Romilly And Brougham
Hallam's History of the Middle Ages was the last book of any
importance read by Sir Samuel Romilly. Of this excellent work he formed
the highest opinion, and recommended its immediate perusal to Lord
Brougham, as a contrast to his dry Letter on the Abuses of Charities,
in respect of the universal interest of the subject. Yet, Sir Samuel
undervalued the Letter, for it ran through eight editions in one month.
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Physiognomy Of The French Revolutionists
It is remarkable, (says Bulwer, in his Zanoni,) that most of the principal actors of the French Revolution were singularly hideous in appearance--from the colossal ugliness of Mirabeau and Danton, or the villanous ferocity in the countenances of Dav... Poetry Of The Sea
Campbell was a great lover of submarine prospects. "Often in my boyhood," says the poet, "when the day has been bright and the sea transparent, I have sat by the hour on a Highland rock admiring the golden sands, the emerald weeds, and the silver sh... Popularity Of Lope De Vega
Other writers, of the same age with Lope de Vega, obtained a wider celebrity. Don Quixote, during the life of its ill-requited author, was naturalized in countries where the name of Lope de Vega was not known, and Du Bartas was translated into the l... Popularity Of The Pickwick Papers
Mr. Davy, who accompanied Colonel Cheney up the Euphrates, was for a time in the service of Mehemet Ali Pacha. "Pickwick" happening to reach Davy while he was at Damascus, he read a part of it to the Pacha, who was so delighted with it, that Davy wa... Porson's Memory
Professor Porson, the great Graecist, when a boy at Eton, displayed the most astonishing powers of memory. In going up to a lesson one day, he was accosted by a boy in the same form: "Porson, what have you got there?" "Horace." "Let me look at it." ... Praise Of Ale
Dr. Still, though Bishop of Bath and Wells, seems not to have been over fond of water; for thus he sings:-- "A stoup of ale, then, cannot fail, To cheer both heart and soul; It hath a charm, and without harm Can make a lame man whole.... Quid Pro Quo
Campbell relates:--"Turner, the painter, is a ready wit. Once at a dinner where several artists, amateurs, and literary men were convened, a poet, by way of being facetious, proposed as a toast the health of the painters and glaziers of Great Britai... Reconciling The Fathers
A Dean of Gloucester having some merry divines at dinner with him one day, amongst other discourses they were talking of reconciling the Fathers on some points; he told them he could show them the best way in the world to reconcile them on all point... Regality Of Genius
Gibbon, when speaking of his own genealogy, refers to the fact of Fielding being of the same family as the Earl of Denbigh, who, in common with the Imperial family of Austria, is descended from the celebrated Rodolph, of Hapsburgh. "While the one br... Relics Of Dr Johnson At Lichfield
The house in which Dr. Johnson was born, at Lichfield--where his father, it is well known, kept a small bookseller's shop, and where he was partly educated--stood on the west side of the market-place. In the centre of the market-place is a colossal ... Relics Of Izaak Walton
Flatman's beautiful lines to Walton, (says Mr. Jesse) commencing-- "Happy old man, whose worth all mankind knows Except himself," have always struck us as conveying a true picture of Walton's character, and of the estimation in which he was ... Relics Of Milton
Milton was born at the Spread Eagle, Bread-street, Cheapside, December 9, 1608; and was buried, November, 1674, in St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, without even a stone, in the first instance, to mark his resting-place; but, in 1793, a bust and tabl... Relics Of The Boar's Head Tavern Eastcheap
The portal of the Boar's Head was originally decorated with carved oak figures of Falstaff and Prince Henry; and in 1834, the former figure was in the possession of a brazier, of Great Eastcheap, whose ancestors had lived in the shop he then occupie... Rival Remembrance
Mr. Gifford to Mr. Hazlitt. "What we read from your pen, we remember no more." Mr. Hazlitt to Mr. Gifford. "What we read from your pen, we remember before." * * * * * ... Rogers And Junius
