[12] See the second series of Tales of a Grandfather.
[13] Since the above was written, we have met with an old schoolfellow
of Vaux's, and who also knew him in after life; and from him we have
learnt that Vaux's Memoirs have strong claim to credence, from the
circumstance that the account of his early life appears to be correctly
given, as also that part of his subsequent career which is known to our
informant. He added, that his manners were quite fascinating.
[14] As many of our readers may not recollect it, we here insert it.
Cibber, it should be borne in mind, was poet-laureate.
"In merry old England, it once was a rule, That the king had his poet,
and also his fool; But the times are so altered, I'd have you to know
it, That Cibber will serve both for fool and for poet!"
Cibber seems so little to have minded this, and the rest of Pope's
satire on him in the Dunciad, that he wrote another epigram nearly as
pungent on himself! We give the following stanzas as a specimen of it.
"When Bayes thou play'st, thyself thou art;
For that by nature fit,
No blockhead better suits the part,
Than such a coxcomb wit.
In Wronghead, too, thy brains we see
Who might do well at plough;
As fit for Parliament was he,
As for the laurel thou."
[15] See A Summary View of America. By an Englishman. 8vo. London: 1824.