W— then carefully examined his purchase, selected the best impression, and threw the remaining nineteen into the fire, exclaiming, "Now I have in my possession a unique work of my idol's [Query, why not idol?]. No man can boast that he has a copy of this fête champêtre but myself, and I would not part with it for fifty pounds." His feelings were less enviable than those of the person who had enabled him to possess this treasure. With what delight did he hand over the smaller sum to the honest workman, whose gratitude was equal to his surprise at such an unexpected Godsend. The passion for destroying what is valuable in order to monopolize, instead of diffusing pleasure and information, is the vice of a virtuoso, and a proof of imperfect knowledge in a connoisseur.-From A Pinch-of Snuff, by Pollexenes Digit Snift, Dean of Brazen-Nose. London, Robert Tyas, 1840, p. 79. THE SOUND OF "OUGH." TWO ATTEMPTS TO SHOW THE SOUND OF "OUGH" FINAL. 1. Though from rough cough, or hiccough free, That man has pain enough Whose wounds through plough, sunk in a slough, 2. "Tis not an easy task to show SHENSTONE'S LINES ON AN INN. The circumstances which gave occasion to the composition of Shenstone's well-known lines on an inn, are thus narrated in a pleasing little volume* by his friend, the Rev. Richard Graves of Mickleton : About the year 1750 (notwithstanding his reluctance to leave home), Mr. Shenstone had resolution enough to take a journey of near seventy miles across the country to visit his friend, Mr. Whistler, in the southernmost part of Oxfordshire. Mr. Whistler, with manly sense and a fine genius, had a delicacy of taste and a softness of manners bordering on effeminacy. He laid a stress on trivial circumstances in his domestic economy, which Mr. Shenstone affected to despise. As people in small families find it difficult to retain a valuable servant, Mr. Whistler made it a rule to prevent, as much as possible, any intercourse with strange servants, and, without making any apology for it, had sent Mr. Shenstone's servant to a little inn in the village. This was a little disgusting, but unfortunately, while Mr. Shenstone was there, Mr. Whistler thought proper to give a ball and supper to two or three of the most respectable families in the neighborhood. Mr. Shenstone (as he says in a letter on that occasion)— never liked that place. There was too much trivial elegance, punctilio, and speculation in that polite neighborhood. They do nothing but play at cards, and on account of my ignorance of any creditable game, I was forced to lose my money, and two evenings out of seven, at Pope Joan with Mr. P.'s children. This disposed him to ridicule Mr. Whistler's great solicitude in preparing for his entertainment; instead, therefore, of paying any regard to the hints given him, that it was time to dress for their company, Shenstone continued lolling at his ease, taking snuff, and disputing rather perversely on the folly and absurdity of laying a stress upon such trifles; and, in short, the dispute ran * Recollections of some Particulars in the Life of the late William Shenstone, Esq. : London (Dodsley), 1788, 12mo. so high, that although Shenstone suppressed his choler that evening, yet he curtailed his visit two or three days, took a cool leave the next morning, and decamped. Traversing the whole county, he reached Edge Hill that night, where, in a summer-house, he wrote the lines in question. Both Shenstone and Whistler seemed afterwards conscious of their childish conduct on this occasion; each seemed solicitous to know how his account stood with the other. Whistler still expressed the highest regard for Shenstone, and Shenstone retained the same warmth of affection for his old friend until his death. Mr. Graves remarks "that there were more stanzas added to to this effusion afterward, which diminished the force of the prin cipal thought." The additions are thus given in Dodsley's edition of Shenstone's Works, vol. i. p. 218, where the whole is inscribed: WRITTEN AT AN INN AT HENLEY. To thee, fair Freedom! I retire From flattery, cards, and dice, and din; 'Tis here with boundless pow'r I reign; I fly from pomp, I fly from plate! And chuse my lodgings at an inn. Here waiter! take my sordid ore, Which lacqueys else might hope to win; Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, The statement of Mr. Graves, that the lines were written in a summer-house at Edge Hill (Mr. Jago's), is inconsistent with the title prefixed to these stanzas. Perhaps the lines so often quoted were all that were produced at Edge Hill; and the other stanzas may have been written afterwards at the inn at Henley. "LONG SIR T. ROBINSON." "Till how he did a dukedom gain, And Robinson was Aquitain?" At the last coronation the Duke of Normandy, not Aquitain, was represented by Sir Thomas Robinson, a Yorkshire baronet, more generally known as "Long Sir Thomas," on account of his uncommon height of stature; in allusion to which the following happy epigram was written : Unlike to Robinson shall be my song, It shall be witty, and it shan't be long. A ludicrous anecdote is related of the introduction of Sir Thomas to a Russian nobleman, who persuaded himself that he was addressing no less a character than Robinson Crusoe. Sir Thomas was a specious empty man, and a great pest to persons of high rank or in office. He was very troublesome to the Earl of Burlington, and when in his visits to him he was told that his lordship was gone out, would desire to be admitted to look at the clock, or to play with a monkey that was kept in the hall, in hopes of being sent for in to the earl. This he had so frequently done that all in the house were tired of him. At length it was concerted among the servants that he should receive a summary answer to his usual questions, and accordingly, at his next com ing, the porter, as soon as he had opened the gate, and without waiting for what he had to say, dismissed him with these words: "Sir, his lordship is gone out, the clock stands, and the monkey is dead."-Churchill's Poetical Works, 1804, vol. ii. p. 183. MIND YOUR P'S AND Q'S. There are several explanations given as to the origin of this term. Some have thought it to be derived from the ancient custom of hanging a slate behind the alehouse door, on which was written P. or Q. (i. e. pint or quart) against the name of each customer, according to the quantity which he had drunk, and which was not expected to be paid for till the Saturday evening, when the wages were settled. The expression so familiar to schoolboys of "going tick," may perhaps be traced to this, a tick or mark being put for every glass of ale. Others have thought that this phrase was, originally, "Mind your toupées and your queues," the toupée being the artificial locks of hair on the head, and the queue the pigtail of olden time. There used to be an old riddle as follows:-Who is the best person to keep the alphabet in order? Answer: A barber, because he ties up the queue, and puts toupées in irons. But the most plausible explanation as to origin, seems to be the following, by Charles Knight, who says: I have always thought that the phrase, "Mind your P's and Q's," was derived from the school-room or the printing-office. The forms of the small "p" and "q," in the Roman type, have always been puzzling to the child and the printer's apprentice. In the one, the downward stroke is on the left of the oval; in the other, on the right. Now, when the types are reversed, as they are when in the process of distribution they are returned by the compositor to his case, the mind of the young printer is puzzled to distinguish the "p" from the "q." In sorting pie, or a mixed heap of letters, where the "p" and the "q" are not in connection with any other letters forming a word, I think it would be almost impossible for an inexperienced person to say which is |