Samuel Rogers was requested by Lady Holland to ask Sir Philip Francis whether he was the author of Junius' Letters. The poet, meeting Sir Philip, approached the ticklish subject thus: "Will you, Sir Philip--will your kindness excuse my addressing to... Romilly And Brougham
Hallam's History of the Middle Ages was the last book of any importance read by Sir Samuel Romilly. Of this excellent work he formed the highest opinion, and recommended its immediate perusal to Lord Brougham, as a contrast to his dry Letter on the ... Sale Of Magazines
Sir John Hawkins, in his "Memoirs of Johnson," ascribes the decline of literature to the ascendancy of frivolous Magazines, between the years 1740 and 1760. He says that they render smatterers conceited, and confer the superficial glitter of knowled... Sale The Translator Of The Koran
The learned Sale, who first gave to the world a genuine version of the Koran, pursued his studies through a life of wants. This great Orientalist, when he quitted his books to go abroad, too often wanted a change of linen; and he frequently wandered... Sensitiveness To Criticism
Hawkesworth and Stillingfleet died of criticism; Tasso was driven mad by it; Newton, the calm Newton, kept hold of life only by the sufferance of a friend who withheld a criticism on his chronology, for no other reason than his conviction that if it... Sheridan's Pizarro
Mr. Pitt was accustomed to relate very pleasantly an amusing anecdote of a total breach of memory in some Mrs. Lloyd, a lady, or nominal housekeeper, of Kensington Palace. "Being in company," he said, "with Mr. Sheridan, without recollecting him, wh... Sheridan's Wit
Sheridan's wit was eminently brilliant, and almost always successful; it was, like all his speaking, exceedingly prepared, but it was skilfully introduced and happily applied; and it was well mingled, also, with humour, occasionally descending to fa... Silence Not Always Wisdom
Coleridge once dined in company with a person who listened to him, and said nothing for a long time; but he nodded his head, and Coleridge thought him intelligent. At length, towards the end of the dinner, some apple dumplings were placed on the tab... Sir James Mackintosh's Humour
Sir James Mackintosh had a great deal of humour; and, among many other examples of it, he kept a dinner-party at his own house for two or three hours in a roar of laughter, playing upon the simplicity of a Scotch cousin, who had mistaken the Rev. Sy... Smart Repartee
Walpole relates, after an execution of eighteen malefactors, a woman was hawking an account of them, but called them nineteen. A gentleman said to her, "Why do you say nineteen? there were but eighteen hanged." She replied, "Sir, I did not know you ... Smollett's Hard Fortunes
Smollett, perhaps one of the most popular authors by profession that ever wrote, furnishes a sad instance of the insufficiency of even the greatest literary favour, in the times in which he wrote, to procure those temporal comforts on which the happ... Smollett's History Of England
This man of genius among trading authors, before he began his History of England, wrote to the Earl of Shelburne, then in the Whig Administration, offering, if the Earl would procure for his work the patronage of the Government, he would accommodate... Smollett's Hugh Strap
In the year 1809 was interred, in the churchyard of St. Martin's in the Fields, the body of one Hew Hewson, who died at the age of 85. He was the original of Hugh Strap, in Smollett's Roderick Random. Upwards of forty years he kept a hair-dresser's ... Stammering Wit
Stammering, (says Coleridge,) is sometimes the cause of a pun. Some one was mentioning in Lamb's presence the cold-heartedness of the Duke of Cumberland, in restraining the duchess from rushing up to the embrace of her son, whom she had not seen for... Sterne's Sermons
Sterne's sermons are, in general, very short, which circumstance gave rise to the following joke at Bull's Library, at Bath:--A footman had been sent by his lady to purchase one of Smallridge's sermons, when, by mistake, he asked for a small religio... Swift's Disappointment
"I remember when I was a little boy, (writes Swift in a letter to Bolingbroke,) I felt a great fish at the end of my line, which I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropt in, and the disappointment vexes me to this day; and I believe it was the t...