NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



HOSPITALITY OF OLD ENGLAND. Dining out has been the order 

 of the month. Englishmen do dearly love a " spread;" and so, in- 

 deed, do Scotchmen, as they proved last month, and who, moreover, 

 are by no means scrupulous about saying grace. Our City practi- 

 tioners have read the various accounts of dinners with most unen- 

 viable feelings ; their voracity has been whetted to an extraordinary 

 pitch, and the 9th of November is most eagerly anticipated. The 

 armour has been scoured as bright as a pot-lid, and already put out 

 to be well aired, and the brewer's horses engaged. Gog and Magog 

 have been fresh painted, and all smacks of preparation. We stumbled 

 by hazard the other day on a book in which is extracted from the City 

 records the following awful instance of municipal justice : 



" Nicholas Wyfford, an alderman, having neglected to line his cloak, 

 which he ought to use in procession, therefore it is adjudged by the court 

 tbat the Lord Mayor and aldermen should breakfast with him. This 

 penalty is awarded on him as a punishment for his covetousness." 



Let this be a warning to the dignitaries of the corporation in the 

 forthcoming interesting ceremony. Let every man look to his 

 gaberdine with the fear of the fate of master Nicholas Wyfford before 

 his eyes. To those who in the pride of substance may treat lightly 

 the visitation of a lord mayor and alderman to breakfast, we would 

 reply with the anecdote of the late Dr. Baillie. In answer to his in- 

 quiries, one of his patients replied that he had " only a cold !" " Only 

 a cold, child !" said the doctor ; " d'ye want the plague ?" Cor- 

 poration dinners are rare scenes for waggery the learned remarks 

 of magistrates yclept aldermen would furnish another edition of Joe 

 Miller ; indeed that celebrated work is mainly indebted to civic wit 

 for its popularity. Who has not heard of Sir Willim Curtis, the life 

 of corporation feasts ? The humour of tbat illustrious individual was 

 only equalled by a brother alderman, who, however, was a constel- 

 lation of a lesser sphere ; he twinkled at Norwich. Many anecdotes 

 are extant of this worthy; it is said of him that when the late Duke 

 of York returned from his campaign in Holland, he visited^Norwich, 

 and was of course addressed by the corporation. " What family 

 have you, Sir ?" inquired the duke of the alderman, with his usual 

 urbanity. " Please your royal highness, I have three sons," returned 

 the magistrate, " and they are all boys!" 



Some member of the alderman's family having unfortunately fallen 

 under his displeasure, he erased his name from his will ; but time 

 and the intervention of friends at last reconciled the old gentleman to 

 the delinquent member, and he was reinstated in his forfeited posi- 

 tion as regarded the legacy. " Yes," said the old gentleman, in 

 answer to an inquiring friend, "I have put the young dog again 

 upon the list I have added another crocodile (codicil) to my will 

 this very morning !" 



INDUSTRIOUS IDLENESS We find the subjoined in the newspapers. 

 The research displayed by this German worthy must have excited 

 the envy and admiration of our native calculators curious students 

 of Cocker, who enlighten mankind with the abstruse calculations of 



