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- So equal the motion-so gentle, though fleet 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." tOff the Boulevards Italiens " In the Palais Royal: successor, I believe, to the Flamand, so long celebrated for the moelleux 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, That epoch but woa! my lad-here comes the Schneider, An inch and a half's but a trifle to fill up. 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 I sent you from my Journal lately, (Enveloping a few laced caps 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 Eicêtre. He imagines, exactly as Mr. Fudge states it, that, when the heads of those who had been guillotined were restored, he by mistake got some other person's instead of his own. 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 Aug. 21. * Tam cari capitis.- HORAT. † A celebrated pickpocket. Whose velvet cushion's just the same Read, at a stall, (for oft one pops He's weighed to see if he gets fatter: Much would it glad all hearts to hear Loses so many pounds a year, The Pe, God bless him! gains a few. With bales of muslin, chintzes, spices, I see the Easterns weigh their Kings: Aug. 28. The only change, if I recollect right, is the substitution of lilies for bees. This war upon the bees is, of course, universal; "exitium misêre apibus," like the angry nymphs in Virgil:-but may not new swarms arise out of the victims of Legitimacy yet? I am afraid that Mr. Fudge alludes here to a very awkward accident, which is well known to have happened to poor L-s le D-s-é, some years since, at one of the R-g-t's Fêtes. He was sitting next our gracious Queen at the time. "The 3rd day of the Feast the King causeth himself to be weighed with great care."-F. Bernier's Voyage to Surat, &c. § "I remember," says Bernier, "that all the Omrahs expressed great joy that the King weighed two pounds more now than the year preceding." Another author tells us that Fatness, as well as a very large head, is con sidered, throughout India, as one of the most precious gifts of heaven. enormous skull is absolutely revered, and the happy owner is looked up to as a superior being. To a Prince a joulter head is invaluable."-Oriental Field Sports. An |