34 



TABLE-TALK AlvD VARIETIES. 



resort of men of genius till 1710. 

 It was subsequently occupied by a 

 perfumer. 



Tom's, No. 17, Great Russell 

 Street, had nearly 700 subscribers, 

 at a guinea a head, from 1764 to 

 1768, and had its card, conversa- 

 tion, and coffee-rooms, where as- 

 sembled Dr. Johnson, Garrick, 

 Murphy, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds, Foote, and other men of 

 talent. The tables and books of 

 the club are preserved in the house, 

 the first floor of which is occupied 

 by Mr. Webster, the medallist. 



Button's, '' over against " Tom's, 

 was the receiving-house for contri- 

 butions to the Guardian, in a 

 lion-head box, the aperture for 

 which remains (1849) in the wall to 

 mark the place. Button had been 

 servant to Lady Warwick, whom 

 Addison married, and the house 

 was frequented by Pope, Steele, 

 Swift, Arbuthnot, and Addison. 

 The lion's head for a letter-box, 

 "the best head in England," was 

 set up in imitation of the celebrated 

 lion at Venice. It was removed 

 from Button's to the Shakspeaie's 

 Head, under the arcade in Covent 

 Garden, and in 1751 was placed in 

 the Bedford, next door. This lion's 

 head is now treasured as a relic by 

 the Bedford family. 



LITERATURE AS A PROFESSION". 



Sir Walter Scott, in conversing 

 with a young man who was about 

 to embark upon the perilous voyage 

 of letters, in search of fortune and 

 fame, made to him this pithy re- 

 mark it contains a volume : 

 " Literature, my young friend, is a 

 good staff, but a bad crutch." 



" PAMELA." 



I recollect an anecdote (said Sir 

 John Herschel, in the opening ad- 

 dress to the subscribers to the 

 Windsor and Eton public library, 

 when the learned knight was pre- 

 sident), told me by a late highly re- 



spected inhabitant of Windsor, as 

 a fact which he could personally 

 testify, having occurred in a, village 

 where he resided several years, and 

 where he actually was at the time 

 it took place. The blacksmith of 

 the village had got hold of Richard- 

 son's novel of Pamela, or Virtue 

 Rewarded, and used to read it 

 aloud in the long summer evenings, 

 seated on his anvil, and never failed 

 to have a large and attentive au- 

 dience. It is a pretty long-winded 

 book ; but their patience was fully 

 a match for the author's prolixity, 

 and they fairly listened to it all. 

 At length when the happy turn of 

 fortune arrived which brings tho 

 hero and heroine together, and de- 

 scribes them as living long and 

 happily, according to the most 

 approved rules, the congregation 

 were so delighted as to raise a great 

 shout, and procuring the church 

 keys, actually set the parish bells 



A WHIMSICAL LORD OF QUEEN 

 ANNE'S TIME. 



Lord Wharncliffe, in his new and 

 extended edition of the works of 

 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 

 gives the following amusing anec- 

 dotes of a noble lord of the early 

 part of the last century: Mary 

 Howe, daughter of Lord Viscount 

 Howe, married to Thomas, eighth 

 Earl of Pembroke, 1725 the Lord 

 Pembroke, who collected the sta- 

 tues and models at Wilton, and 

 whose knowledge of classical anti- 

 quity might therefore make his 

 praise flattering to Lady Mary 

 Wortley, had been a, principal 

 member of the Whig administra- 

 tions under King William and 

 Queen Anne, and the last person 

 who held the office of Lord High 

 Admiral; but now being old and 

 a great humourist, distinguished 

 himself by odd whims and peculi- 

 arities ; one of which was a fixed 

 resolution not to believe that any- 



