play off others generally harp upon the same string. The Queen's constant topic for teazing Sir Paul was his passion for romances, and he was weary of it, and not in good humour with her. "Well, Sir Paul, what romance are you reading now?"—" None, Madam! I have gone through them all." -"Well! what are you reading then?"-"I am got into a very foolish study, Madam; the History of the Kings and Queens of England."

AN OBLIVIOUS LADY.

Mrs. Vesey, a leader of fashion, a contemporary of the celebrated Mrs. Montague, was so forgetful that she sometimes hardly remembered her own name. It will scarcely be credited, that she could declaim against second marriages, to a lady of quality who had been twice married, and though Mr. Vesey was her own second husband. When at last reminded of the circumstance, she only exclaimed, "Bless me, my dear, I had quite forgotten it." There was, indeed, some decay of mind in such want of recollection. Her sisterin-law, who lived in the same house with her, and who formed physically, as well as morally, a perfect contrast to Mrs. Vesey, superintended all domestic arrangements. From their opposite figures, qualities, and endowments, the one was called "Body," the other "Mind."

A TUNBRIDGE WELLS HOAX.

The Lilliputian Lady Newhaven arriving at Tunbridge, desired her friend, Mrs. Vesey, to explain to her and instruct her in the customs of the place. A man arrived ringing a bell" for what?" said my lady: "Oh!" replied Mrs. Vesey, "to notify your arrival." At that instant, the man bawled out, "At one o'clock, at Mr. Pinchbeck's great room, will be shown the surprising tall woman.”— Walpole's Letters.

ODDITIES OF FALSE HAIR.

I was struck the other day [writes Walpole to Sir Horace Mann] with a resemblance of mine host at Brandon to old Sarazin. You must know, the ladies of Norfolk universally wear perriwigs, and affirm that it is the fashion at London. "Lord, Mrs. White, have you been ill, that you have shaved

your head?" Mrs. White, in all the days of my acquaintance with her, had a professed head of red hair: to-day she had no hair at all before, and at a distance above her ears, I discerned a smart brown bob, from beneath which had escaped some long strings of original scarlet-so like old Sarazin at two in the morning, when she has been losing at faro, and clawed her wig aside, and her old trunk is shaded with the venerable white wig of her own locks."

KITTY CANNON AND HER TWO HUSBANDS.

Lord Dalmeny, eldest son of the second Earl of Roseberry, some years before his death in 1755, casually encountered in London a lady who made a deep impression on him, and whom he induced to marry him, and accompany him on a tour of the continent. This union was without the knowledge of relations on either side, but the pair lived in great harmony and happiness till the lady was overtaken by a mortal illness. When assured that she was dying, she asked for pen and paper, and wrote the words: "I am the wife of the Rev. Mr. Gough, rector of Thorpe, in Essex; my maiden name was C. Cannon, and my last request is, to be buried at Thorpe." How she had happened to desert her husband does not appear; but Lord Dalmeny, while full of grief for her loss, protested that he was utterly ignorant of this previous marriage. In compliance with her last wishes, he embalmed her body, and brought it in a chest to England. Under the feigned name of Williams, he landed at Colchester, where the chest was opened by the custom-house officers under suspicion of its containing smuggled goods. The young nobleman manifested the greatest grief on the occasion, and seemed distracted under the further and darker suspicions which now arose. The body being placed uncovered in the church, he took his place beside it, absorbed in profound sorrow. At length, he gave full explanation of the circumstances, and Mr. Gough was sent for to come and identify his wife. The first meeting of the indignant husband with the sorrow-struck young man who had unwittingly injured him, was very moving to all who beheld it. Of the two, the latter appeared the most solicitous to do honour to the deceased. He had a splendid coffin made for her, and attended her corpse to Thorpe, where Mr. Gough met him,

and the burial was performed with all due solemnity. Lord Dalmeny immediately after departed for London, apparently inconsolable for his loss. Kitty Cannon is, it is believed, the first woman in England that had two husbands to attend her to the grave together.

A DREAM VERIFIED.

Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, Jan. 9, 1755: "I relate the following, only prefacing, that I do believe the dream happened, and happened right, among the millions of dreams that do not hit. Lord Bury was at Windsor, when the express of his father's death arrived: he came to town time enough to find his mother and sisters at breakfast. 'Lord! child,' said my Lady Albemarle, 'what brings you to town so early?' He said he had been sent for. Says she, 'You are not well!' "Yes,' replied Lord Bury, I am, but a little flustered with something. I have heard.' 'Let me feel your pulse,' said Lady Albemarle: 'Oh!' continued she, 'your father is dead!' 'Lord! Madam,' said Lord Bury, 'how could that come into your head? I should rather have imagined that you would have thought it was my poor brother William, (who is just gone to Lisbon for his health.) 'No,' said my Lady Albemarle, I know it is your father; I dreamed last night that he was dead, and came to take leave of me!' and immediately swooned." Another account states that Lady Albemarle thought she saw her Lord dressed in white: "the same thing happened before the Duke of Richmond's death, and often has happened before the death of any of her family."

