Previously to offering a few remarks on the causes of Abernethy's occasional irritability, we must not omit to mention a hoax that was played on him. He had been in particularly good, boy-like spirits, and had proposed going to the theatre; where he had enjoyed himself very much. On reaching home, there was a message desiring his attendance at Harrow. This was a very unwelcome finale. The hoax had been clumsily managed, but it did not strike anybody at the moment; so it was decided that Mr. Abernethy must go; and he took Mr. Skey with him. When they got to Harrow, they drove to the house of the surgeon, and, knocking him up, the surgeon came to the window in his night-cap, when the following dialogue began. The name of the patient we shall suppose to be Wilson. "Does Mr. Wilson live here?" "Who are you?" "I say, then, is Mr. Wilson living here?" "I say what do you want? Who the d——l are you?" "I say that I want to find a Mr. Wilson; and my name is Abernethy." "Immediately," says Mr. Skey, "off flew the night-cap." "I beg your pardon, Mr. Abernethy; what can I do for you," &c. "Is there a Mr. Wilson living here; and has he broken his leg?" "Oh, yes, sir, he is living here; but he is very well, and has not met with anything of the kind." Abernethy laughed heartily, and ordered the post-boy to drive him home again. There would be no difficulty in multiplying anecdotes given to Abernethy; but there are some objections to such a course. In the first place, there are many told of him which never happened; others, which may probably have happened, you find it impossible to authenticate; and, lastly, there is a third class, which, if they happened to Abernethy, certainly happened to others before Abernethy was born. In fact, when a man once gets a reputation of doing or saying odd things, every story in which the chief person is unknown or unremembered is given to the man whose reputation in this way is most remarkable. We need not say how impossible it is, in a Memoir of this kind, to introduce, with propriety, matters thus apocryphal.