100. A young fellow riding down a steep hill, and doubting the foot of it was boggish, called out to a clown that was ditching, and asked him if it was hard at the bottom. Ay, answered the countryman, it is hard enough at the bottom, I’ll warrant you. But in half a dozen steps the horse sunk up to the saddle skirts, which made the young gallant whip, spur, curse and swear. Why, thou rascal, said he to the ditcher, didst thou not tell me it was hard at bottom? Ay, replied the other, but you are not half way to the bottom yet. 101. It was said of one who remembered everything that he lent, but quite forgot what he borrowed, that he had lost half his memory. 102. One speaking of Titus Oates, said, he was a villain in grain, and deserved to be well threshed. 103. It was said of Henry Duke of Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in all France, for he had turned all his estate into obligations―meaning he had sold and mortgaged his patrimony to make presents to other men. 104. An Englishman and a Welchman disputing in whose country was the best living; said the Welchman, There is such noble housekeeping in Wales, that I have known above a dozen cooks employed at one wedding dinner. Ay, answered the Englishman, that was because every man toasted his own cheese. 105. The late Sir Godfrey Kneller had always a great contempt, I will not pretend to say how justly, for Jervis the painter; and being one day about twenty miles from London, one of his servants told him at dinner, that there was Mr. Jervis come that day into the same town with a coach and four. Ay, said Sir Godfrey, but if his horses draw no better than himself, they will never carry him to town again. 106. A gentleman asked Nanny Rochford why the Whigs, in their mourning for Queen Anne, all wore silk stockings? Because, says she, the Tories were worsted. 107. A counsellor pleading at the bar with spectacles on, who was blind with one eye, said he would produce nothing but what was _ad rem_. Then, said one of the adverse party, you must take out one glass of your spectacles, which I am sure is of no use. 108. The famous Tom Thynne, who was very remarkable for his good housekeeping and hospitality, standing one day at his gate in the country, a beggar coming up to him cried, He begged his worship would give him a mug of his small beer. Why, how now, said he, what times are these, when beggars must be choosers! I say, bring this fellow a mug of strong beer. 109. It was said of a person, who always ate at other people’s tables, and was a great railer, that he never opened his mouth but to somebody’s cost. 110. Pope Sixtus Quintus, who was a poor man’s son, and his father’s house ill thatched, so that the sun came in at many places of it, would himself make a jest of his birth, and say, That he was _nato di casa illustre_.