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N° 258. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1710.

Occidit miseros crambe repetita

JUV. Sat. vii. 154.

The same stale viands, serv'd up o'er and o'er,

The stomach nauseates

R. WYNNE.

From my own Apartment, December 1. WHEN a man keeps a constant table, he may be allowed sometimes to serve up a cold dish of meat, or toss up the fragments of a feast in a ragoût. I have sometimes, in a scarcity of provisions, been obliged to take the same kind of liberty, and to entertain my reader with the leavings of a former treat. I must this day have recourse to the same method, and beg my guests to sit down to a kind of Saturday's dinner. To let the metaphor rest; I intend to fill up this Paper with a bundle of letters, relating to subjects on which I have formerly treated; and have ordered my bookseller to print, at the end of each letter, the minutes with which I indorsed it, after the first perusal of it.

"TO ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Esquire.

"SIR, November 22, 1710. "Dining yesterday with Mr. South-British and Mr. William North-Briton, two gentlemen, who, before you ordered it otherwise, were known by the names of Mr. English, and Mr. William Scot: among other things, the maid of the house, who in

her time I believe may have been a North-British warming-pan, brought us up a dish of North-British collops. We liked our entertainment very well; only we observed the table-cloth, being not so fine as we could have wished, was North-British cloth. But the worst of it was, we were disturbed all dinnertime by the noise of the children, who were playing in the paved court at North-British hoppers; so we paid our North-Briton* sooner than we designed, and took coach to North-Briton Yardt, about which place most of us live. We had indeed gone a-foot, only we were under some apprehensions lest a North-British mist should wet a South-British man to the skin.

"We think this matter properly expressed, according to the accuracy of the new style, settled by you in one of your late Papers. You will please to give your opinion upon it to, Sir,

Your most humble servants,

"J. S.

"M. P.
"N. R.‡"

See if this letter be conformable to the directions given in the Tatler abovementioned.

"To ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Esquire.

"Sir, Kent, Nov. 22, 1710. "A gentleman in my neighbourhood, who happens to be brother to a lord, though neither his father nor grandfather were so, is perpetually making use of this phrase, a person of my quality.' He has it in his mouth fifty times a-day, to his labourers, his servants, his children, his tenants, and his neighbours. Wet or dry, at home or abroad, drunk

Scot i. e. share of the reckoning.

+ Scotland-yard.

Jonathan Swift, Matthew Prior, Nicholas Rowe.

or sober, angry or pleased, it is the constant burden of his style. Sir, as you are Censor of Great-Britain, as you value the repose of a loyal county, and the reputation of my neighbour, I beg you will take this cruel grievance into your consideration; else, for my own particular, I am resolved to give up my farms, sell my stock, and remove with my wife and seven children next spring to Falmouth or Berwick, if my strength will permit me, being brought into a very weak condition. I am, with great respect, Sir, your most obedient and languishing servant, &c."

Let this be referred to the Court of Honour.

"MR. BICKERSTAFF,

"I am a young lady of a good fortune, and at present invested by several lovers, who lay close siege to me, and carry on their attacks with all possible diligence. I know which of them has the first place in my own heart, but would freely cross my private inclinations to make choice of the man who loves me best; which it is impossible for me to know, all of them pretending to an equal passion for me. Let me therefore beg of you, dear Mr. Bickerstaff, to lend me your Ithuriel's spear, in order to touch this troop of rivals; after which I will most faithfully return it to you again, with the greatest gratitude. I am, Sir, &c."

Query 1. What figure doth this lady think her lover will appear in? or what symptoms will he betray of his passion upon being touched?

2. Whether a touch of her fan may not have the same efficacy as a touch of Ithuriel's spear?

Great Lincoln's-Inn Square, Nov. 29.

"Honoured Sir,

"Gratitude obliges me to make this public acknowledgement of the eminent service you have

mised them, that he would, upon such their preferment, publish an edict of the court, for the entire banishment and exclusion of it out of the discourses and conversation of all civil societies.

This is a true copy,

CHARLES LILLIE.

Monday next is set apart for the trial of several female causes.

N. B. The case of the hassock will come on between the hours of nine and ten.

N°257. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1710.

In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas

Corpora: Dii, captis, nam vos mutástis et illas,

Aspirate meis!

OVID. Met. i. 1.

Of bodies chang'd to various forms I sing,
Ye gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
Assist me in this arduous task !-

From my own Apartment, November 29. EVERY nation is distinguished by productions that are peculiar to it. Great-Britain is particularly fruitful in religions, that shoot up and flourish in this climate more than in any other. We are so famous abroad for our great variety of sects and opinions, that an ingenious friend of mine, who is lately returned from his travels, assures me, there is a show at this time carried up and down in Germany,

which represents all the religions of Great Britain in wax-work. Notwithstanding that the pliancy of the matter, in which the images are wrought, makes it capable of being moulded into all shapes and figures; my friend tells me, that he did not think it possible for it to be twisted and tortured into so many screwed faces, and wry features, as appeared in several of the figures that composed the shew. I was indeed so pleased with the design of the German artist, that I begged my friend to give me an account of it in all its particulars, which he did after the following manner :

"I have often," says he, "been present at a show of elephants, camels, dromedaries, and other strange creatures, but I never saw so great an assembly of spectators as were met together at the opening of this great piece of wax-work. We were all placed in a large hall, according to the price that we had paid for our seats. The curtain that hung before the show was made by a master of tapestry, who had woven it in the figure of a monstrous Hydra that had several heads, which brandished out their tongues, and seemed to hiss at each other. Some of these heads were large and entire; and where any of them had been lopped away, there sprouted up several in the room of them, insomuch, that for one head cut off, a man might see ten, twenty, or an hundred, of a smaller size, creeping thro' the wound. In short, the whole picture was nothing but confusion and blood-shed. On a sudden," says my friend, "I was startled with a flourish of many musical instruments that I had never heard before, which was followed by a short tune, if it might be so called, wholly made up of jars and discords. Among the rest, there was an organ, a bagpipe, a groaning board, a stentorophontic trumpet, with several wind instruments of a most disagreeable sound, which I

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