* * * * *
_Shower of Sugar Plums_--Charles XI., attended by his court, had been
hunting in the neighbourhood of Carcassone. After the stag had been
taken, a gentleman of the neighbourhood invited the king to a splendid
dinner which he had prepared for him. At the conclusion of the banquet
the ceiling of the hall _suddenly opened_, a thick cloud, descended and
burst over their heads like a thunder storm, pouring forth a shower of
_sugar-plums_ instead of hail, which was succeeded by a gentle rain of
rose-water.
_The Coin Guinea_--In the reign of king Charles II., when Sir Robert
Holmes, of the Isle of Wight, brought gold-dust from the coast of
Guinea, a guinea first received its name from that country.
_A Motto_.--A constant frequenter of city feasts, having grown
enormously fat, it was proposed to write on his back, "_Widened at the
expense of the corporation of London."_
_Sedan-chairs and Hackney-coaches_.--Sir S. Duncombe, predecessor to
Duncombe Lord Feversham, and gentleman pensioner to King James and
Charles I., introduced sedan-chairs into this country, anno 1634, when
he procured a patent that vested in him and his heirs the sole right of
carrying persons up and down in them for a certain sum. Sir Saunders had
been a great traveller, and saw these chairs at Sedan, where they were
first invented. It is remarkable that Capt. Bailey introduced the use of
hackney-coaches in this year; a tolerable ride might then be obtained,
in either of these vehicles for four pence.
_Heroism--Seward_, "the brave Earl of Northumberland," feeling in his
sickness that he drew near his end, quitted his bed and put on his
armour, saying, "That it became not a man to die like a beast," on which
he died standing; an act as singular as it was heroic.
_Epigram on Epigrams._
What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.