English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
Lord Bath passed for one of the wisest men in England. “When one is in
opposition,” was one of his sayings, “it is very easy to know what to
say; but when one is minister, it is difficult to know what not to say.”
ANOTHER OF THE SAME.
Lord Chancellor Loughborough told the Duke of Bridgewater he never knew
Lord Bath. “How?” said Bridgewater; “were you not a minister at the
same time that he was a minister?” “Yes,” was the reply, “personally;
but I used to go to bed before twelve, and Lord Bath never was himself
(that is, in the full plenitude of his faculties and gaiety) till
after.”
ADVANTAGES OF LOW PRICES.
A gentleman in one of the steam-packets asked the steward, when he came
round to collect the passage money (of 6_d._ each for the best cabin),
if there was not some danger of being blown up? The latter promptly
replied, “No, sir, not the least; we cannot afford to blow people up at
these low prices.”
JACOBITISM.
Lord Peterborough, about the time of the revolution of 1688, was
anxious to obtain a fine singing canary from a coffeehouse keeper
in London, his mistress having taken a fancy for it. Finding the
people obstinately bent against selling it, he at last contrived to
steal it, leaving a female one in its place. Some two years after, he
ventured to say to the good woman of the house, that he supposed she
would now take the money he formerly offered for the bird. “Indeed,
sir,” answered she, “I would not; nor would I take any sum for him;
for,--would you believe it?--from the time that our good king was
forced to go abroad and leave us, _the dear creature has not sung a
note_!”
A TERRIBLE THING OUT-TERRIBLED.
A dull play-wright, about to read one of his compositions in the
green-room at Drury Lane, observed, that he knew nothing so terrible as
reading a piece before such a critical audience. “I know one thing more
terrible,” said Mrs. Powell. “What can that be?” asked the author. “To
be obliged to sit and hear it.”
WRECKERS.
The people at a certain part of the coast of Cornwall, where wrecks
frequently happen, used to be so demoralized by the unrestrained
plunder of the unfortunate vessels, that they lost almost every humane
feeling. It is said that even the clergy sunk under the dominion of
this species of selfishness, and were almost as bad as the people.
One Sunday, the news of a wreck was promulgated to a congregation
engaged in public worship; and in an instant all were eagerly hurrying
out at the door, to set off towards the spot. The clergyman hereupon
called, in a most emphatic voice, that he only desired to say five more
words to them. They turned with impatient attention to hear him. He
approached, as if to address them; when, having got to the front of the
throng, “Now,” says he, “let us start fair!” and off he ran, all the
rest following him, towards the place where the wreck had happened,
which, it is believed, he was the first to reach.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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