2"'! S. N» 84., Aug, 8. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



103 



beeing a very fat person ; — for which fact M"^* 

 Cumber saw her burnt as the seven men were 

 hanged. 



"This was I first told by S"^ Basill Brooke, 

 which was since confirmed to me by M" Cumber, 

 who hath lived there, saw y° woeman and y® Bead- 

 stead, and kuewe y'' relation to bee true, and says 

 it was about some forty years since these persons 

 were executed for it. — This she aflirmed unto me 

 this 29. August 1653. and I dare say was trewe, 

 for they were, both S" Basill Brooke, and M" 

 Cumber, very good, trewe, and worthy persons. 

 " Roger Twysden." 



BONS MOTS OF CELEBKATED PERSONS. 



" N. & Q." being now justly regarded as one of 

 the fittest depositories for interesting notices of 

 men and things, I think it would be well if those 

 of your correspondents who are possessed of un- 

 published good sayings of celebrated persons 

 would occasionally communicate them under the 

 above head ; taking care, however, to have, and 

 even to give, as far as may be, assurance of their 

 authenticity, originality, &c. I send you the fol- 

 lowing, by way of a beginning. 



Gibbon, the Historian. — My old friend, C. O. 

 Cambridge, Esq., who lately died at Whitminster 

 House, Gloucestershire, aged ninety-four, was a 

 son of the late R. O. Cambridge, of Twickenham 

 Meadows, of well-known celebrity as a writer and 

 wit of the time of Johnson, Gibbon, Garrick, 

 Walpole, &c. He told me that Gibbon being one 

 of a party assembled in his father's library before 

 dinner, he, my friend, then a young man, came in 

 from hunting, and was giving to Gibbon, with 

 juvenile satisfaction, an account of the chase, 

 which he described as an almost continued gallop, 

 during which he stood up in his stirrups for a con- 

 siderable time. On this. Gibbon (whose horse- 

 manship was bad, and whose heavy person made 

 his riding a very quiet and slow aflair), said to 

 my friend, — "I thought, Mr. Cambridge, until 

 now, that riding was a sedentary occupation : " 

 and, tapping his snuff-box, he took a pinch of 

 snuff, as was his wont, when he let ofi" any smart 

 saying. I may remark, that this usual action of 

 Gibbon is well represented in the curious and 

 characteristic full-length silouette figure of him 

 which forms the frontispiece of the 4to. edition 

 of his Miscellaneous Works, London, 1796. 



Dr. Richard Willis, Bishop of Gloucester, 1714 

 — 21. — This prelate, whilst labouring under a 

 fit of the gout, was waited on by a clergyman of 

 his diocese, who having remarked that the gout 

 removed and kept off all other maladies, proceeded 

 to congratulate his lordship on having taken a new 

 lease of his life. On which the bishop replied to 

 his fiatterer — " Have I taken a new lease of my 



life? Then I can assure you, Sir, it is a lease at 

 rack rentr This was communicated to me by the 

 late G. W. Counsell, who wrote the History of 

 Gloucester, &c., and was possessed of much curious 

 information about Gloucester and its celebrities. 



Dr. Walcot (Peter Pindar'). — In the evening 

 of the day, in 1801, on which the news arrived in 

 London that the Emperor Paul of Russia had been 

 strangled, I was in company witli this then cele- 

 brated man ; when, the news being talked of, he 

 remarked — "I suppose all the crowned heads in 

 Europe will get up tomorrow morning with cricks 

 in their necks." P. H. I. 



UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF THE LATE B. R. HATDON. 



" Sir, 



London, June 16, 1837 



" I have to apologise most truly, but surely 

 without imputing blame to so worthy a man as 



Mr. P . What he aa\d justijied my writing at 



once. Your kindness in excusing it is a favor ; 

 and so is your order, accept my sincere thanks, 



" I will also for 5l. 5s. paint a little Scripture 

 picture for him — under, I cannot do it : a pretty 

 little thing, and I'll let you know as soon as done. 



" I remember Sir Edw. : and, if you will au- 

 thorize me to go to him for you, something may 

 come of it for both our goods ; though, God 

 knows, I should be sorry if all your debts were in 

 this jeopardy. 



" I shall be most happy to see you, or any 

 of your connections. After 32 years' hard work, 

 and opposing monopolizing power, I have nothing 

 left on Earth but the clothes on my back : had 

 any man of business regulated my affairs in 1823, 

 [or 1833?], with 5000Z. oi property in the House, 

 I will venture to say it might have been all ar- 

 ranged, my credit even untainted, my debts ba- 

 lanced, and everybody would have forborne ; but 

 from mistaken pride, I borrowed at hideous in- 

 terest to keep up my character — got into Law, 

 and have never got out — till now, 



" Would you believe that when I was hurried 

 again in 1836 into a Prison — money-lenders 

 THEN offered the amount directly of my debts — 

 1220^. 105. — if Pd take it at their terms ! Would 

 you believe men live then Prisoners, and make a 

 haiidsome thing ! ! 



" You are innocent the other side of London — 

 the iniquity that has passed under my eye, look- 

 ing on as a Philosopher, will make you stare when 

 I am dead. There is one thing 1 can say to the 

 young — I have talked to Villains as a matter of 

 observation, and found, invariably. Parental disohe^ 

 dience the beginning of all Vice. 



" B. R. Hatdon." 



The above letter was addressed to the father of 

 the transcriber, in whose collection of MSS. it is 

 now preserved, and a copy is sent to " N. & Q. ;" 



