1827.] Anecdotes and Conversations. 255 



was, and observing that it was neither the anniversary of the king's ascen- 

 sion, nor of the gunpowder plot, he contemptuously replied, " they are 

 only ringing a hog."* My father, who was a zealous high churchman, 

 and old-fashioned enough to fear God and honour his king, was not the 

 last to call on the rector : on the next Sunday after his arrival, our worthy 

 pastor gave his blessing to our plenteous table ; and ever afterwards, on 

 the return of the Lord's day, he was our constant guest ; when " church 

 and king," you may suppose, was not forgotten. Even now, at the 

 distance of nearly fifty years, I remember the consternation which this 

 first visit occasioned in the nursery. No episcopal visitation of Horsley 

 or of Magendie themselves, ever struck greater awe into their assembled 

 curates ! The authoritative tone of a voice long accustomed to command 

 attention, and the stern contraction of the new rector's bushy eyebrows, 

 when patting us on the head, and asking each a question from the cate- 

 chism, were almost too much for our tender nerves. Fortunately, we 

 answered without much hesitation, and he called us good children ; and 

 turning to my father, he said, with much complacency, " Mr. Tomlins, 

 you have made a great way in my esteem. Parents are too apt to neglect 

 the timely inculcation of a prejudice in favour of the church's dogmas 

 into the infant mind. He who fails to sow the seeds of orthodox theo- 

 logy early in the spring, will never fail to reap in the autumn an harvest 

 of sectarianism, or of indifference." 



The Doctor, I have said, brought into rural life many college habits. 

 He had no objection to a glass of good port ; and though he never dis- 

 graced the cloth by an unsteadiness either of head or foot, yet sometimes, 

 " indulgens genio" he would, in agreeable society, and among men of 

 good principles, take his glass ; and then he would open the storehouse of 

 his erudition, and pour forth ample quotations from Longus or Tertullian, 

 Tryphiodorus or Origen, St. Chrysostom (whose verses he greatly praised) 

 or Dr. Sacheverel ; now and then cracking a merry jest from Aristophanes, 

 to the great delight of the squires of the neighbourhood ; who were wont 

 to declare, that since Latin was no longer quoted in sermons, they did not 

 wonder at the increase of sectarians ; and that the Archdeacon's Greek did 

 them good to hear, though they did not understand a word he said. 

 However, I must do his good nature the justice to add, that he never 

 spared to translate, when properly requested. True genius is ever con- 

 descending. 



The Archdeacon, who justly thought that there is a time for all things, 

 and that too much severity is a misprision of Presbyterianism, was fond oi 

 a game of backgammon. He wrote a treatise to prove that this was the 



* The members of St. John's College, Cambridge, are nick-named " hogs,'' in the 

 University. The epigram alluded to was made by the late Sir B. Harwood, on the knight- 

 ing of Sir J. Penuington. It was as follows : 



" When the knight of St John's from St. James's came down, 

 The bells were set ringing throughout the whole town, 

 A blue-stocking sizer, alarm'd at the noise, 

 Asked one of the starve-gutted bed-maker's boys, 

 What the cau?e of it was? ' What ?' replied the arch dog, 

 ' Why, there's always a noise, when they're ringing a hog.' " 



I do aot, however, mean to assert that Sir B. H. was not original in his epigram. Wits 

 often jump ; and I have no reason for supposing that the curate's ban mot reached the 

 ears of the late facetious professor of anatomy. This observation is due to justice. 



Note by the Author. 



