English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources — John Shaqi
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
When Sir William Curtis returned from his voyage to Italy and Spain, he
called to pay his respects to Mr. Canning, at Gloucester Lodge. Among
other questions, Sir William said, “But, pray, Mr. Canning, what do
you say to the tunnel under the Thames?” “Say,” replied the secretary,
“why, I say it will be the greatest _bore_ London ever had, and that is
saying a great deal.”
RADCLIFFE OF DERWENTWATER.
It has often been observed, that a habitual sayer of good things will
have his joke under whatever circumstances he may be placed. Radcliffe,
brother of the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, and who was himself
executed in 1746, for his concern in the insurrection of 1715, was
brought to the bar to receive sentence of death, in company with an old
man of Falstaffian dimensions. The judge asking the usual question of
this other prisoner, “Plead your belly, plead your belly,” said the
grandson of Charles II, with a sly look at that part of his companion’s
person.
SHERIDAN UPON REGULARITY, WITH NOTES BY THE EARL OF GUILDFORD.
Just about the time that Mr. Sheridan took his house in Saville Row, he
happened to meet Lord Guildford in the street, to whom he mentioned his
change of residence, and also announced a change in his habits. “Now,
my dear Lord, everything is carried on in my house with the greatest
regularity; everything, in short, goes like clockwork.” “Ah!” replied
Lord Guildford, “tick, tick, tick, I suppose.”
ANTI-CLIMAX.
Mr. H----, the Professor of Chemistry in the University of Dublin, who
was more remarkable for the clearness of the intellect than the purity
of his eloquence, adverted in one of his lectures to the celebrated
Dr. Boyle, of whose talents he spoke with the highest veneration: he
thus concluded his eulogy:--“He was a great man, a very great man; he
was the _father_ of chemistry, gentlemen, and _brother_ of the Earl of
Cork.”
MR. FOX’S ESTIMATE OF THE FRENCH CHARACTER.
In one of the latter days of Fox, the conversation turned on the
comparative wisdom of the French and English character. “The
Frenchman,” it was observed, “delights himself with the present; the
Englishman makes himself anxious about the future. Is not the Frenchman
the wiser?” “He may be the merrier,” said Fox; “but did you ever hear
of a savage who did not buy a mirror in preference to a telescope.”
UPRIGHT JUDGE.
Judge Richardson, in going the western circuit, had a great stone
thrown at him, which, as he happened to stoop at the moment,
passed clear over his head. “You see,” he said to the friends who
congratulated him on his escape, “you see, if I had been an upright
judge I had been slain.”
KITES.
Boys fly kites for recreation, and men for other motives; the first
require the wind to raise the kite, the second the kite to raise the
wind.
COLLEGE JOKE.
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