AN ANONYMOUS JEST.
LTO THE EDITOR OP THU "SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—The review of the new Life of Sydney Smith in your issue of March 25th reminds me of a witty saying ascribed to him by the late Miss Swanwick. She told me that two of his nieces, who were staying with him, begged him to give a ball. "No," he replied, playfully shaking his powdered head. "You can get plenty of powder from the old Canon, but no ball." It struck me, however, as odd that this excellent sally is not quoted in Lady Holland's Life of her father. To them that have is given ; and it would be contrary to all precedent that the posthumous pilferer, so to call him, of the good sayings of other men should, in his turn, have been mulcted of a good saying of his own. My doubts as to the Sydney-Smithian authorship of the epigram were confirmed when I subsequently heard it attributed to "Canon Goodford of Windsor." But I have learned on inquiry that Dr. Goodford of Eton certainly did not become a Canon of Windsor, and that seemingly he did not become a Canon at all. A well-informed friend thinks that the sally was of earlier date than either of its reputed authors. Can any of your readers tell me who was its real author P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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