CIIUECHILL'S " EOSCIAD.' 



1-53 



axe that beauty on which he once 

 reposed with delight, neither the 

 misfortune of greatness, nor the elo- 

 quence of genius, should have been 

 able to make the least impression 

 on the heart of the savage Henry ? 



PEEL AND BYRON. 



Sir Kobert Peel was a contem- 

 poraiy of Byron, and a scholar at 

 the same university. It is related 

 that when a great fellow of a boy- 

 tyrant, who claimed little Peel as 

 a fay, was giving him a castiga- 

 tion, Byron happened to come by. 

 "While the stripes were succeeding 

 each other, and poor Peel was 

 writhing under them, Byron saw 

 and felt for the misery of his 

 friend ; and although he was not 

 strong enough to fight ^he tyrant 

 with any hope of success, and it 

 was dangerous even to approach 

 him, he advanced to the scene of 

 action, and with a blush of rage, 

 tears in Ms eyes, and in a voice 

 trembling with terror and indig- 

 nation, asked very humbly if he 

 would be pleased to tell him " how 

 many stripes he meant to inflict." 



" Why," replied the executioner, 

 "you little rascal, what is that to 

 you?" 



"Because, if you please," said 

 Byron, " / would take half" 



That Byron was thus originally 

 of a noble nature, is proved beyond 

 all contradiction by this little anec- 

 dote. 



CAMPBELL. 



" It is well known," says Frazer, 

 "that Campbell's own favourite 

 poem was his Gertrude. I once 

 heard him say, ' I never like to see 

 my name before the Pleasures of 

 Hope; why, I cannot tell you, un- 

 less it was that, when young, I was 

 always greeted among my friends 

 as 'Mr. Campbell, author of the 

 Pleasures of Hope.' ' Good morn- 

 ing to you, Mr. Campbell, author 

 of the Pleasures of Hope? When 



I got mai-ried, I was married as 

 the author of the Pleasures of 

 Hope; and when I became a fa- 

 ther, my son was the son of the 

 author of the Pleasures of Hope! 

 A kind of grim smile, ill subdued, 

 we are afraid, stole over our fea- 

 tures, when, standing beside the 

 poet's grave, we read the inscrip- 

 tion on his coffin : 



"'Thomas Campbell, LL.D., au- 

 thor of the Pleasures of Hope, died, 

 June 15, 1844, aged 67.' 



" The poet's dislike occurred to 

 our memory there was no getting 

 the better of the thought." 



CHURCHILL'S " ROSCIAD." 



When Churchill finished his 

 Rosciad, he waited on an eminent 

 bookseller with the copy; but he 

 had suffered so severely by the 

 publication of poetry, that he was 

 determined to have nothing more 

 to do with any of the rhyming 

 sons of Apollo, unless he was in- 

 demnified from sustaining any loss, 



This condition Churchill could not 

 comply with. The bookseller, how- 

 ever, recommended a worthy young 

 man to him, who had just ventured 

 his little fortune in the uncertain 

 sea of ink, and who would probably 

 run the risk of publication. 



Churchill waited on him, and 

 found everything to his wish. The 

 poem was printed, advertised, and 

 at the end of five days ten copies 

 were sold. Churchill was thun- 

 derstruck, and the bookseller was 

 little less chagrined. At the end 

 of four days more he found that 

 six more copies were sold. The 

 poet was almost frantic, and hur- 

 ried away to a friend to acquaint 

 him with his hard fate. 



His friend, who was intimate 

 with Garrick, posted to him the 

 next morning, and informed him 

 what a beautiful picture of his 

 astonishing abilities had just ap- 

 peared in the Rosciad. Garrick 

 swallowed the gilded pill, instantly 



