and Queen Elizabeth, was first a Papist, then a Protestant, then a Papist, then a Protestant again. He had seen some martyrs burned two miles off, near Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his tender temper. The vicar, being taxed for being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, "No," said he, "that's your mistake, for I always kept my principle, which is, to live and die the Vicar of Bray." And no doubt there are some still of the same saving principles, who, though they cannot turn the wind, will turn their mills, and set them so that whenever it blows their grist will certainly be grinding.

SIR

197.

IR WILLIAM WYNDHAM, when a very young man, had been out one day at a staghunt. In returning from the sport, he found several of the servants at his father's gate standing round a fortune-teller, who pretended at least to be deaf and dumb; and for a small gratification wrote on the bottom of a trencher, with a bit of chalk, answers to such questions as the men and maids put to him by the same methods.

As Sir William rode by the conjuror made signs that he was inclinable to tell his fortune as well as the rest; and, in good humour, he would have complied, but not readily finding a question to ask, the conjuror took the trencher, and, writing upon it, gave it back with these words, very legible, "Beware of a white horse." Sir William smiled at

the absurdity of the man, and thought no more of it for several years. But in 1690, being on his travels in Italy, and accidentally at Venice, as he was one day passing through St Mark's Place in his calash, he observed a more than ordinary crowd at one corner of it. He desired his driver to stop, and they found it was occasioned by a mountebank, who also pretended to tell fortunes, conveying his several predictions to the people by means of a long narrow tube of tin, which he lengthened or curtailed at pleasure, as occasion required. Among others, Sir William Wyndham held up a piece of money; upon which the soothsayer immediately directed the tube to his carriage, and said to him very distinctly in Italian, "Signior Inglese, cavete il bianco cavallo ;" which in English is, "Mr Englishman, beware of the white horse." Sir William immediately recollected what had been before told him, and took it for granted that the British fortune-teller had made his way over to the Continent, where he had found his speech, and was curious to know the truth of it. However, upon inquiry,

he was assured that the present fellow had never been out of Italy, nor did he understand any language but his mother tongue. Sir William was surprised, and mentioned so whimsical a circumstance to several people. But in a short time this also went out of his head, like the former prediction of the same kind. We need inform few of our readers of the share which Sir William Wynd

ham had in the transactions of Government during the last four years of Queen Anne, in which a design to restore the son of James II. to that throne which his father had so justly forfeited was undoubtedly concerted; and on King George's arrival, punished by forcing into banishment or putting into prison all the persons suspected to have entered into the combination. Among the latter of these was Sir William Wyndham, who, in the year 1715, was committed prisoner to the Tower. Over the inner gate were the arms of Great Britain, in which there were now some alterations to be made in consequence of the succession of the House of Brunswick; and just as Sir William's chariot was passing through to carry him to prison, the painter was at work, adding the white horse, the arms of the Elector of Hanover.

It struck Sir William forcibly. He immediately recollected the two singular predictions, and mentioned them to the Lieutenant of the Tower, then in the chariot with him, and to almost every one who came to see him in his confinement; and, though not superstitious, he always spoke of it as a prophecy fully accomplished. But here he was mistaken (if there was anything prophetic in it), for, many years after, being out hunting, he had the misfortune of being thrown from his saddle in leaping a ditch, by which accident he broke his neck. He rode upon a white horse.

198.

IN

N allusion to the reported intimacy between Mary Queen of Scots and Rizzio, Henry IV. of France wittily observed that James I. might truly call himself the British Solomon, as he was the son of David-the fiddler!

199.

MADAME DE STAEL one day said to me, How sorry I am for Campbell! His

poverty so unsettles his mind, that he cannot write." I replied, "Why does he not take the situation of a clerk? he could then compose verses during his leisure hours." This answer was reckoned very cruel both by Madame de Staël and Mackintosh; but there was really kindness as well as truth in it. When literature is the sole business of life, it becomes a drudgery; when we are able to resort to it only at certain hours, it is a charming relaxation. In my earlier years I was a banker's clerk, obliged to be at the desk every day from ten till five o'clock; and I never shall forget the delight with which, on returning home, I used to read and write during the evening.-Rogers.

MONSIEU

200.

ONSIEUR M was always so much engaged in lawsuits and quarrels, that he

would frequently in the street meet his most inti

I

mate friends without taking the least notice. He had seldom less than five or six causes on his hands at the same time. His application in following this employment was so intense that he half starved himself. On entering the church one Sunday, with his mind full of prosecutions, he approached the fount of holy water, and having dipped his hand into it, and applied it to his forehead, instead of pronouncing the words, "In the name of the Father, Son," &c., he exclaimed loudly among the bystanders, "In opposition to, and notwithstanding any plea, rejoinder, reply," &c.

201.

AN honest industrious peasant in Picardy, being

observed to purchase weekly five loaves, was asked what occasion he could possibly have for so much bread. "One," replied the honest fellow, "I take myself, one I throw away, one I return, and the other two I lend. "How do you make this out?" said his neighbour. "Why," returned the former," the one which I take myself is for my own use; the second, which I throw away, is for my mother-in-law; the loaf I return is for my father; and the other two, which I lend, are those with which I keep my two children, in the hope that they will one day return them to me."