as his nephew entered. "No occasion, Sir; I am always punctualBoileau says, that the time a man makes a company wait for him is always spent in discovering his faults."-" Does he? then he's a sensible fellow; and if he's a friend of yours you might have brought him to dinner with you.-But you needn't have made yourself such a dandy, Harry, merely to dine at the counting-house."-" Why, Sir, as I expected the dinner to be well dressed for me, I thought I could not do less than return the compliment."-" Ha, ha, ha? do you hear that Billy?—not a bad one, was it? Egad, Harry doesn't go to College for nothing. But there's the 'Change clock chiming for five, and we ought to have dinner. Ay, I remember when four was the hour, and a very good hour too." "_"I lately tumbled upon a letter of Addison's to Swift," interrupted Henry, "dated 29th Feb. 1707, inviting him to meet Steele and Frowde at the George in Pall-mall, at two o'clock, which was then the fashionable hour. And apropos of haunches, I remember reading, that in 1720, the year of the South Sea bubble, owing to the fancied riches suddenly flowing in upon the citizens, a haunch of venison rose to the then unexampled value of five guineas, so that deer were dear indeed for one season."-" A fine thing to have been owner of a herd that year," said Mr. Blewett." Capital!" observed Mr. Rule, with an emphatic jerk of the head." In the mean time where is our haunch of mutton?" inquired the Alderman :-" do, pray, Mr. Rule, see about it-the cook used to be punctual, and it is now two minutes and a half past five." Mr. Rule bowed and disappeared, but presently returned, announcing that dinner was served.

Sir Peter sat at the head of the table, and as Philip the servant was about to remove the cover, laid his hand upon his arm to stop him, until he was provided with a hot plate, vegetables, and sweet sauce, so as to be all ready for the attack when the trenches were opened. "Beautiful!" he exclaimed, as the joint was revealed to him; "done to a turn-admirably frothed up!" so exclaiming, he helped himself plenteously to the best part, and pushing away the dish said "he had no doubt the others would rather help themselves." Mr. Rule, who had not yet achieved independence enough to be clownish, volunteered to supply his neighbours, which he did so clumsily, that Harry declared he should never be his joint executor; and Mr. Blewett applied his more experienced hand to the task. For the first ten minutes so much went into the baronet's mouth that there was no room for a single word to come out; but, as his voracity became gratified, he found leisure to ask his guests to drink wine, and to cackle at intervals what he termed some of his good stories.-" Clever fellow, King Charles : they called him the mutton-eating King, didn't they?-cut off his head though for all that-stopped his mutton-eating, egad!-I say, Billy, did I tell you what I said t'other day to Tommy Daw, the bill-broker. Tommy's a Bristol man, you know: well, I went down to Bristol about our ship the Fanny that got ashore there."" The Fanny, Capt. Tyson, was in Dock at the time," interrupted Rule; "it was the Adventure, Capt. Hacklestone, that got ashore."—" Well, well, never mindwhere was I?-O, ay ;-so says Tommy to me when I came back, Is Betsy Bayley as handsome as ever?-who bears the bell now at Bristol? Why, says I-the bellman, to be sure! Ha! ha! ha! ha!— Egad, I thought Tommy would have burst his sides with laughing—

Who bears the bell at Bristol? says he.-Why, the bellman, says I. Capital, wasn't it ?"—" Capital," ejaculated Mr. Rule, with a most decisive energy.

"It's a pity this stewed beefsteak at the bottom should be wasted," said Blewett, "nobody tastes it."—" It won't be wasted,” replied Harry, "it economizes our dinner."-"How so ?"-" Because it serves to make both ends meet."-" Aha! Billy," roared the Baronet," he had you there. I told you Harry didn't go to college for nothing."-" By the by, sir," continued the nephew, "did you ever hear of Shakspeare's receipt for dressing a beefsteak ?"-" Shakspeare's!-no-the best I ever eat were at Dolly's ;-but what is it ?"-"Why, sir, he puts it into the mouth of Macbeth, where he makes him exclaim- If it were done when 'tis done, then it were well 'twere done quickly.""-"Good, good," cackled the Baronet, "but I said a better thing than Shakspeare last week. You know Jack Foster the common council-man, ugly as Buckhorse-gives famous wine though;-well, we were talking about the best tavern, (I'll thank you for some sweet sauce, Mr. Rule); and so says I-(and a little of the brown fat if you please)—and so says I—Jack, I never see your face without thinking of a good dinner. Why so?' says Jack. Because it's ordinary ever day at two o'clock, says I." Here the Baronet was seized with such a violent fit of laughter that it brought on an alarming attack of coughing and expectoration; but he no sooner recovered breath enough than he valiantly repeated "Why, so, Jack ?-Because it's ordinary every day at two o'clock, says I:"-which he followed up with a new cackle, while Mr. Rule delivered himself most dogmatically of another " Capital !" and relapsed into his usual solemnity.

