When Nollekens, the sculptor, was at Rome, in 1760, he was recognised by Garrick with the familiar exclamation of "What! let me look at you, are you the little fellow to whom we gave the prizes at the Society of Arts?" "Yes, Sir," being the answer, Garrick invited him to breakfast the next morning, and sat to him for his bust, for which he paid Nollekens £12. 12s. in gold; this was the first bust he ever modelled. Sterne sat to him when at Rome, and that bust brought him into great notice. * * * * * INDIAN TRADITION. Among the various Indian traditions of the Creation and fall of man is the following:--In the beginning, a few men rose out of the ground, but there was no woman among them. One of them found out a road to heaven, where he met a woman; they offended the Great Spirit, upon which they were both thrust out. They fell on the back of the tortoise; the woman was delivered of male twins; in process of time, one of these twins slew the other.--_Dr. Walsh_. * * * * * THE AGE OF THIRTY. I always looked to about thirty, as the barrier of any real or fierce delight in the passions, and determined to work them out in the younger ore and better veins of the mine; and, I flatter myself, that perhaps, I have pretty well done so, and now the _dross_ is coming, and _I love lucre_; for we must love something; at least, if I have not quite worked out the others, it is not for want of labouring hard to do so.--_Lord Byron_, in 1823. * * * * * COVENT GARDEN. Where holy friars told their beads, And nuns confess'd their evil deeds. But, O sad change! O shame to tell, How soon a prey to vice it fell! How--since its justest appellation Is Grand Seraglio to the Nation. _Satire_, 1756. * * * * * CROSS TIMES. When everybody was in suspense in consequence of the vacillating conduct of the French government, a gentleman with a determined _squint_, one day approached Talleyrand, and said to him, "Well, prince, how do affairs go on?" "As you see," replied Talleyrand. * * * * * CHANGING HATS. Barry, the painter, was with Nollekens, at Rome, in 1760, and they were extremely intimate. Barry took the liberty one night when they were about to leave the English coffee-house, to exchange hats with him; Barry's was edged with lace, and Nollekens' was a very shabby plain one. Upon his returning the hat the next morning, he was requested by Nollekens to let him know why he left him his gold-laced hat. "Why, to tell you the truth, my dear Joey," answered Barry, "I fully expected assassination last night; and I was to have been known by my laced hat." Nollekens often used to relate the story, adding, "It's what the Old Bailey people would call a true bill against Jem."--_Nollekens's Life and Times_. * * * * *