THE UNIVERSAL PANACEA.

Edward, Duke of York, was one day conversing at St. James's, with his brother George III., when the latter remarked that he seemed in unusually low spirits. "How can I be otherwise," said the Duke, “when I am subjected to so many calls from my creditors, without having a sixpence to pay them?" The King, it is said, immediately presented him with a thousand-pound note; every word of which he read aloud, in a tone of mock gravity; and then marched out of the room, singing the first verse of "God save the King."

QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S MARRIAGE.

When the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz came over to be married to George III. she was ten days at sea, but gay the whole voyage, sung to her harpsichord, and left the cabin-door open. Walpole describes her as easy, civil, and not disconcerted. On the road they wanted to curl her toupet: she said she thought it looked as well as that of any of the ladies sent to fetch her; if the King bid her, she would wear a perriwig, otherwise she would remain as she was. When she caught the first glimpse of St. James's palace, she turned pale: the Duchess of Hamilton smiled. "My dear Duchess," said the Princess, "you may laugh; you have been married twice; but it is no joke to me.

After the marriage ceremony, as supper was not ready, the Queen sat down, sung and played on the harpsichord to the royal family, who all supped with her in private. They talked of the different German dialects: the King asked if the Hanoverian was not pure. 66 Oh, no, sir," said the Queen; "it is the worst of all."

She was not tall, nor a beauty; pale, and very thin, but looked sensible, and was genteel. A ridiculous circumstance happened during the presentations. Lord Westmoreland, not very young or clear-sighted, mistook Lady Sarah Lennox for the Queen, kneeled to her, and would have kissed her hand if she had not prevented him. With Lady Sarah the King was thought to be in love.

Queen Charlotte had always been, if not ugly, at least ordinary, but in her later years her want of personal charms became, of course, less observable, and it used to be said that she was grown better-looking. Mr. Croker one day said something to this effect to Colonel Disbrowe, her chamberlain. 66 "Yes," replied he, "I do think that the bloom of her ugliness is going off."

A VILLAGE TALE.

At Teddington, there lived, in Walpole's time, a Captain Prescott, who was not only a tar but pitch and brimstone too. He beat his wife, a beautiful, sensible young woman, most unmercifully, so that a young footman, who lived with them five years, could not bear to witness such brutality, but left them, and went to live with Mrs. Clive. The Captain's

wife then resolved to run away, and by the footman's assistance did, and got to London. Her father and friends came up, and she swore the peace against her husband. The cause was heard before Lord Mansfield. Mrs. Clive's servant was summoned as a witness. The Chief Justice asked him if he had not been aiding and abetting to his former mistress's escape. He said, Yes, he had. "You had!" said my Lord, "what, do you confess that you helped your master's wife to elope?" "Yes, my Lord," replied the lad, "and yet my master has never thanked me!" "Thanked you!" said Lord Mansfield, "thanked you! what, for being an accomplice with a wife against her husband?" "My Lord, said the lad, "if I had not, he would have murdered her, and then he would have been hanged." The Court laughed, and Lord Mansfield was charmed with the lad's coolness and wit.

DISTRESSED ORPHANS.

'It

Shortly before the Coronation of George III., Walpole relates this incident. "I was extremely diverted t'other day with my mother's and my old milliner: she said she had a petition to present to me. 'What is it, Mrs. Burton?' is in behalf of two poor orphans.' I began to feel for my purse. 'What can I do for them, Mrs. Burton?' 'Only if your honour would be so compassionate as to get them tickets for the Coronation.' I could not keep my countenance, and these distressed orphans are two- and three-and-twenty! Did you ever hear a more melancholy case?"

CORONATION OF GEORGE III.

The following are a few amusing eccentricities of the pageant. My Lady Harrington, covered with all the diamonds she could borrow, hire, or seize, and with the air of a Roxana, was the finest figure at a distance: she complained to George Selwyn that she was to walk with Lady Portsmouth, who would have a wig and a stick. "Pho," said he, "you will only look as if you were taken up by the constable." She told this everywhere, thinking the reflection was on my Lady Portsmouth.

Walpole tells us that he dressed part of Lady Strafford's head, and made some of my Lord Hertford's dress; "for,"