he "British Pollio, Atticus, the Maec[=e]nas of England,
protector of arts, paragon of poets, arbiter of taste, and sworn
appraiser of Apollo and the Muses." The plot is very simple: Sir Thomas
Lofty has written a play called _Robinson Crusoe_, and gets Richard
Bever to stand godfather to it. The play is damned past redemption, and
to soothe Bever, Sir Thomas allows him to marry his niece, Juliet.

Horace Walpole, earl of Orford, is the original of "Sir Thomas Lofty"
(1717-1797).

=Patten=, according to Gay, is so called from Patty, the pretty daughter
of a Lincolnshire farmer, with whom the village blacksmith fell in love.
To save her from wet feet when she went to milk the cows, he mounted her
clogs on an iron eke.

The patten now supports each frugal dame,
Which from the blue-eyed Patty takes its name.

Gay, _Trivia_, i. (1712).

(Of course, the word is the French _patin_, "a skate or high-heeled
shoe," from the Greek, _patein_, "to walk.")

=Pattieson= (_Mr. Peter_), in the introduction of _The Heart of
Midlothian_, by Sir W. Scott, and again in the introduction of _The
Bride of Lammermoor_. He is a hypothetical assistant teacher at
Gandercleuch, and the feigned author of _The Tales of My Landlord_,
which Sir Walter Scott pretends were published by Jedediah Cleishbotham,
after the death of Pattieson.

=Patton= (_Mrs._). Tailoress and talker, otherwise known as "the Widow
Jim," who has all genealogy and relationship at her tongue's end. "She
chatters all day as the swallows chatter, and you do not tire of
her."--Sarah Orne Jewett, _Deephaven_ (1877).

=Patterson= (_Elizabeth_). One of the most remarkable women of this
century. The beautiful daughter of a Baltimore merchant prince, she
captivated Jerome Bonaparte, (then a minor, and dependent on his
brother), who was visiting America. In the face of parental opposition,
she married him Dec. 24, 1803. Napoleon (First Consul) promptly
repudiated the marriage, ordered his brother home, and forbade all
French vessels to receive as a passenger, "_the young person_ with whom
Citizen Joseph has connected himself." In October, 1804, the young
couple sailed for France in the ship _Philadelphia_, but were blown
ashore at Lewes, Del. In March, 1805, they embarked again, reaching
Lisbon, April 2. Napoleon (now emperor) refused to allow them to enter
France, but sent to know "what he could do for _Miss Patterson_." She
replied that "Madame Bonaparte d