546. A gentleman remarked the other day to an Irish baronet, that the
science of optics was now brought to the highest perfection; for that,
by the aid of a telescope, which he had just purchased, he could discern
objects at an incredible distance. My dear fellow, replied the
good-humoured baronet, I have one at my lodge in the county of Wexford
that will be a match for it; it brought the church of Enniscorthy so
near to my view, that I could hear the whole congregation singing
psalms.
547. A clergyman was reproving a married couple for their frequent
dissensions, which were very unbecoming both in the eye of God and man,
seeing, as he observed, that they were both one. Both one! cried the
husband, Was your reverence to come by our door sometimes, you would
swear we were twenty.
548. A person whose name was Gun, complaining to a friend, that his
attorney, in his bill, had not let him off easily, That is no wonder,
said he, as he charged you too high.
549. A Scotchman maintained that the Garden of Eden was certainly placed
in Scotland. For said he, have we not, all within a mile of one another,
Adam’s Mount, the Elysian Fields, Paradise Place, and the city of
Eden-burgh?
550. A wealthy merchant of Fenchurch Street, lamenting to a confidential
friend that his daughter had eloped with one of his footmen, concluded
by saying, Yet I wish to forgive the girl, and receive her husband, as
it is now too late to part them. But then, his condition; how can I
introduce him? Nonsense, replied his companion, introduce him as a
Livery-man of the city.
551. A gentleman perceiving the common-crier of Bristol unemployed,
inquired the reason: I can’t cry to-day, sir, said he, my wife is just
dead.
552. Truth is not unfrequently extracted by accident. Mr. L., whose
police office is frequently clamorous with the litigators of shilling
warrants, suddenly called out, Silence there! There’s been, added he,
two or three people committed already, and I have not heard a word they
have said.
553. A wag called on his friend at his country-house, and perceiving him
running very fast through his grounds to meet him, told the gentleman he
was very sorry to see him go on so ill? Why so? replied the other. I
see, rejoined the wag, you are running through your estate very fast.
554. An Irish captain being on the ocean, many leagues from the most
remote part of land, beheld at a short distance four sail of ships, and
in the joy of his heart exclaimed, Arrah! my lads, pipe all hands on
deck to behold this rich landscape.
555. An Hibernian schoolmaster, settled in a village near London, who
advertised that he intended to keep a Sunday-school twice a week,
Tuesdays and Thursdays, reminds us of the mock mayor of a place in the
west, who declared on his election, that he was resolved to hold his
Quarter Sessions monthly.
556. A Londoner told his friend he was going to Margate for a change of
hair. You had better, said the other, go to the wig-maker’s shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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