PECULIARITIES AND ECCENTRICITIES. 



nary man had confined his genius 

 to its native home, to the walks 

 which the muses love ; and that he 

 had never deviated from these into 

 the thorny paths of impiety! 

 (Dr. John Moore.) 



POPE NO PUBLIC SPEAKER. 



I never could speak in public ; 

 and I do not believe that if it was 

 a set thing, I could give an account 

 of any story to twelve friends to- 

 gether; though I could tell it to 

 any three of them with a great deal 

 of pleasure. When I was to appear 

 for the Bishop of Rochester on his 

 trial, though I had but ten words 

 to say, and that on a plain easy 

 point (how that bishop spent his 

 time whilst I was with him at 

 Bromley), I made two or three 

 blunders in it ; and that, notwith- 

 standing the first row of Lords 

 (which were all I could see), were 

 mostly of my acquaintance. (Pope.) 



EALEIGIl's HISTORY. 



Raleigh's History of the World 

 was composed during his imprison- 

 ment in the Tower. Only a smal). 

 portion of the work was published, 

 owing to the following singular cir- 

 cumstance: One afternoon looking 

 through his window into one of the 

 courts in the Tower, Sir Walter 

 saw two men quarrel, when the 

 one actually murdered the other; 

 and shortly after two gentlemen, 

 friends to Sir Walter, coming into 

 his room, after expressing what had 

 happened, they disagreed in their 

 manner of relating the story ; and 

 Sir Walter, who had seen it him- 

 self, concurred that neither was 

 accurate, but related it with another 

 variation. The three eye-witnesses 

 disagreeing about an act so recently 

 committed put Sir Walter in a rage, 

 when he took up the volumes of 

 manuscript which lay by, contain- 

 ing his History of the World, and 

 threw them on a large fire that was 

 in the room, exclaiming, that ; 'it 



was not for him to write the history 

 of the world, if he could not relate 

 what he saw a quarter of an hour 

 before." One of his friends saved 

 two of the volumes from the flames, 

 but the rest were consumed. The 

 world laments that so strange an 

 accident should have mutilated the 

 work of so extraordinary a man. 

 (Granger's Wonderful Magazine.) 



THOS. CAMPBELL, THE LORD RECTOR. 



Southey tells the following story 

 of the poet Campbell : 



Taking a walk with Campbell, 

 one day, up Regent Street, we were 

 accosted by a wretched -looking 

 woman, with a sick infant in her 

 arms, and another starved little 

 thing at her mother's side. The 

 woman begged for a copper. I had 

 no change, and Campbell had no- 

 thing but a sovereign. The woman 

 stuck fast to the poet, as if she read 

 his heart in his face, and I could 

 feel his arm beginning to tremble. 

 At length, saying something about 

 it being his duty to assist poor 

 creatures, he told the woman to 

 wait ; and, hastening into a mer- 

 cer's shop, asked, rather impatiently, 

 for change. You know what an 

 excitable person he was, and how 

 he fancied all business must give- 

 way till the change was supplied. 

 The shopman thought otherwise; 

 the poet insisted ; an altercation 

 ensued ; and in a minute or two the 

 master jumped over the counter 

 and collared him, telling us he 

 would turn us both out; that he 

 believed we came there to kick up 

 a row for some dishonest purpose. 

 So here was a pretty dilemma. We 

 defied him, but said we would go 

 out instantly, on his apologising for 

 his gross insult. All was uproar. 

 Campbell called out, 



"Thrash the fellow! thrash 

 him !" 



"You will not go out, then?'* 

 said the mercer. 



" No, never, till you apologise." 



