It was his custom, to retire in the evening to what he considered the most comfortable corner in the house, and take his seat close, to the kitchen fireside, in order to draw some plan for the forming a new instrument, or scheme for the improvement of one already made. There, with his drawing implements on the table before him, a cat sitting on the one side, and a certain portion of bread, butter, and a small mug of porter placed on the other side, while four or five apprentices commonly made up the circle, he amused himself with either whistling the favourite air, or sometimes singing the old ballad of "If she is not so true to me, What care I to whom she be? What care I, what care I, to whom she be!" and appeared, in this domestic group, contentedly happy. When he occasionally sent for a workman, to give him necessary directions concerning what he wished to have done, he first showed the recent finished plan, then explained the different parts of it, and generally concluded by saying, with the greatest good humour, "Now see, man, let us try to find fault with it;" and thus, by putting two heads together, to scrutinize his own performance, some alteration was probably made for the better. But, whatever expense an instrument had cost in forming, if it did not fully answer the intended design, he would immediately say, after a little examination of the work, "Bobs, man! this won't do, we must have at it again;" and then the whole of that was put aside, and a new instrument, begun. By means of such perseverance, he succeeded in bringing various mathematical, philosophical, and astronomical instruments to perfection. The large theodolite for terrestrial measurements, and the equal altitude instrument for astronomy, will always be monuments of his fertile, penetrating, arduous, superior genius! There cannot be a lover (especially of this more difficult part) of philosophy, in any quarter of the globe, but must admire the abilities, and respect the memory, of Jesse Ramsden--_Practical Observations on Telescopes_. * * * * * THE GATHERER. "I am but a _Gatherer_ and disposer of other men's stuff."--_Wotton_. * * * * * Mr. Kelly, in his "Reminiscences," relates, that in 1792 he was walking in the Place Vendome with two Irish gentlemen, a Colonel Stark Macarthy and a Captain Fagan, the latter possessing "a vast portion of the ready wit of his country." Coming to the celebrated statue of Victory holding the laurel crown over the head of Louis XIV., a French officer was enumerating the splendid achievements of that heroic king, and particularly desired us to observe the attitude of the figure of Victory. "Pray, sir," said Fagan, "may I take the liberty of asking the question--Is Victory putting the laurel on his majesty's head, or taking it off?" The question puzzled the Frenchman, and made us laugh heartily. * * * * *