"Yet think, O, think, if mercy may be shown, Thou hadst a father once, and hast a son, Pity my sire," &c. Virgil's words are: "Miseri te si qua parentis Tangere cura potest, oro,-fuit et tibi talis I sometimes wonder how a man can ever be cheerful, when he knows that he must die. But what poets write about the horrors of the grave makes not the slightest impression upon me; for instance, what Dryden says; "Vain men! how vanishing a bliss we crave! Now warm in love, now withering in the grave! Never, O, never more, to see the sun, Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone !"‡ * En. xii. 932.-ED. † Mr. Rogers once made the same remark to Mr. Luttrell, who versified it as follows; "O death, thy certainty is such And thou'rt a thing so fearful, How men were ever cheerful.”—ED. + Palamon and Arcite, b. iii.—ED. The All this is unphilosophical; in fact, nonsense. body, when the soul has left it, is as worthless as an old garment, rather more so, for it rots much sooner. The lines of Dryden which I have just quoted (and which are modernised from Chaucer) were great favourites with Sheridan; I seem now to hear him reciting them. Sir George Beaumont once met Quin at a very small dinner-party. There was a delicious pudding, which the master of the house, pushing the dish towards Quin, begged him to taste. A gentleman had just before helped himself to an immense piece of it. 66 'Pray," said Quin, looking first at the gentleman's plate and then at the dish, "which is the pudding?" Sir George Beaumont, when a young man, was one day in the Mount (a famous coffee-house in Mount Street, Grosvenor Square) with Harvey Aston. Various persons were seated at different tables. Among others present, there was an Irishman who was very celebrated as a duellist, having killed at least half-a-dozen antagonists. Aston, talking to some of his acquaintance, swore that he would make the duellist stand barefooted before them. "You had better take care what you say," they replied; "he has his eye upon you."-" No matter," rejoined Aston; "I declare again that he shall stand barefooted before you, if you will make up among you a purse of fifty guineas." They did so. Aston then said in a loud voice, "I have been in Ireland, and am well acquainted with the natives." The Irishman was all ear. Aston went on, "The Irish, being born in bogs, are every one of them webfooted; I know it for a fact."-" Sir," roared the duellist, starting up from his table, "it is false !" Aston persisted in his assertion. "Sir," cried the other, "I was born in Ireland; and I will prove to you that it is a falsehood." So saying, in great haste he pulled off his shoes and stockings, and displayed his bare feet. The joke ended in Aston's sharing the purse between the Irishman and himself, giving the former thirty guineas, and keeping twenty. Sir George assured me that this was a true story. * * A similar story is related of the Irishman from whom Macklin took the idea of Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan (in Love à la Mode). Macklin professing his belief that he, like other Irishmen, must have a tail, "he instantly pulled off his coat and waistcoat, Aston was always kicking up disturbances. I remember being at Ranelagh with my father and mother, when we heard a great row, and were told that it was occasioned by Aston. If I mistake not, Aston fought two duels in India on two successive days, and fell in the second That beautiful view of Conway Castle [in Mr. Rogers's dining-room] was painted by Sir George Beaumont, who presented it to me as a memorial of our having been originally introduced to each other in its ruins. Sir George and I were always excellent friends. The morning after I arrived at Venice (on my first visit to Italy), I was looking out at the to convince him of his mistake, assuring him, that no Irishman, in that respect, was better than another man.' Cooke's Memoirs of Macklin, p. 225.—Ed. *"1798, Dec. 23. At Madras, in consequence of a wound he received in a duel with Major Allen, of which he languished about a week, Col. Harvey Aston. He had been engaged in a similar affair of honour, and on the same account, with Major Picton, only the day preceding that on which he met Major A., but which was fortunately terminated by each party firing in the air, and a proper explanation taking place as to the offence." Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxix. P. 1. p. 527.—Aston had fought a duel in 1790 with Lieut. Fitzgerald, and was severely wounded. See Haydn's Dict. of Dates, sub Duelling.-Ed. A window, when I saw a gentleman and a lady land at my lodging from a gondola: they were Sir George and Lady Beaumont. The meeting was delightful : -even now, I think of it with pleasure. In my youthful days Young's Night-Thoughts was a very favourite book, especially with ladies: I knew more than one lady who had a copy of it in which particular passages were marked for her by some popular preacher. Young's poem The Last Day contains, amidst much absurdity, several very fine lines: what an enormous thought is this!— "Those overwhelming armies, whose command 6 Said to one empire Fall,' another Stand,' Whose rear lay rapt in night, while breaking dawn At Brighton, during my youth, I became acquainted with a lawyer who had known Gray. He *Book ii.-ED. |