NOTES OF THE MONTH. 333 



'Leach, the Master of the Rolls, is the only equity equestrian of any 

 note." 



It is a singular fact that Lords Erskine and Lyndhurst broke the 

 chain of succession which has been so ingeniously linked together by 

 the paragraph maker. So much for the singularity ! Lord Brougham, 

 of the four chancellors cited, is known, when a young man, to have 

 been accustomed to equestrian exercise. So much for the fact ! 



It is a singular fact, by-the-by, that the " singular facts" recorded 

 in newspapers are almost invariably singular fictions. " Truth is 

 strange stranger than fiction," said the poet ; but our paragraph- 

 makers tell us strange things, without resorting to truth. There is a 

 vast mine open for them will no one attempt to discover a vein ? 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. Mr. Cobbett, in a recent number of 

 his Register, concentrates a great deal of wisdom in a line or two of 

 excellent prose, when he says " They may talk of the spirit of the 

 age as long as they like; but the spirit of this age in England is, 

 what is meant in all other ages an appetite for plenty of bread and 

 meat, and a thirst for plenty of good beer." 



We give our unqualified assent to the truth of this proposition. 

 Beef is beneficial in a moral and intellectual point of view ; nor is 

 pudding unproductive of ideas that may march in accordance with 

 the spirit of the times. Good beer also is irreproachable in itself, 

 and engendereth much active thought. It is meet that men should 

 feel a constant craving after sirloin j nor is he a pudding-headed 

 fellow whose head is diligently employed in compassing the required 

 amount of pudding. The only infallible and influential organs of the 

 public mind are the digestive organs. 



EXTRAORDINARY AMENITY. We find in a country newspaper this 

 quaint epistle, which for delicacy of refined sentiment is hardly to be 

 equalled in the whole range of English letter writers : 



" Reciprocity. The following is a literal copy of a billet sent by 

 the clerk of a parish in Warwickshire to a neighbouring friend of the 

 same calling : 



Dere John 



Wull you bury my wife and ill bury yourn ony utlUr day 

 when you want me i shall be very happy any time 



I ham 

 yours to be obliget 



William Turner." 



Here we see the heroic struggle between duty and inclination. He 

 feels that he must not do that which his own heart prompts him to 

 perform, and he affectingly demands of his friend, " Willyou bury my 

 wife," c. But he should not have added, " I'll bury yourn," &c. ; for 

 how could he suppose that another man could be found to resist the 

 temptation ? Besides, it was calculated to impress upon the other's 

 mind an idea of selfishness ; as though he would fain have him in the 



M.M.-No 105. 2X 



