LEAVES tHEt HA^'E TOUCHEl)', 6 IS'' 



break-down. Once, I remember, some rusted spots ia tlie sheet iron 

 reservoir suddenly gave way -while the Professor was mounted on 

 the steps in front of it ; the consequence was that several fine jets of 

 Ivater were projected horizontally from the well-filled tank, passing 

 between parts of the Professor's robes, and descending upon us in a 

 most mysterious way. One feat of the Professor's, I find, has sur- 

 vived in my memory with some vividness. I saw him make a hat , 

 saw him clip oif before our eyes, in the lecture-room, the fur of a 

 rabbit-skin, which was supposed to be beaver ; whip it up into a 

 misty cloud by a bowstring arrangement ; convert it into felt ; shape 

 it into a sort of bag; forcibly press it, all moist, upon a block, 

 where at length the thing assumed, in some degree, the shape of a 

 hat, with brim curled up at the sides. At several points in the 

 earlier stages of the process, the lecturer interposed an " aside " to 

 his audience, " Not much like a hat yet ! " The manuscript relic 

 which I possess of Professor Parish is slight, but somewhat curious. 

 It relates to some electioneering business at Cambridge. A certain 

 candidate is reported to have resigned ; but then the letter purporting 

 to convey that intelligence to the Vice-Chancellor- may be a hoax, 

 " My dear sir," the Professor writes : " The Yice-Chancellor should 

 have official notice of the resignation of Mr. Grant. I hear he has 

 received a letter, but how does he know that it is Mr. Grant's writing? 

 I wish you had not been out, and that you and I had been able to 

 go. I have hardly aiithority, and the V.-C. might ask : How do you 

 know? The same objection does not lie to you. T think it would 

 be well if you would take the earliest opportunity of calling as Chair- 

 man of Mr. G's committee. Yours truly, W. Parish. 12 o'clock^ 

 Monday. P.S. — Taylor, the school-keeper, gave me the above hint." 

 (Taylor, the school-keeper, was a well-known subordinate official, 

 shrewdly skilled in wise-saws and ancient instances in relation to 

 small points of ceremony and routine. School-keeper denotes care- 

 taker of the schools, or rooms appointed for the public exercises in 

 the several faculties. The Senate-house also is a part of his charge.) 

 Looking into Carus's Memoir of the Rev. Charles Simeon, I lighted 

 on a passage which exactly interprets the note just given. In a 

 diary, under date of l^ov. 19, 1822, Mr. Simeon writes : " Old Mr, 

 Grant, with Professor Parish, called on me and dined with me. It 

 was a great grief to me, that I could not vote for his son on Tuesday 

 next : but I told him that I regard my vote for a member of Parlia 



