!_[3]

Ah me! what _foggy thoughts_ environ
The man that reads Gait's "Life of Byron."
--_Hudibras parodied_.

"What pens doth Galt in general use?"
To Farthing thus said Simon Shark;
"Mostly the _Nocto-Polygraph_,
Or pen that writes Sir--_in the dark_."

PUN-ICUS.

[3] Vide Certamen Ajacis et Ulyssis. _Ovid's Met._

* * * * *

PARLIAMENTARY ABSTINENCE.

Perhaps it is not generally known, and certainly not generally attended to,
that an act of parliament was made in the reign of Edward III. prohibiting
any one from being served, at dinner or supper, with more than two courses;
except upon some great holidays there specified, in which he may be served
with three. This act has never been repealed.

J.J.C.

* * * * *

ANTICIPATORY EPITAPH.

(_To the Editor_.)

Connected with Leeds, Kent, mentioned in No. 461 of _The Mirror_, I beg
leave to inform you, that in the village churchyard, near the castle, is a
rather singular inscription upon a grave-stone, which was put up by the
deceased during his life time; and when I first saw it, had blanks, for
inserting his age and the time of his death. These blanks have long since
been filled up, and the whole now reads as follows:--

"In memory of James Barham, of this parish, who departed this life Jan. 14,
1818, aged 93 years; and who, from the year 1774 to the year 1804, rung,
in Kent and elsewhere, 112 peals, not less than 5,040 changes in each peal,
and called bobs, &c. for most of the peals; and April 7th and 8th, 1761,
assisted in ringing 40,320 bob-majors, on Leeds-bells, in 27 hours."

R. ROFFE.

* * * * *

As Le Commandeur De Sillery, who was ambassador from France to the Pope,
was one day walking with the Venetian ambassador, in the square before the
beautiful church of the Gesu, at Rome (where it seems there is always air,
even in the hottest day of summer), he said to him, "What an odd thing it
is that there should be always something of a breeze here? Can your
excellency account for it?" "Perfectly well," replied the Venetian, "upon
a tradition that has been long current in this city. The devil and the
wind were one day walking together in the streets of Rome, when, coming to
the Jesuits' College in this place, the devil said to the wind, 'Pray be
so good as to stay here a minute or two, I have a word to say to these
good fathers within.