His father was an attorney,
and being desirous to bring up his son to the same profession, he brought
him up to London with him in 1724, and attended the courts in Westminster
Hall; but after some time, finding that the law was not suited to his
disposition, he wrote a strong memorial to his father on the subject, who
immediately desired the young man to follow the bent of his inclination.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

* * * * *

LINES

_To a Friend who had spent some days at a Country Inn, in order to be
near the Writer._

BY MISS MITFORD

The village inn, the woodfire burning bright,
The solitary taper's flickering light,
The lowly couch, the casement swinging free,--
My noblest friend, was this a place for thee?
No fitting place! Yet there, from all apart,
We poured forth mind for mind and heart for heart,
Ranging from idle words and tales of mirth
To the deep mysteries of heaven and earth
Yet there thine own sweet voice, in accents low,
First breathed Iphigenias tale of wee,
The glorious tale, by Goethe fitly told,
And cast as finely in an English mould
By Taylor's kindred spirit, high and bold:[21]
No fitting place! yet that delicious hour
Fell on my soul, like dewdrops on a flower
Freshening and nourishing and making bright
The plant, decaying less from time than blight,
Flinging Hope's sunshine o'er the faint dim aim,
Thy praise my motive, thine applause my fame.
No fitting place! yet (inconsistent strain
And selfish!) come, I prithee, come again!

Three Mile Cross, Feb 1829.
_Sharpe's Magazine_.

[21] Mr. Taylor's transition of Goethe's _Iphigenia in Tauris_; one
of the finest plays out of Shakspeare, and now extremely rare.

* * * * *

ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLIES.

We have been amused with a light pattering paper in Nos. 1. and 2. of
Sharpe's London Magazine--entitled "_Illustrious Visiters_." Its only
fault is extreme length, it being nearly thirty pages, and, as some people
would say, "all about nothing." But some will think otherwise, and smile
at the sly shafts which are let fly at our national follies, of which, it
must be owned, we have a very great share. We ought to premise that the
framework of the satire is a visit of the Court Cards to our metropolis, a
pretty considerable hit at some recent royal visi