The Greatest of Modern Wits.--What Coleridge said of Hook.--Hook's Family.--Redeeming Points.--Versatility.--Varieties of Hoaxing.--The Black-wafered Horse.--The Berners Street Hoax.--Success of the Scheme.-- The Strop of Hunger.--Kitchen Examinations.--The Wrong House.--Angling for an Invitation.--The Hackney-coach Device.--The Plots of Hook and Mathews.--Hook's Talents as an Improvisatore.--The Gift becomes his Bane.--Hook's Novels.--College Fun.--Baiting a Proctor.--The Punning Faculty.--Official Life Opens.--Troublesome Pleasantry.--Charge of Embezzlement.--Misfortune.--Doubly Disgraced.--No Effort to remove the Stain.--Attacks on the Queen.--An Incongruous Mixture.--Specimen of the Ramsbottom Letters.--Hook's Scurrility.---Fortune and Popularity.-- The End. SYDNEY SMITH. The 'Wise Wit.'--Oddities of the Father.--Verse-making at Winchester.-- Curate Life on Salisbury Plain.--Old Edinburgh.--Its Social and Architectural Features.--Making Love Metaphysically.--The Old Scottish Supper.--The Men of Mark passing away.--The Band of Young Spirits.-- Brougham's Early Tenacity.--Fitting up Conversations.--'Old School' Ceremonies.--The Speculative Society.--A Brilliant Set.--Sydney's Opinion of his Friends.--Holland House.--Preacher at the 'Foundling.'--Sydney's 'Grammar of Life.'--The Picture Mania.--A Living Comes at Last.--The Wit's Ministry.--The Parsonage House at Foston-le-Clay.--Country Quiet.-- The Universal Scratcher.--Country Life and Country Prejudice.--The Genial Magistrate.--Glimpse of Edinburgh Society.--Mrs. Grant of Laggan.-- A Pension Difficulty.--Jeffrey and Cockburn.--Craigcrook.--Sydney Smith's Cheerfulness.--His Rheumatic Armour.--No Bishopric.--Becomes Canon of St. Paul's.--Anecdotes of Lord Dudley.--A Sharp Reproof.-- Sydney's Classification of Society.--Last Strokes of Humour. GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON, LORD MELCOMBE. A Dinner-giving lordly Poet.--A Misfortune for a Man of Society.-- Brandenburgh House.--'The Diversions of the Morning.'--Johnson's Opinion of Foote.--Churchill and 'The Rosciad.'--Personal Ridicule in its Proper Light.--Wild Specimen of the Poet.--Walpole on Dodington's 'Diary.'-- The best Commentary on a Man's Life.--Leicester House.--Grace Boyle.-- Elegant Modes of passing Time.--A sad Day.--What does Dodington come here for?--The Veteran Wit, Beau, and Politician.--'Defend us from our Executors and Editors.' SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS Volume II. "WHO'S YOUR FAT FRIEND?" STRAWBERRY HILL FROM THE THAMES SELWYN ACKNOWLEDGES "THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE" THE FAMOUS "LITERARY CLUB" A TREASURE FOR A LADY--SHERIDAN AND THE LAWYER THEODORE HOOK'S ENGINEERING FROLIC SYDNEY SMITH'S WITTY ANSWER TO THE OLD PARISH CLERK HORACE WALPOLE.