344 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



Bill Ward's letters, sir?" said he, one day, to the Captain. On the 

 Captain answering in the negative, Gibbons replied, " then I can only 

 say, you would be surprised at them, for they are all grammar, or there- 

 abouts,'' He also gave us a specimen of Gibbons's own poetical talent, in 

 some lines on the collar of his dog, but they have escaped from my recol- 

 lection, which I am sorry for, as they were very characteristic of the man, 

 who will himself never be forgotten by those who ever beheld him. 



Having occasion to leave my card with a friend in Gloucester-place, 

 whose door was exactly opposite to that of Professor Wilson, I thought I 

 could not do less than leave one for him, which I slipped quietly into his 

 servant's hand, having been previously informed that all his Saturdays being 

 devoted to his literary pursuits, he was invisible to his friends on those 

 days. I was, however, agreeably surprised by being pursued by his 

 footman, with a message from his master, that "he should be happy to 

 see me, if I would walk in." I did walk in, and it is scarcely necessary 

 to say where I found the Professor. I found him in his study, which, as 

 far as an object devoid of life can be assimilated with a highly endowed 

 beino", was a happy illustration of the person who occupied it. Each 

 was in the extreme of dishabille ; and to bring a nearly obsolete epithet 

 to my aid, there was only one tidij looking thing to be seen in it. That 

 was the MSS. (perhaps for the forth coming Blackwood) which the 

 Professor had that morning been composing, as was evident, from the 

 colour of the ink, and that was without speck or blot, bearing external 

 evidence to the capacity by which it had been produced. 



It is as impossible to be long in the presence of the Professor without 

 a smile, as it would have been to have read two pages of his Noctes 

 without a laugh. And herein consists the charm of his pen. For my 



