"When Bredon Hill puts on his hat, Ye men of the vale, beware of that." Says a Yorkshire rhyme:-- "When Oliver's Mount puts on his hat, Scarbro' town must pay for that." In the same broad shire is a similar couplet:-- "When Ingleboro' wears a hat, Ribblesdale'll hear o' that." The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards. The public dinner-season in provincial England commences early in October and ends in the middle of March. During that period, at the slightest provocation, our countrymen are prepared to dine together, not with a desire of over-indulgence in eating, but to enjoy the pleasant company usually gathered round the festive board. It is an admitted fact that the men who are in the habit of attending banquets are generally most abstemious. Speech, story, and song form a pleasing part of the proceedings of literary-society dinners, masonic banquets, and the more homely but not less enjoyable suppers held in connection with the Burns' Clubs. The toast lists and menu cards are often very interesting; they are frequently artistic in design, and enriched with quotations from the poets, which renders them of more than passing interest. A few quotations from some of the best of those which have come under our notice seem worth reproducing. The authors represented cover a wide field, ranging from Shakespeare to Tennyson. The former is the most quotable poet, and he is most frequently drawn upon. Burns, however, runs him very closely. In turning over a pile of toast lists, the first to attract our attention is the one prepared for the Hull Shakespearean Festival. On the front page is a portrait of the bard and the familiar line of "rare" Ben Jonson:-- "He was not of an age, but for all time." Under the first toast--that of the Queen--are two lines from _Henry V._:-- "God and his angels guard your sacred throne, And make you long become it." The toast of the evening follows: "The Immortal Memory of Shakespeare"--Dr. Johnson's well-known verse beneath it:-- "Each change of many-coloured life he drew; Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new; Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, And panting Time toiled after him in vain." The third speaker had for his topic "Shakespeare's Universality," with a motto from _Romeo and Juliet_:-- "Monarch of the universal earth." Actors and actresses were next toasted under the heading of "Shakespearean Exponents," with a quotation from _Othello_:-- "Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice." The next theme was "Shakespeare and Tragedy," with a line from _Richard III._:-- "I live to look upon their tragedy." Then followed "Shakespeare and Comedy," with two lines from the _Taming of the Shrew_:-- "Frame your mind for mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms." Under the sentiment of "Shakespeare and History," is a line from _Henry IV._ (Part II.):-- "There is a history in all men's lives."