48 
modestly demanded a guinea,a letter, 
for about 260 letters, and various pa- 
pers. He, however, offered him 200 
guineas; which the lawyer accepting, 
Sir Richard instantly transferred the 
whole to a hackney-coach, and pro- 
ceeded to the house of the Marquis of 
Bute, grandson of Lady Mary; and, 
unawed by the reputed pride of that 
_nobleman, and by the fate of Thick- 
nesse, obtained an interview. On his 
way he had picked out five or six 
very peculiar letters, and other family 
documents; on presenting which asa 
gift, he was treated with great urba- 
nity. A second interview completed 
an arrangement, by which the marquis 
agreed to combine his stock of similar 
papers with that of Sir Richard, and 
then give the whole to the world, as 
the complete works of his illustrious 
grandmother, under the direction of 
an editor to be named by the marquis, 
and paid bythe publisher. The editor 
did his duty pgorly ; but we were thus 
indebted for the recovery and publica- 
tion of one of the most pleasing clas- 
sics in our language,—the ‘“ Letters 
and ,Works of Lady Mary Wortley 
Montagu.” 
JOHN WILKES. 
The late John Wilkes was really a 
wag, and so infolerably sarcastic, that 
it is a wonder how he could keep so 
Jong on good terms with his friends. 
In ihis respect he was very justly 
compared with Dr. Johnson ; although 
the latter was called the Caliban of 
literature, and the former a fine gen- 
tleman when in gentleman’s company; 
for it was chiefly at the citizens’ ex- 
pense that he indulged in the satire 
of his wit. When confined in the 
Kine’s Bench, he was waited upon by 
a deputation from some ward in the 
city, when the oflice of alderman was 
vacant. As there had already been 
great fermentation on his account, and 
much more apprehended, they who 
were deputed undertook to remon- 
strate with Wilkes on the danger to 
the public peace which would result 
from his offering himself as a candi- 
date on the present occasion, and 
expressed the hope that he would at 
least wait till some more suitable op- 
portunity presented itself. But they 
mistook their man: this was with him 
an additional motive for persevering in 
his first intentions. After much use- 
less conversation, one of the deputies 
at length exclaimed, “Well, Mr. 
Stephensiana, No. XX. 
Aug. I, 
Wilkes, if you are thus determined, 
we must take the sense of the ward.” 
‘With all my heart (replied Mr. 
Wilkes); I will take the non-sense, 
and beat you ten to one.’ 
Upon another occasion, Wilkes at- 
tended a city dinner, not long after 
his promotion to city honours. Among 
the guests was a noisy vulgar deputy, 
a great glutton, who, on his entering 
the dining-room, always with great 
deliberation took off his wig, suspend- 
ed it ona pin, and with due solemnity 
put on a white cotton night-cap. 
Wilkes, who certainly had pretensions 
to be considereda high-bred man, and 
never accustomed to similar exbibi- 
tions, could not take bis eyes from so 
strange and novel a picture. At 
length the deputy, with unblushing 
familiarity, walked up to Wilkes, and 
asked him whether he did not think 
that his night-cap became him? “Oh 
yes, sir, (replied Wilkes,) but it would 
look much better if it were pulled quite 
over your face.” 
There was a heavy lord mayor, who, 
by persevering steadily in the pursuit 
of wealth, accumulated an immense 
fortune, and rose from a low station 
to be the first magistrate of the city: 
his entrance into life was as a common 
bricklayer. At one of the Old Bailey 
dinners, his lordship, after a sumptu- 
ous repast on turbot and venison, was 
eating a prodigious quantity of butter 
with his cheese. ‘* Why, brother, 
(said Wilkes,) you lay it on with a 
trowel.” 
CRUIKSHANK THE SURGEON. 
Mr. Cruikshank was born in 1746 at 
Edinburgh, where his father was exa- 
miner in the Excise-office. He was 
scarce five years of age when he lost 
his father, and he was sent soon after 
to a Latin school at Culross, in Perth- 
shire, which he attended more than 
eight years. About the end of that 
time he obtained the prize promised 
by Dr. Erskine, then minister there, 
for the greatest effort of memory. At 
fourteen he went to the university of 
Edinburgh: for two years he attended 
the Latin and Greek classes, taught 
by Professors Steward and Hunter; 
but, being presented to a bursary in 
the university of Glasgow, by the Earl 
of Dundonald, he left idinburgh, and 
went to Glasgow. 
At Glasgow he went regularly 
through all the classes of philosophy ; 
and, in 1767, he there-took the degree 
of 