"The greatest compliment ever offered to this joint," resumed the nephew, "proceeded from a popular actor now living, who deemed it the ne plus ultra of epicurism. Having been a long time in London without seeing Richmond Hill, he was taken by some friends to enjoy that noble view, then in the perfection of its summer beauty. The day was fine-every thing propitious :-they led him up the hill and along the dead wall till he reached the Terrace, where the whole glorious vision burst upon him with such an overpowering effect, that he could only exclaim, in the intensity of his ecstasy,- A perfect Haunch, by Heaven!""

"You will be at Kemble's sale to-morrow, Sir Peter?" inquired Blewett." What !" replied the nephew, "are poor John Philip's books to be sold? I shall attend certainly. I understand he possessed the first edition of Piers Plowman-The Maid's Tragedy-Gammer Gurton's Needle, and-" "Hoity toity!" interrupted Sir Peter; "what the deuce is the lad chattering about?"-" Bless me, Mr. Henry,” cried Rule, "you have surely seen the catalogue of the great sale in Mincing Lane-1714 bales of Pernambuco cotton, 419 of Maranham, 96 hogsheads and 14 tierces of Jamaica sugar, 311 bags of Coffee, and 66 casks of Demerara cocoa. I believe I can favour you with a perusal of the catalogue with all the best lots marked."-"Infinitely obliged to you," replied Harry, "but I had rather undergo the lot of being knocked down myself."

"Aha!" exclaimed the Baronet, with a look of gloating delight; now we shall get on again. Here comes the Argyle with some hot gravy;—that was a famous invention."-" Nothing like it," replied

WINCHESTER is certainly the most quiet, unobtrusive, and unpretending place I ever entered. There is a religious solemnity in its high way and very market-house; a dim and shadowy gloom over its most frequented thorough-fares ;-indeed, one part of the High-street itself is but a monkish cloister, with disproportioned and swollen columns, and flat heavy architrave, instead of slender and reeded shafts, with flowering tracery above them. The by-streets have the same relation to the High-street that the cloisters have to a cathedral:-they are of the same age and character, only more silent and gloomy, more deep and broad in their shadows-so deep, indeed, that having taken up my quarters with "mine host" of the Fleur de Lis, who resides in one of them, I am writing by candle-light an hour before sun-set. All this falls well enough in with my humour; or my humour, cameleon-bred, has taken its colouring from surrounding things. How the gay trappings and rich "harnessing," with the "drums and trumpets," and parading of two thousand military, might have destroyed its quiet during the war, I know not; but I am grateful that at my visitation the sole inhabitant of these splendid barracks was an unobtrusive serjeant, with enough of the citizen about him, in half a dozen civil children, to leave the illusion perfect. But even in those worst of times-at least we poor speculators may be allowed so to speak of them without offence, for our "calling," as Falstaff would say, is then secondary to a posting messenger, and our brain labours to the lying nonsense, or hasty nothing, of a third edition-even then, the appearance of this city was never disfigured with the temporary, black, dull-looking, boarded hovels, that in most other places are called barracks. Here it would be no excess to say our soldiers are lodged like princes; for they are quartered in the very palace, and the exterior remains perfect and unchanged, erected by Charles II. and designed and executed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is, on the whole, a fine building, though much inferior to many of his other works. It stands on an elevation immediately above the town, and from all the surrounding country has a good though not a grand effect. It is built principally of brick, with a regular front, which never can have a grand effect, be the magnitude of the edifice what it may. There is a poverty in the material which in an uniform building can never be kept out of mind; and the only instances in which I have seen brick used on a large scale where this feeling has not predominated, have been in the few old bay-windowed, turreted, halfcastellated, deep-courted, and close-wooded houses of the nobility of the Tudors; where you have no long and open approach, but enter direct, from the deep shadows of old trees, into the deeper shadows of the court-yard and the mansion

"Chamberis and parlers of a sorte,

With bay windows goodlie as may be thought,

The galleries right wele y wrought,

As for dauncinge and otherwise disporte."

Most nations are fond of originality, and believe many ridiculous VOL. VI. No. 33.-1823.

29

things that flatter this humour; but, if the English were to put in a claim to this fine old mansion of our ancestors, I question if their pretensions would not be admitted. Your cognoscenti, and professional gentlemen might gibe us with our humility, but a little indifferent originality is worth the Parthenon on the Calton-hill and the newly christened Achilles together. "Well, Sir, but of what order is itTuscan, Doric, Ionic, Composite, or Corinthian ?" I answer, not one of them; for if it were, how could it be original? But I say it has all the characteristics that distinguish originality, and are its highest pretensions-adaptation, and use. It is well, admirably well, suited to this varying, ever-shifting climate of ours:-instead of looking out for six months together from a "commanding eminence" into the raw air, and over a vast map of indistinguishable melancholy, you look into a warm court-yard against a high ivied tower, with the little sun that may be reflected from it, and with a swarm of birds chattering and joying themselves; or out under the thick branching oaks upon the herd of fat deer sheltered and browsing at the very threshold :—instead of the thin frame-work, and bald poverty of your Italian window, which neither does nor was intended to shut out the bitter cold of our December, or the cutting winds of March, you have the mullions and tracery of the magnificent old bay-window, with its three feet of solid pannelling below, and its deep-stained glass above, the very shadow of which is warmth and positive enjoyment.

