1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



469 



and full of anecdote, of which the following may 

 serve as a specimen : 



" Sir," said the landlord, " this inn was for- 

 merly kept by Andrew Macgregor, a rotation of 

 mine ; and these hard-bottomed chairs (in which 

 we are now sitting) were, years ago, filled by the 

 great touris-ts, Doctor Johnson and Boswell, tra- 

 velling like the lion and jackal. Boswell gene- 

 rally preceded the doctor in search of food, and 

 being much pleased with the look of the house, 

 followed his nose into the larder, where he saw a 

 fine leg of mutton. He ordered it to be roasted 

 with the utmost expedition, and gave particular 

 orders for a nice pudding. ' Now,' says lie, 

 ' make the best of all puddings.' Elated with 

 his good luck, he immediately went out in search 

 of his friend, and saw the giant of learning slowly 

 advancing on a pony. 



" ' My dear Sir,' said Boswell, out of breath 

 with joy, good news! I have just bespoke, at a 

 comfortable, clean inn here, a delicious leg of 

 mutton; it is now getting ready, and I flatter my. 

 self we shall make an excellent meal.' Johnson 

 looked pleased ' And I hope,' said he, ' you have 

 bespoke a pudding?' 



" ' Sir, you will have your favourite pudding,' 

 replied the other. 



-" Johnson got off the pony, and the poor ani- 

 mal, relieved from the giant, smelt his way into 

 the stable. Boswell ushered the doctor into the 

 house, and left him to prepare for this delicious 

 treat. Johnson feeling his coat rather damp, 

 from the mist of the mountains, went into the 

 kitchen, and threw his upper garment on a chair 

 before the fire ; he sat on the hob, near a little 

 boy who was very busy attending the meat. 

 Johnson occasionally peeped from behind his coat, 

 while the boy kept basting the mutton. Johnson 

 did not like the appearance of his head ; when 

 he shifted the basting ladle from one hand, the 

 other hand was never idle, and the doctor thought 

 at the same time he saw something fall on the 

 meat ; upon which he determined to eat no mutton 

 on that day. The dinner announced, Boswell ex- 

 claimed, ' My dear doctor, here comes the mut- 

 ton ; what a picture ! done to a turn, and looks so 

 beautifully brown !' The doctor tittered. After 

 a short grace, Boswell said 



"' I suppose, Sir, I am to carve, as usual; 

 what part shall I help you to ?' The doctor 

 replied 



" ' My dear Bozzy, I did not like to tell you 

 before, but I am determined to abstain from meat 

 to-day.' 



" ' Oh dear! this is a great disappointment,' 

 said Bozzy. 



" ' Say no more ; I shall make myself ample 

 amends with the pudding.' Boswell commenced 

 the attack, and made the first cut at the mutton. 

 ' How the gravy runs ;' what fine-flavoured fat- 

 so nice and brown, too. Oh, Sir, you would have 

 relished this prime piece of mutton.' 



" The meat being removed, in came the long 

 wished for pudding. The doctor looked joyous, 

 fell eagerly to, and in a few minutes nearly 

 finished all the pudding. The table was cleared, 

 and Boswell said, 



" ' Doctor, while I was] eating the mutton you 

 seemed frequently inclined to laugh ; pray, tell 

 me, what tickled your fancy?' 



" The doctor then literally told him all that had 

 passed at the kitchen fire, about the boy and the 



basting. Boswell turned as pale as a parsnip, 

 and, sick of himself and the company, darted out 

 of the room. Somewhat relieved, on returning, 

 he insisted on seeing the dirty little rascally boy* 

 whom he severely reprimanded before Johnson. 

 The poor boy cried : the doctor laughed. 



" You little, filthy, snivelling hound,' said 

 Boswell, 'when you basted the meat, why did 

 you not put on the cap I saw you in this morning?' 



" ' I couldn't, Sir,' said the boy. 



" ' No! why couldn't you?' said Boswell. 



" ' Because my mammy took it from me to boil 

 the pudding in!' 



" The doctor gathered up his Herculean frame, 

 stood erect, touched the ceiling with his wig, 

 stared, or squinted indeed, looked any way but 

 the right way. At last, with mouth wide open 

 (none of the smallest), and stomach heaving, he 

 with some difficulty recovered his breath, and 

 looking at Boswell with dignified contempt, he 

 roared out, with the lungs of a Stentor 



" ' Mr. Boswell, Sir, leave off laughing; and 

 under pain of my eternal displeasure, never utter 

 a single syllable of this abominable adventure to 

 any soul living, while you breathe.' And so, 

 Sir," said mine host, " you have the positive fact 

 from the simple mouth of your humble servant." 



A Concise System of Mathematics, by 

 Alex. Ingram. Second Edition Multuin 

 in parvo is a merit more frequently claimed 

 than deserved this little volume does de- 

 serve it, si quid uliud. It is an enlarge- 

 ment of Mr. Ingram's " Concise System 

 of Mensuration," enlarged by himself, we 

 suppose, though some vague terms in the 



advertisement seem to make it doubtful 



the publishers talk of their efforts and in- 

 quiries. Though theory is not neglected, 

 practice is the main object of the book,, and 

 among the improvements enumerated are 

 facilities for land-surveying, with numerous 

 examples of common cases. The guaging 

 part is entirely recomposed, and adapted to 

 the imperial standards and so is also the 

 mensuration of artificer's work, and a new 

 head has been added to the latter, on the 

 strength, flexibility, and fracture of timber. 

 Large additions are made in the shape of 

 tables, especially of logarithmic tables, of 

 numbers from one to ten thousand of loga- 

 rithmic sines and tangents for every minute, 

 and of natural sines and tangents for every 

 five minutes of the quadrant. The pub- 

 lishers boast of completeness and cheapness, 

 and it is, apparently, well entitled to the 

 praise of both merits. 



A Compendium of Modern Geography. 

 A very handy and competent compen- 

 dium. We remember looking closely over 

 the first edition, and suggesting some cor- 

 rections as to the pronunciation, directed by 

 the usher, of the names of certain places. 

 Some of these he seems to have adopted 

 at least the requisite changes are made, and 

 it is not a custom to trouble reviewers with 

 acknowledgments. The principal amend- 

 ments or additions apply to the descriptive 

 tables which embrace the chief places in 

 each country, a general index at the end to' 



