The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 538, March 17, 1832Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 538, March 17, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
"Among the many and various hospitals," says Sir William Temple, "that are
every man's curiosity and talk, that travels their country, I was affected
with none more than that of the aged seamen at Enchuysen, which is
contrived, finished, and ordered, as if it were done with a kind of
intention of some well-natured man, that those who had been their whole
lives in the hardships and incommodities of the sea, should find a retreat
with all the eases and conveniences that old age is capable of feeling and
enjoying. And here I met with the _only_ rich man that I ever saw in my
life--for one of these old seamen entertaining me a good while with the
plain stories of his fifty years voyages and adventures, while I was
viewing the hospital and the church adjoining; I gave him, at parting, a
piece of their coin, about the value of a crown; he took it and smiled,
and offered it me again; but when I refused it, he asked me 'What he
should do with money?' I left him to overcome his modesty as he could; but
a servant coming after me, saw him give it to a little girl that opened
the church door, as she passed by him; which made me reflect upon the
fantastic calculation of riches and poverty that is current in the world,
by which a man that wants a million, is a prince; he that wants but a
groat is a beggar; and this was a poor man that wanted nothing at all."
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
_Nicknames_.--John Magee, formerly the printer of the _Dublin Evening
Post_, was full of shrewdness and eccentricity. Several prosecutions were
instituted against him by the government, and many "keen encounters of the
tongue" took place on these occasions between him and John Scott, Lord
Clonmel, who was at the period Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In
addressing the court in his own defence, Magee had occasion to allude to
some public character, who was better known by a familiar designation. The
official gravity of Clonmel was disturbed; and he, with bilious asperity
reproved the printer, by saying,--"Mr. Magee, we allow no nicknames in
this court." "Very well, _John Scott_," was the reply.
H.S.S.
* * * * *
_A Village Hampden_.--In the churchyard of one of the parishes of Walsall,
Staffordshire, is the following epitaph on a person named Samuel Wilks,
who appears, like other persons of his name, to have been a great stickler
for the rights of the people:--"Reader, if thou art an inhabitant of the
Foreign of Walsall, know that the dust beneath thy feet was imprisoned in
thy cause, because he refused to incorporate the poor-rates of the Foreign
of Walsall and those of the Borough of Walsall. His resistance was
successful. Reader, the benefit is thine."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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