296 Letter on Affairs in general. [MARCH, 



The lamps in the cockpit no longer burn brightly. 

 At the cockpit the rum ones no longer chaunt nightly, 

 No more to the fancy is Tufton -street dear, 

 Since the death of our darling, O'Sullivan's bear '. " 



The second verse is wanting ; but the third alludes to the unfair manner of 

 " Blackface's " death, and chastises his master. 



" to muzzle the baste, and take offhis protection."* 



Och Sully you spalpeen was that your affection ! " 

 The fourth runs in the style of lamentation over the body. 

 " In that pit where the bull dogs so many times pinned ye, 

 To make muffs for the ladies, my Blackface, they've skinned ye ! "t 

 And those claws that, in life, you could flourish so hardy, 

 Some tailor will stick on the cloak of a dandy." J 



Another verse calls down retribution, for this merciless proceeding upon 

 the head of the bear-keeper, O 'Sullivan himself. 



" Och Sully- you divel ! bad luck overtake ye, 

 The neat bear that ye lead, divil send he may shake ye! 

 For the swells shall fall off, and the fighting coves leave ye ; 

 And the butchers go too, and so every thing grieve ye." 



A long gap then ensues ; and the last verse only remains, which seems to 

 glance darkly at general evils, likely to result to the purveyors of bear-bait- 

 ing from the catastrophe. 



" 111 luck had Blue Billy ; ill luck had his daughter,* 

 For she's married a Pig after all that he taught her : 

 But worse luck than ever shall Westminster swear, 

 Since the death of our darling O'Sullivan's bear!" 



The last number of the Edinburgh Review but one (and the subject is 

 referred to again in the last number that comes out) contained the following 

 story extrrcted from Mr. Combe's book on the later transactions in Phreno- 

 logy. I quote from memory ; but the facts of the case which was well 

 avouched were these : 



A bricklayer's labourer, who had fallen from a scaffold of considerable 

 height, was brought, in the course of the last year, to one (I forget which) 

 of the London hospitals. The man was senseless when he was taken into 

 the house ; and, when he recovered his faculties after some hours, he spoke 

 a language which no person about him could understand. Inquiries were 

 made of the workmen who had known him, and had brought him to tho 

 hospital ; but all that could be learned was that he was an Englishman ; 

 and no one had ever heard him speak any other language than English. 

 At the end of two days, however, a milk woman came into the ward whero 

 he lay, to visit another [patient ; and she understood him immediately ; 

 the language which he spoke was Welch. The result is, that this man had 

 left Wales twenty years before his accident, and had so completely for- 

 gotten the Welsh language at the date of it, that he was unable to speak 

 that tongue at all. The effect of the injury received on his head, however, 

 had been to revive the faculty of speaking Welch, which he had lost; and 



* The " protection," was the heavy iron collar, used on some occasions in bear-.baiting 

 to this day. 



J From this line it would appear that bears' skin muffs were already worn in England, 



t This is a curious point, and shews how fashions are revived after long disuse. The 

 " bears paws "upon cloaks (as clasps) were used universally so lately as two years ago. 



t Blue Billy was a famous clipper and coiner of that day. 



A " Pig" was thetant name for a constable or police officer. 



