Some of my contemporaries may remember a story once current at Cambridge, of a luckless undergraduate, who being examined for his degree, and failing in every subject upon which he was tried, complained that he had not been questioned upon the things which he knew. Upon which the examining master, moved less to compassion by the impenetrable dulness of the man than to anger by his unreasonable complaint, tore off about an inch of paper, and pushing it towards him, desired him to write upon that all he knew! [Footnote 2: PHINEAS FLETCHER, 186.] [Footnote 3: ROBERT GREEN.] [Footnote 4: MIDDLETON.] And yet bulky books are composed, or compiled by men who know as little as this poor empty individual. Tracts and treatises and tomes, may be, and are written by persons, to whom the smallest square sheet of delicate note paper, rose-coloured, or green, or blue, with its embossed border, manufactured expressly for ladies' fingers and crow quills, would afford ample room, and verge enough, for expounding the sum total of their knowledge upon the subject whereon they undertake to enlighten the public. Were it possible for me to pour out all that I have taken in from him, of whose accumulated stores I, alas! am now the sole living depository, I know not to what extent the precious reminiscences might run. _Per sua gratia singulare Par ch' io habbi nel capo una seguenza, Una fontana, un fiume, un lago, un mare, Id est un pantanaccio d'eloquenza._[5] [Footnote 5: MATTEO FRANZESI.] Sidronius Hosschius has supplied me with a simile for this stream of recollections. _Æstuat et cursu nunquam cessante laborat Eridanus, fessis irrequietus aquis; Spumeus it, fervensque, undamque supervenit unda; Hæc illam, sed et hanc non minus ista premit. Volvitur, et volvit pariter, motuque perenni Truditur à fluctu posteriore prior._ As I shall proceed _Excipiet curam nova cura, laborque laborem, Nec minus exhausto quod superabit erit._ But for stores which in this way have been received, the best compacted memory is like a sieve; more of necessity slips through than stops upon the way; and well is it, if that which is of most value be what remains behind. I have pledged myself, therefore, to no more than I can perform; and this the reader shall have within reasonable limits, and in due time, provided the performance be not prevented by any of the evils incident to human life. At present, my business is to answer the question “Who was Mrs. Dove?” CHAPTER LXXII. IN WHICH THE FOURTH OF THE QUESTIONS PROPOSED IN CHAPTER II. P. I. IS BEGUN TO BE ANSWERED; SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON ANCESTRY ARE INTRODUCED, AND THE READER IS INFORMED WHY THE AUTHOR DOES NOT WEAR A CAP AND BELLS.