* * * * *
Some years since, an eccentric gentleman built himself a villa upon the
brow of one of the loftiest of the Surrey hills, to avoid annoyance from
the curious; but the odd situation of his residence drew scores of
visiters. This reminds us of some lines by Cowley--
I should have then this only fear,
Lest men, when they my pleasures see,
Should hither throng to live like me,
And so make a city here.
* * * * *
_Imperial Ignorance._--Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople,
was an arrant dunce: Fuller says, "he hated a booke more than a monster
did a looking-glasse; and when his tutor endeavoured to play him into
scholarship, by presenting pleasant authors unto him, he returned, that
learning was beneath the greatnesse of a prince, who, if wanting it,
might borrow it from his subjects, being better stor'd; _for_
(saith hee) _if they will not lend me their braines, I'll take away
their heads!_"
* * * * *
_Party Spirit._--Fuller did not think party madness; for, he says
such men as will side with neither party "hope, though the great vessel
of the state be wrecked, in a private fly-boat of neutrality, to waft
their own private adventure safe to the shore. But who ever saw dancers
on ropes so equally poise themselves, that at last they fall not down
and break their necks?"
* * * * *
_A Court Jester._--Fuller thus describes one: "Of this fellow, his
body, downwards, was a fool, his head a knave, who did carefully note,
and cunningly vent, by the privileges of his coat, many state-passages,
uttering them, in a _wary twilight_, betwixt sport and earnest."
* * * * *
_An Excellent Courtier._--Sir Walter Raleigh speaks of Queen
Elizabeth, when sixty years of age, "riding like Alexander, hunting like
Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about
her pure cheeks like a nymph,--sometime sitting in the shade like a
goddess, sometime singing like an angell, sometime playing like
Orpheus."
* * * * *
_A Lock-et._--Mark Scaliot, blacksmith, in the 20th of Queen
Elizabeth, made a lock of eleven pieces of iron, steel, and brass, with
a pipe key, and golden chain of forty-three links, which were hung round
the neck of a flea.--The animal, together with this burthen, weighed
only one grain and a half.
* * * * *
_Oil._--Both rape-oil and olive-oil were used in ancient cookery,
as appears from the provision bought for Archbishop Warham's dinner.
* * * * *
_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House)
London; sold by G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; CHARLES
JUGEL, Francfort; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers._
* * * * *