COME down, this instant, said the boatswain to a mischievous son of Erin, who had been idling in the round-top; come down, I say, and I'll give you a good dozen, you rascal!--Troth...
LORD JOHN RUSSELL, remarkable for the smallness of his person as Lord Nugent was for the reverse, was expected at a house where Sydney Smith was a guest. Lord John comes here to-da...
BROTHER DAVID DEWAR was a plain, honest, straightforward man, who never hesitated to express his convictions, however unpalatable they might be to others. Being elected a member of...
WHO was then Archbishop of Canterbury, on King William's complaining of the shortness of his sermon, answered, Sire, could I have bestowed more time upon it, it would not have been...
SOON after the Irish members were admitted into the House of Commons, on the union of the kingdom in 1801, one of them, in the middle of his maiden speech, thus addressed the chair...
A LADY the other day meeting a girl who had lately left her service, inquired, Well, Mary, where do you live now?--Please, ma'am, I don't live nowhere now, rejoined the girl; I am...
THE late Lord Kelly had a very red face. Pray, my lord, said Foote to him, come and look over my garden-wall,--my cucumbers are very backward.
A PERSON who had resided for some time on the coast of Africa was asked if he thought it possible to civilize the natives. As a proof of the possibility of it, said he, I have know...
NEVER be critical upon the ladies, was the maxim of an old Irish peer, remarkable for his homage to the sex; the only way in the world that a true gentleman ever will attempt to lo...
WHEN Jack was poor, the lad was frank and free. Of late he's grown brimful of pride and pelf; No wonder that he don't remember me; Why so? you see he has forgot himself.
AN old sportsman, who, at the age of eighty-three, was met by a friend riding very fast, and was asked what he was in pursuit of? Why, sir, replied the other, I am riding after my...
SOON after Canning's statue was put up in Palace Yard, in all its verdant freshness, the carbonate of copper not yet blackened by the smoke of London, Mr. Justice Gazelee was walki...
IT was customary in some parish churches for the men to be placed on one side, and the women on the other. A clergyman, in the midst of his sermon, found himself interrupted by the...
LORD PETERBOROUGH was once taken by the mob for the great Duke of Marlborough (who was then in disgrace with them); and being about to be roughly treated, said,--Gentlemen, I can c...
A MAN was brought before Lord Mansfield, charged with stealing a silver ladle, and the counsel for the crown was rather severe upon the prisoner for being an attorney. Come, come,...
ADMIRAL LORD HOWE, when a captain, was once hastily awakened in the middle of the night by the lieutenant of the watch, who informed him with great agitation that the ship was on f...
A PLAYER applied to the manager of a respectable company for an engagement for himself and his wife, stating that his lady was capable of playing all the first line of business; bu...
MR. SERGEANT PARRY, in illustration of a case, told the following anecdote:-- Some merchants went to an Eastern sovereign, and exhibited for sale several very fine horses. The king...
AN East-India Governor having died abroad, his body was put in arrack, to preserve it for interment, in England. A sailor on board the ship being frequently drunk, the captain forb...
AFTER witnessing the first representation of a dog-piece by Reynolds, called the Caravan, Sheridan suddenly came into the green-room, on purpose, it was imagined, to wish the autho...
A YOUNG actor having played a part tolerably well, Elliston one evening called him into the green-room, and addressed him to this effect: Young man, you have not only pleased the p...
A SCHOLAR having fallen into the hands of robbers was fastened to a tree, and left so nearly a whole day, till one came and unloosed him. Now, says he, the old adage must be false,...
TAXES are equal is a dogma which I'll prove at once, exclaimed a Tory boor; Taxation hardly presses on the rich, And likewise presses hardly on the poor.
HENDERSON, the actor, was seldom known to be in a passion. When at Oxford, he was one day debating with a fellow-student, who, not keeping his temper, threw a glass of wine in the...
A MAN with one eye laid a wager with another man, that he (the one-eyed person) saw more than the other. The wager was accepted. You have lost, says the first; I can see the two ey...
THE author of the Parson's Daughter, when surprised one evening in his arm-chair, two or three hours after dinner, is reported to have apologized, by saying, When one is alone, the...
HUMPHREY, AT ST. ALBAN'S. A PLAGUE on Egypt's arts, I say-- Embalm the dead--on senseless clay Rich wine and spices waste: Like sturgeon, or like brawn, shall I, Bound in a preciou...
BOSWELL, dining one day with Dr. Johnson, asked him if he did not think that a good cook was more essential to the community than a good poet. I don't suppose, said the doctor, tha...
THE late Lord Dudley and Ward was one of the most absent of men. Meeting Sydney Smith one day in the street, he invited him to meet himself! Dine with me to-day,--dine with me to-d...
A MELTING sermon being preached in a country church, all fell a-weeping but one man, who being asked why he did not weep with the rest, said, O no, I belong to another parish.