Yet, spite of our good-natured money and slaughter, But who the deuce cares, Dick, as long as they nourish us Take whatever ye fancy--take statues, take money- You see, Dick, in spite of their cries of "God-dam," And find twice as much fun in the Signs of the Shops;- * "Cette merveilleuse Marmite Perpétuelle, sur le feu depuis près d'un siècle ; qui a donné le jour à plus de 300,000 chapons."-Alman, de Gourmands, Quatrième Année, p. 152. Le thon mariné, one of the most favourite and indigestible hors-d'œuvres. This fish is taken chiefly in the Golfe de Lyon. "La tête et le dessous du ventre sont les parties les plus recherchées des gourmets."-Cours Gastronomi que, p. 252. The exact number mentioned by M. de la Reynière-"On connoit en France 685 manières différentes d'accommoder les œufs; sans compter celles que nos savans imaginent chaque jour." While there St. Venecia sits hemming and frilling her Of an inward" cheap dinner, and pint of small wine; One out of one's appetite, down by the dozen. The next we've our lunch with the Gauffrier Hollandais,§ About which we, Gourmands, have had much discussion- It, in short, such a light and salubrious scamper is, * Veronica, the Saint of the Holy Handkerchief, is also, under the name of Venisse or Venecia, the tutelary saint of milliners. † St. Denys walked three miles after his head was cut off. The mot of a woman of wit upon this legend is well known:-"Je le crois bien; en pareil cas, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute." Off the Boulevards Italiens § In the Palais Royal; successor, I believe, to the Flamand, so long celebrated for the moëlleux of his Gaufres. Doctor Cotterel recommends, for this purpose, the Beaujon or French Mountains, and calls them "une médecine aérienne, couleur de rose;" but I own I prefer the authority of Mr. Bob, who seems, from the following note found in his own hand-writing, to have studied all these mountains very carefully: Memoranda-The Swiss little notice deserves, While the fall at Ruggieri's is death to weak nerves; I doubt whether Mr. Bob is quite correct in accenting the second syllable of And stuff him-ay, up to the neck-with stewed lampreys,* And the regicide lampreys + be foiled of their prey! Such, Dick, are the classical sports that content us, So-not to lose time, Dick-here goes for the task ; That my life, like "the Leap of the German," § may be, R. F. LETTER IX. FROM PHIL. FUDGE, ESQ., TO THE LORD VISCOUNT C-ST-—GH. My Lord, the Instructions, brought to-day, "I shall in all my best obey." Your Lordship talks and writes so sensibly! I feel the inquiries in your letter About my health and French most flattering; With his who made the Congress stare, (A certain Lord we need not name) Who, even in French, would have his trope, Sur l'équilibre de l'Europe!" Sweet metaphor !—and then the Epistle, That tender letter to "Mon Prince," || * A dish so indigestible, that a late novelist, at the end of his book, could imagine no more summary mode of getting rid of all his heroes and heroines than by a hearty supper of stewed lampreys. They killed Henry I. of England:-"a food (says Hume, gravely,) which always agreed better with his palate than his constitution.' A famous Restaurateur-now Dupont. § An old French saying ;-" Faire le saut de l'Allemand, du lit à la table et de la table au lit." The celebrated letter to Prince Hardenburgh (written, however, I believe, originally in English,) in which his Lordship, professing to see "no moral or political objection" to the dismemberment of Saxony, denounced the unfortunate King as "not only the most devoted, but the most favoured of Bonaparte's vassals." * Which showed alike thy French and sense ;- And use the tongue that suits them best, At Congress never born to stammer, Nor learn like thee, my Lord, to snub Fallen Monarchs, out of Chambaud's grammar- How far a little French will go; For all one's stock, one need but draw On some half dozen words like these Comme ça-par-là-là-bas—ah ha! They'll take you all through France with ease. Your Lordship's praises of the scraps I sent you from my Journal lately, For Lady C.) delight me greatly. Thus flattered, I presume to send As Biddy round the caps would pin them; Unrumpled, for-there's nothing in them. Extracts from Mr. Fudge's Journal, addressed to Lord C. Went to the Mad-house-saw the man, * Aug. 10. Who thinks, poor wretch, that, while the Fiend Of Discord here full riot ran, He, like the rest, was guillotined ; But that when, under Boney's reign, (A more discreet, though quite as strong one) The heads were all restored again, He, in the scramble, got a wrong one. Accordingly, he still cries out This strange head fits him most unpleasantly; This extraordinary madman is, I believe, in the Bicêtre. He imagines, exactly as Mr. Fudge states it, that, when the heads of those guillotined were restored, he by mistake got some other person's own. who had been instead of his And always runs, poor devil, about, While to his case a tear I dropt, And sauntered home, thought I-ye Gods! To settle on Bill Soames's + shoulders, The head was planning schemes to win The hands would plunge directly in. Good Viscount S-dm-h, too, instead So while the hand signed Circulars, The head might lisp out "What is trumps?" To some robust man-milliner, The shop, the shears, the lace, and ribbon To give the P-ce the shopman's brains, 'Twas thus I pondered on, my Lord; Thus chopping, swopping head for head. And then I grew completely addled- Walked out with daughter Bid-was shown * Tam cari capitis.-HORAT. Aug. 21. A celebrated pickpocket. |