On the site of the present barracks stood the old Castle, the history of which is closely interwoven with the early records of our country: indeed, whoever shall visit Winchester has need of some antiquarian lore, or a spirit of research that bids defiance to hard names and many centuries: and close adjoining is the County-hall, originally the chapel of the Castle, and enclosed within its walls. Here is preserved the "ould round table" which for so many centuries has been the boast of Winchester. That this table was ever king Arthur's, I need not add, is a fable; but if seven or eight centuries are old enough to gratify curiosity, it is probably of no less age, and if not the festive board when "Arthur held high feast at Pentecost," was that of "King Stephen and his worthy Peers." It is made of thick oak plank, painted over, and portioned into different compartments, each division being labelled, in old English characters, with the name of a knight; except that in one of them, instead of the name, is the full-length portrait of Arthur himself, looking like the knave of clubs on a Pope Joan Board. It was possibly to this very hall, that Markham and the gallant young Lord Grey were removed while King James's farce of execution and pardon were going on. They had been both confined in the Castle, and the place of execution was within the Castle-yard, and in sight of Raleigh, who was still confined there; and Sir Dudley Carleton, in the minute and interesting description of this scene, to be found in the Hardwicke state papers, says, that when Markham was on the scaffold the sheriff was secretly withdrawn by one of the grooms of the bedchamber, and on his return told the prisoner that as he was so ill prepared "he should yet have two hours respite, so led him from the scaffold, without giving him any more comfort, and locked him into the great hall to walk with Prince Arthur." The same ceremony having been gone through with Grey, the same mystery was observed in his removal," and he was likewise led to Prince Arthur's hall.”

But, after all, the College and the Cathedral are the real glory of Winchester. The former, according to the hints and insinuations of her affectionate children and historians, might claim a higher antiquity than the "ould round table" itself ever pretended to; they run back, with an occasional halt in its history of an odd century or two, to the very Romans themselves. But without credulity enough to pin our faith on such speculations, it will yet be admitted that Winchester is the parent both of Eton and Westminster, and has undoubted antiquity enough to satisfy any ordinary appetite; and, which is much more to its honour, it has not grown old with passing centuries; it is still full of vigour, and is now, as from the first, distinguished for the reputation of its scholars. The Education Committee, it is true, reported against some abuses; and some abuses, which they did not report against, flourish here, such as fagging and flogging; but these are barbarities sanctioned by so many ages, so interwoven with early habits and prejudices, so sanctified by all that makes bull-baiting pleasurable and cock-fighting Christian entertainment, that they excite no astonishment; yet surely it is ridiculous to see the legislature itself, goaded on by the humanity of the age, push beyond the bounds of a wise legislation, to protect animals from the tyranny of power and the brutality of passion, while the age itself surrenders up its youth a victim to both.

But forgetting these things, in which Winchester college is unfortunately not singular, it is a delightful place. Seen from a little below the falls of the mill, it is all that I had hoped it might be. Its seclusion, and the quiet of its immediate neighbourhood-its own venerable buildings, the still more venerable ruins of Wolvesey adjoining-the clear stream in front-the city houses, backed by the Cathedral on one side-and on the other, the open fields, stretching out to, and bounded, in the distance, by the towers of St. Cross, half hidden in noble trees, are all that imagination ever pictured a college when dreaming of collegiate ages, and what it could not have continued, but that the town has gradually decreased from its original splendour, and instead of extending beyond and eventually enclosing this fine building, has progressively shrunk from it. The approach, also, from the High-street, at least as I came to it, is just what it should be-first, through an avenue of elms, to the Cathedral itself-then the Prebendal houses-then the close, with some most majestic trees scattered about, that seem of little less antiquity than the buildings themselves-then the old Priory gateway, and immediately after, Kingsgate, with its druidical remains, which leads directly to the College. You now enter through a noble gateway into an outer court; and it is much to be regretted that its uniformity is destroyed by a modern building occupying one side of the square, and destroying the unity of design and appearance, which, but for this and the school-room, would be perfect throughout the whole range. Thence we pass into the inner-court under an arch and tower, ornamented w th three canopied niches, containing statues of the Virgin, the angel Gabriel, and of Wykeham himself, in an attitude of adoration: and it is pleasant to observe, that the statues, the loss of which is so much to be regretted in all Gothic buildings, have here, even in the outer gateway, escaped the iconoclastic rage of the puritans. This inner-court is all that can be desired, and the hall, the chapel, the dormitories, and