CONVIVIAL RKMINISCKNCKS. 2C9 



whither, gentle reader, am I roaming ? Thou mayst truly say, amidst 

 ray various and my many wishes, — 



" Thou art roaming, thou art roaming, 

 Over lull and over dnle;" 



and I grant that I stand corrected— but I find that the pains of a dys- 

 peptic man are coming over me, and being occasionally subject to the 

 blue devils, my wishes are not then either new or interesting ; and as 

 I may infect thee, gentle reader, with my disorder, which heaven fore- 

 fend ! if the weather proves fine, and the sweet influences of the 

 Pleiades return to us, Imay please you better at a better time. I wish 

 it may be so ; but — 



Vive ! vale si quid novisti rectius istis 

 Candidus, imperii, si non, trisutere mecum, 



J. E. 



CONVIVIAL REMINISCENCES. 



A PLAGui? upon your five-and-twenty years ! they make a terrible al- 

 teration upon a man : they tinge the hair that was once raven black with 

 a shade of grey — plant wrinkles and crows-feet upon the " human face 

 divine" — " quench the lustre of the eye's bright grace," and unless you 

 are a spunky chap that will not sufi'er father Time to get the better of 

 you, they will succeed in taking away the elasticities of your once nimble 

 foot, so that you that once bounded along the Strand — gentle and iged 

 reader, " the glass of fashion and the mould of form," attired in the 

 toggery of Stultz and the boots of Hoby — while the pretty servant 

 maids stole a look and whispered, " he is quite a lady's man," now 

 hobble or progress at a snail's pace through the same thoroughfare, and 

 are taunted by witty, but ill-natured Cyprians, with "how d' ye do, grand- 

 dada ?" What could have put it into the head of the son "of Sirach. to 

 panegyrise old age, with its gout, sciatica, peevishness, and loneliness. 

 or to speak of it but as the last and worst stage of earthly misery, when 

 existence becomes ten times more unpleasant and irksome, by our cast- 

 ing a retrospective glance at " the wild freshness of the morning" of 

 life, and recalling to our minds the days when we were pleased with 

 ourselves, and everything around us. We are old fellows ourselves — 

 and our only solace now is to drop into some ancient haunt, and regale 

 ourselves with a pipe and pint of stout, and listen to a storv. Intent 

 upon this gratification, we sauntered in the other evening to the York- 

 shire Stingo (we love the name) ; but scarce had we been seated, and 

 -wet our parched lips with our half-and-half, and blown our first cloud, 

 after having with some difficulty " got up the steam." than a monster in 

 human form commenced in a stentorian tone, a melody — as I suppose, 

 in courtesy, we must call it — the burthen of which was " Time, Time. 

 Time," and no sooner did we hear the ominous beginning than we paid 

 our shot, and bade 



"Farewell to llie inp-room, 

 And balfn-hre.illiiiig ale," 



M.M.— :3. U 



