. Our Jolly Forefathers
-Personalities of the Eighteenth Century. By Grace A. Murray: Illustrated. (Cranton. 10s. 6d.) THIS is a hearty, wholesome book, packed with good stories, well-turned mots, and with all the full-bodied atmosphere of the virile, if bibulous, eighteenth century. It is perhaps stretching that strenuous age a little far to include in it Hazlitt, Thomas Edward, the Banff cobbler-naturalist, and " Master Betty," the Boy Roscius, all of whose activities were associated with the -nineteenth. But even without these there is plenty to fill up several pleasant hours, though it would be well to separate the' hours, for anecdotagc in massive doses is apt to pall.
A varied procession of notable figures troopi before us.
The great Greek scholar Porson staggers across the stage, and staggers is the word, for Porson would drink ink if he could not get anything else. He is the author of a famous Greek ptin (which, however, Mrs.' Keith Murray does not mention). Groping 'one night in the dark for a drink, he
could find neither whisky nor candle, and was heard to murmur : "oOi 7686 ot■U TdXXo."
In an account book of Roger Payne, the famous book- binder, we are joyed with the- following item :- For bacon ..•• .. 1 halfpenny.
For liquor .. .. . • .. 1 shilling.
Of George Steevens, the Shakespearean commentator and literary faker, Lord Mansfield having observed that he could only believe half of what Steevens said, Dr. Johnson added that no one knew which half it should be.
The beautiful half-wit, Elizabeth Chudleigh, self-styled Duchess of Kingston, appears at a masquerade as Iphigcnia, " in a state," as Horace Walpole observed, " almost ready for the sacrifice." The modern girl who ruefully contem- plates a ladder in her stocking may like to hear of the excuse of Ned Shuter, the comedian, for a hole in his—that " a hole is the accident of a day, but a darn is premeditated poverty.", Very interesting are the facsimile reproductions of old play, bills and so forth, particularly one of an Aberdeen tavern-bill dated 1789. This document contains thirty-eight printed headings, half of them for drink, and ends with : " To more Punch, To more Wine, To Broken." It is satisfactory to note that the actual amount of this particular bill only came to 6s. 4d., which, however, included 2s. 6d. for Mutchkins of Punch and 6d.• for the waiter ; there was no item against " To Broken." Mrs. Keith Murray (presumably a Scots- woman) ought to be more careful in her Scottish allusions. There was no such person as " Lord Dundas " (p. 138) ; the Jacobite laureate was Allan, not Allen, Ramsay ; Hynd7 ford's Close in Edinburgh appears as Wyndford Close (p. 184)
and to write that a certain musician's playing was like " toon cart goon down the Blackfriars' Wynd," is reducing the
simile to nonsense. " Toon " should be " toom "—that is, empty.
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