cords so fast that it takes him up the same time in the morning to release him have over-valued his whole carcass. self." But and loved and suffered, and lived and died, scores of years ago. Peace be with him! Let us think gently of one who was so gentle : let us speak kindly of one whose own breast exuberated with human kindness. men.* PRIOR, GAY, AND POPE. MATTHEW PRIOR was one of those famous and lucky wits of the auspicious reign of Queen Anne, whose name it behooves us not to pass over. Mat was a world-philosopher of no small genius, good nature, and acuHe loved, he drank, he sang. He describes himself, in one of his lyrics, "in a little Dutch chaise on a Saturday night; on his left hand his Horace, and a friend on his right," going out of town from the Hague to pass that evening, and the ensuing Sunday, boozing at a Spielhaus with his companions, perhaps bobbing for perch in a Dutch canal, and noting down, in a strain and with a grace not * Gay calls him-"Dear Prior. beloved by every muse."- Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece. Swift and Prior were very intimate, and he is frequently mentioned in the "Journal to Stella." "Mr. Prior," says Swift, "walks to make himself fat, and I to keep myself down. We often walk round the park together." In Swift's works there is a curious tract called "Remarks on the Characters of the Court of Queen Anne" [SCOTT's edition, vol. xii.] The "Remarks" are not by the Dean; but at the end of each is an addition in Italics from his hand, and these are always characteristic. Thus, to the Duke of Marlborough, he adds, “Detestably covetous," &c. Prior is thus noticed: "MATTHEW PRIOR, Esq., Commissioner of Trade. "On the Queen's accession to the throne, he was continued in his office; is very well at court with the ministry, and is an entire creature of my Lord Jersey's, whom he supports by his advice; is one of the best poets in England, but very facetious in conversation. A thin, hollow-looked man, turned of forty years old. This is near the truth.” "Yet counting as far as to fifty his years, His virtues and viccs were as other men's are. unworthy of his Epicurean master, the charms of his idleness, his retreat, and his Batavian Chloe. A vintner's son in Whitehall, and a distinguished pupil of Busby of the Rod, Prior attracted some notice by writing verses at St. John's College, Cambridge, and, coming up to town, aided Montague * in an attack on the noble old English lion John Dryden; in ridicule of whose work, "The Hind and the Panther," he brought out that remarkable and famous burlesque, "The Town and Country Mouse." Aren't you all acquainted with it? Have you not all got it by heart? What! have you never heard of it? And whirled in the round as the wheel turned about, He found riches had wings, and knew man was but dust." - PRIOR'S Poems. [For my own monument.] * "They joined to produce a parody, entitled 'The town and Country Mouse,' part of which Mr. Bayes is supposed to gratify his old friends, Smart and Johnson, by repeating to them. The piece is therefore founded upon the twice-told jest of the 'Rehearsal.' There is nothing new or original in the idea. . . . In this piece, Prior, though the younger man, seems to have had by far the largest share.” SCOTT's Dryden, vol. i. p. 330. "Thee, gracious Anne, thee present I adore: Thee, Queen of Peace, if Time and Fate Higher to raise the glories of thy reign, Here, Stator Jove, and Phoebus, king of verse, The votive tablet I suspend." See what fame is made of! The won- | dorial plate; and in an heroic poem, derful part of the satire was, that, as addressed by him to her late lamented a natural consequence of "The Town Majesty, Queen Anne, Mat makes and Country Mouse," Matthew Prior some magnificent allusions to these was made Secretary of Embassy at dishes and spoons, of which Fate had the Hague! I believe it is dancing, deprived him. All that he wants, he rather than singing, which distin- says, is her Majesty's picture; withguishes the young English diploma- out that he can't be happy. tists of the present day; and have seen them in various parts perform that part of their duty very finely. In Prior's time it appears a different accomplishment led to preferment. Could you write a copy of Alcaics? that was the question. Could you turn out a neat epigram or two? Could you compose "The Town and Country Mouse"? It is manifest that, by the possession of this faculty, the most difficult treaties, the laws of foreign nations, and the interests of our own, are easily understood. Prior rose in the diplomatic service, and said good things that proved his sense and his spirit. When the apartments at Versailles were shown to him, with the victories of Louis XIV. painted on the walls, and Prior was asked whether the palace of the King of England had any such decorations, "The monuments of my master's actions," Mat said, of William whom he cordially revered, are to be seen everywhere except in his own house." Bravo, Mat! Prior rose to be full ambassador at Paris,* where he somehow was cheated out of his ambassa With that word the poem stops abruptly. The votive tablet is suspended forever, like Mahomet's coffin. News came that the Queen was dead. Stator Jove, and Phoebus, king of verse, were left there, hovering_to this day, over the votive tablet. The picture was never got, any more than the spoons and dishes: the inspiration ceased, the verses were not wanted the ambassador wasn't wanted. Poor Mat was recalled from his embassy, suffered disgrace along with his patrons, lived under a sort of cloud ever after, and disappeared in Essex. When deprived of all his pensions and emoluments, the hearty and generous Oxford pensioned him. They played for gallant stakes - the bold men of those days-and lived and gave splendidly. Johnson quotes from Spence a legend, that Prior, after spending an evening with Harley, St. John, Pope, and Swift, would go off and smoke a pipe with a couple of friends of his, a soldier and his wife, in Long Acre. Those who have not read his late Excellency's poems should be warned that they smack not a little of the conversation of his Long Acre friends. Johnson speaks slightingly of his lyrics; but with due deference to the great Samuel, Prior's seem to me But, in this case, the old prejudice got amongst the easiest, the richest, the the better of the old joke. most charmingly humorous of English |