REV. A. G. L’ESTRANGE: ‘Literary Life of the Rev. William Harness.’ London: Hurst & Blackett, 1871. * * * * * [Sidenote: A spoilt child.] Most undoubtedly I was a spoilt child. Everybody spoilt me, most of all the person whose power in that way was greatest, the dear papa himself. Not content with spoiling me indoors he spoilt me out. How well I remember his carrying me round the orchard on his shoulder, holding fast my little three-year old feet, while the little hands hung on to his pigtail, which I called my bridle, ... hung so fast, and tugged so heartily, that sometimes the ribbon would come off between my fingers, and send his hair floating, and the powder flying down his back. That climax of mischief was the crowning joy of all. Nor were these my only rides. This dear papa of mine, whose gay and careless temper all the professional _etiquette_ of the world could never tame into the staid gravity proper to a doctor of medicine, happened to be a capital horseman; and abandoning the close carriage, which, at that time, was the regulation conveyance of a physician, almost wholly to my mother, used to pay his country visits on a favorite blood-mare, whose extreme docility and gentleness tempted him, after certain short trials round our old course, the orchard, into having a pad constructed, perched upon which I might occasionally accompany him, when the weather was favorable, and the distance not too great. Very delightful were those rides across the breezy Hampshire downs on a sunny summer morning; and grieved was I when a change of residence from a small town to a large one, and going among people who did not know our ways, put an end to this perfectly harmless, if somewhat unusual pleasure. MARY RUSSELL MITFORD: ‘Recollections of a Literary Life.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: The lottery ticket.] On her tenth birthday Dr. Mitford took the child to a lottery-office, and bade her select a ticket. She determined--guided, to all appearance, by one of the unaccountable whims of childhood--that she would have none other than the number 2,224. Some difficulty attended the purchase of the coveted number, but the little lottery patroness had her way at last, and on the day of drawing there fell to the lot of the happy holder of ticket No. 2,224 a prize of £20,000. Alas! the holder of the fortunate ticket was happy only in name. By the time his daughter was a woman, there remained to Dr. Mitford, of all his lottery adventure had brought him, a Wedgwood dinner service with the family crest! S. C. HALL: _Note in_ ‘Retrospect of a Long Life.’ New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1883. * * * * * [Sidenote: At school.]