Yet in the year succeeding, our authority observes, he has the following passage in a letter to Essex:--"Some friend of mine means this day, before night, to merit my devotion and uttermost gratitude by seeking to do good to you; the success whereof my prayers in the meantime shall recommend to that best gale of wind that may favour it. Your lordship, by your last purchase, hath almost enraged the dromedary that would have won the Queen of Sheba's favour by bringing pearls. If you could once be as fortunate in dragging old Leviathan (Burghley) and his cub, _tortuosum colubrum_ (Sir Robert Cecil), as the prophet termeth them, out of this den of mischievous device, the better part of the world would prefer your virtue to that of Hercules." See "Memoirs of the Peers of James I." p. 240. Such "wise men" are the worst of fools. And here he was acting, as such men are apt to do, like one of the commonest fools, in saying such contradictory things under his own hand. [189] Vol. iv., p. 308. [190] "Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury," in the "Autobiography," p. 110. [191] Boswell, vol. i., p. 81. [192] The author of a "History of the Clubs of London" (vol. ii. p. 3.), says that this is not the Beef-Steak Club of which Estcourt, the comedian, was steward, and Mrs. Woffington president. He derives its origin from an accidental dinner taken by Lord Peterborough in the scenic room of Rich the Harlequin, over Covent Garden Theatre. The original gridiron, on which Rich broiled the Peer's beef-steak, is still preserved, as the palladium of the club; and the members have it engraved on their buttons. It has generally, we believe, admitted the leading men of the day, of whatever description, provided they can joke and bear joking. The author just mentioned says, that Lord Sandwich's and Wilkes's days are generally quoted as the golden period of the society. [193] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iv., p. 302. CHAPTER V. LINCOLN'S INN, AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. Lincoln's Inn -- Ben Jonson's Bricklaying -- Enactments against Beards -- Oliver Cromwell, More, Hale, and other eminent Students of Lincoln's Inn -- Lincoln's Inn Fields, or Square -- Houses there built by Inigo Jones -- Pepys's Admiration of the Comforts of Mr. Povey -- Surgeons' College -- Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe, and Lord Sandwich -- Execution of the patriotic Lord Russell, with an Account of the Circumstances that led to and accompanied it, and some Remarks on his Character -- Affecting Passages from the Letters of his Widow -- Ludicrous Story connected with Newcastle House.