_Swobbers._--There is a known story of a clergyman who was recommended for a preferment by some great men at court to an archbishop. His Grace said, "He had heard that the clergyman used to play at whist and _swobbers_; that as to playing now and then a sober game at whist for pastime, it might be pardoned; but he could not digest those wicked swobbers;" and it was with some pains that my Lord Somers could undeceive him. So says Swift, in his _Essay on the Fates of Clergymen_; and a note in Sir W. Scott's edition (1824, vol. viii. p 231.) informs us that the primate was "Tenison, who, by all contemporary accounts, was a very dull man." At the risk of being thought as dull as the archbishop, I venture to ask for an explanation of the joke. J. C. R. [Johnson, under "Swobber" or "Swabber," gives, "1. A sweeper of the deck;" and "2. Four privileged cards that are only incidentally used in betting at the game of whist." He then quotes this passage from Swift, with the difference that he says "clergymen." Were not the cards so called because they "swept the deck" by a sort of "sweep-stakes?"] * * * * * _Handel's Occasional Oratorio._--Will DR. RIMBAULT, or some other musical correspondent of your journal, enlighten us as to the true meaning of the name _Occasional Oratorio_, prefixed to one of Handel's compositions, of which no one that I have ever met with has heard more than the overture? This composition has become almost universally known from the foolish practice which used to prevail of performing it as an introduction to _Israel in Egypt_, or any other work to which its composer had purposely denied the preliminary of an overture; a practice now happily exploded, which seems to have had its origin in a misinterpretation of the name; as though Handel had written the overture to suit any _occasion_ when one might be needed, instead of, as I am rather disposed to believe, having some particular occasion in view for which the oratorio was composed. E. V. [Surely, if there is no _Occasional_ Oratorio to be found, the _Overture_ must mean that it was to be used on _occasion_. Our correspondent does not seem to know the word as it is used by writers of a century ago, for "Occasional Sermons" or services, &c. The question is simply one of fact. _Is_ there an Oratorio? Everybody knows the overture. The writer of this note remembers being horrified, when a freshman, at hearing the fugue break forth in the College Chapel, was pondering in his mind whether it was Drops of Brandy, or the Rondo in the Turnpike-Gate, both then popular tunes.] * * * * * _Archbishop Waldeby's Epitaph._--W. W. KING would be obliged by a perfect copy of the inscription on the monumental brass of Archbishop Waldeby in Westminster Abbey.