Then there were those wonderful disorderly dinners, where the guests were so good and the feast so indifferent; where there were always wit and learning, and seldom enough of knives and forks; where it was an honour to have talked and listened, and no one remembered to have dined. Last comes that pathetic picture of Sir Joshua, when his sight had failed him, wandering sadly in the inclosure with his green shade over his eyes, and peering wistfully and vainly for the lost canary which had been wont to perch upon his finger. When Reynolds died, Burke wrote his eulogy in the very house where his body lay. The manuscript (which still exists) was blotted with its writer's tears. Those royal periods in which the great orator spoke of his lost friend are too familiar to quote. But after Sir Joshua, the interest seems to fade out of the Fields, and one willingly draws one's pen through the few remaining names that are written in its chronicles. NOTES: Note 1, p. 91.--A house called Fordhook. This description is, alas! no longer accurate; and the spot from which Fielding set out for Lisbon in June, 1754, is now covered by 'commodious villas.' Note 2, p. 139.--A writer of comedy with the pencil. This happy characterization was first used by Arthur Murphy in the Gray's Inn Journal for 9th February, 1754. Note 3, p. 141.--The original No. 17 of the 'North Briton.' Since the above was written, my faith in this relic has been rudely shaken. In looking over a collection of Hogarthiana, temporarily at the British Museum, I came upon another copy of the paper also purporting to be the 'identical' No. 17, etc. Which is the real Simon Pure? Mr. Standly's copy (his Catalogue says at p. 84) was given by Mrs. Hogarth to [Samuel] Ireland. But this second copy I saw, also emanated from that not wholly unimpeachable source. Collectors will please sympathise. Note 4, p. 211.--Bronze statue of King James the Second. This statue, first placed in Whitehall Gardens on the 31st December, 1686 (Bramston's Autobiography, 1845, p. 253), was transferred in 1897 to an inclosure at the side of Gwydyr House. The present writer well remembers its forlorn departure, prone on a trolly, with one leg stiffly extended. It has again been moved; and now stands at the back of the Admiralty, where it will doubtless give rise to fresh traditions as to the site of the execution of Charles I. Note d, p. 219.--Ink-bottles... dangling from their button-holes. Flaxman, when he lived in Poland Street, used, in his capacity of parish officer, to collect the watch rates. On these occasions he always wore an ink-bottle at his buttonhole. Johnson also bustled about thus accoutred at the sale of Thrale's brewery (Birkbeck Hill's Boswell, 1887, iv. 87). Note G, p. 324.--Hogarth's... gold ticket. This is now in the possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray, who bought it at the Forman sale. But recent authorities doubt if the design was Hogarth's own.