maiden name of Simmons. I took occasion to visit Beaconsfield twice, concerning this little doubt, and I think it but justice to make my acknowledgments to Mr. Thomas Fagg, the deputy-sexton of the parish, for his urbane attention to me, and the readiness with which he afforded me all the information of which he was possessed.

No. V.

FROM SIR PHILIP FRANCIS TO MR. PERKINS.

MY DEAR SIR,

THE weather is so hot, and town so dull, that I intend flying from all its ills and inconveniences to-morrow; I shall be happy, therefore, to join your pleasant party.

This very curious letter is not more valuable on account of the matter it contains, than as conducing to throw additional light upon the mystery of Junius --it would occupy too much space in a note to enter into a disquisition concerning the various conflicting opinions upon this subject, but as far as a comparison of hand-writing with some portions of the MS. of Junius's Letters, which I had an opportunity of seeing, and a strong similarity of style in the writing, go, I have no hesitation in settling the authorship upon Sir Philip there is such vigorous imagination displayed in the description, in nine words, of the state of the weather and the metropolis, and such a masculine resolution evinced in the declared determination to "fly from all its ills and inconveniences" the very next day, that one cannot but pause to admire the

firmness which could plan such a measure, and the taste which could give such a determination in such language. The cautious concealment of the place to which the supposed party of pleasure was to go, is another evidence of the force of habit; I have reason to believe it to have been Twickenham, or, as Pope spells it, Twitnam, but I have no particular datum whereon to found this suspicion, except indeed, that I think it quite as probable to have been Twickenham, or Twitnam as any other of the agreeable villages round London.

No. VI.

FROM SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS TO CALEB WHITEFOORD, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR,

Leicester Fields, Saturday.

to

I HAVE received your witty note, and am extremely obliged you for your present of venison. I trust you will favour me with your company on Tuesday, to meet some of your friends, and join them in discussing it.

Yours, very truly,

J. REYNOLDS.

There can be little doubt that the note referred to by Sir Joshua, was full of those quibbles and quaintnesses for which Whitefoord was so well known. Whitefoord was a man of considerable attainments, and was distinguished by the peculiarity of his dress; a French grey coat with black frogs, a small cocked hat and an umbrella; he was the constant frequenter of auctions, and has the credit of being the inventor

of the now hacknied conceit called "Cross-readings." It is certain, that in his note sent with the venison, he called Sir Joshua his deer* friend, hoped it would suit his palette, recommended him to take some cuts from it and transfer them to plates, spoke of the current sauce being jelly, and perhaps signed himself his Buck friend (for at that period the words Buck and Maccaroni were the distinctive appellations of two classes of persons in London). I surmise this, because he was a confirmed punster, a character somewhat prized in those days.-Goldsmith said it was impossible to keep company with him without being infected with the itch of punning. He is celebrated in the postscript to "Retaliation."

66

Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy sake I admit

That a Scott may have humour, I had almost said wit; This debt to thy memory I cannot refuse,

Thou best tempered man, with the worst-tempered muse.”

We could not have believed it possible-but so it is that there should be people in this land, and in

* The pun suggests an inadvertent equivogue, attributed to Baron R.

Somebody asked the Baron to take venison. No," said the Baron, "I never eatsh wenshon; I don't think it ish so coot ash mutton."-" Oh!" said the Baron's friend, "I wonder at your saying so; if mutton were not better than venison, why does venison cost so much more?"—" Vy ?" replied the Baron, "I will tell you vy-in dish world de peeples alvaysh prefers vat ish deer to vat is sheep."

This is called by some a jew de mots, and by others a jew d'esprit.

in

London too, who had so much "matter of fact their composition, as to read and believe the "Private Correspondence of Public Men," of which the above is a specimen, to be a serious production; that the notes upon it were actually annotations, and that the whole affair was a grave disquisition into the lives and histories of the persons mentioned; but so it is. The two following letters, which are, as examples of the dear, amiable innocence of the writers, worth their weight in gold, were actually elicited by the article in question; a comment on either of them is needless.

TO THE EDITOR OF JOHN BULL.

SIR, On reading your observations on the Correspondence of Public Men in this day's paper, I beg to make the following notices.

No. II.

GARRICK'S villa was not purchased by Mr. Carr, Solicitor to the Excise, but by Mr. Carr, a Solicitor in John-street, Bedford-row, many years Secretary of Lunatics.

No. V.

THE party, I imagine, was not to Twickenham, but to Camberwell, then a pleasant and retired village. Mr. Perkins (the brewer), resided there many years in affluence and respectability, and died some years since at a very advanced age, upwards of 90. He was a partner in Barclay's house. Yours, W. F.

Craven Street, Sunday.

SIR,-In your extracts from the Correspondence of Public Men in yesterday's "John Bull," you express your doubts who the Mr. Smith was to whom Mr. Pitt's letter was ad

dressed. From the style and date of it, I beg leave to suggest that it was the late Joseph Smith, Esq., Mr. Pitt's Private Secretary, and Receiver-General of the Stamp Duties.

Yours, &c.

THE INCONSISTENCIES OF CANT.

AN ILLUSTRATIVE HISTORY OF ONE DAY.

In order to carry herself gracefully, and turn out her toes in after times, the young pupil of the dancingmaster is placed diurnally upon a board, so contrived as to keep her delicate feet extended at right angles with its sides, and with her chest expanded and her head erect, the dear little creature is made to stand for a certain period of every morning, Sundays excepted; this is all very well in early youth, and the pains endured in those days are amply repaid by the admiration she afterwards excites at Almack's by the gracefulness of her air and manner, the carriage of her body, and the symmetry of her figure,—wretched, indeed, would be the fair sufferer's case were she doomed from her teens to her death to stand in the same little stocks, and never enjoy the more liberal pleasures of her dancing days. Such is the melancholy state of a considerate " saint," and consider he must; for, if he considereth not, he sins. But, to my history.

A gentleman, plain, pious, and excessively virtuous (such has ever been our aversion from mentioning proper names, that we decline saying who), resident, however, in a suburban villa, with a well