904 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



1840, the proprietor of the well-known oyster rooms in 

 Vinegar Yard (which Charles Lamb never passed " without 

 shaking forty years from his shoulders"), " heard a strange 

 and unusual noise proceeding from one of the tubs, in 

 which the shell-fish lay piled in layers one over the other, 

 placidly fattening upon oatmeal, and awaiting the inevit- 

 able advent of the remorseless knife. The landlord 

 listened, hardly at first believing his ears. There was, 

 however, no doubt about the matter. One of the oysters 

 was distinctly whistling, or, at any rate, producing a sort 

 of ' sifflement' with its shell. It was not difficult to detect 

 the phenomenal bivalve, and in a very few minutes he was 

 triumphantly picked out from among his fellows, and put 

 by himself in a spacious tub, with a plentiful supply of 

 brine and meal. The news spread through the town, and 

 for some days the house was besieged by curious crowds. 

 That the oyster did whistle, or do something very much 

 like whistling, is beyond all question. How he managed 

 to do so is not upon record. Probably there existed in his 

 shell a minute hole, such as those with which the stray 

 oyster shells upon the beach are usually riddled, and the 

 creature, breathing in its own way by the due inspiration 

 and expiration of water, forced a small jet through the tiny 

 orifice each time that he drew his breath, and so made the 

 strange noise that first caught the ear of his lucky pro- 

 prietor." 



The following, although, strictly speaking, it is some- 

 what out of place in this chapter, will bear repetition, 

 because it " points a moral (and) adorns a tale " : 



"An intimate acquaintance of Sir Richard Steele dined 

 with him one day, shortly after he had been married and 

 set up a carriage. His lady, two or three times at dinner, 

 asked him if he used the chariot that evening ; to which 



