Under an oak, in stormy weather,
I joined this rogue and wench together,
And none but he who rules the thunder,
Can put this wench and rogue asunder.

GRACE AFTER DINNER.

Swift was once invited by a rich miser with a large party to dine; being
requested by the host to return thanks at the removal of the cloth,
uttered the following grace:--

Thanks for this miracle!--this is no less
Than to eat manna in the wilderness.
Where raging hunger reign'd we've found relief,
And seen that wondrous thing, a piece of beef.
Here chimneys smoke, that never smok'd before,
And we've all ate, where we shall eat no more!

THE THREE CROSSES.

Swift in his journeys on foot from Dublin to London, was accustomed to
stop for refreshments or rest at the neat little ale-houses at the
road's side. One of these, between Dunchurch and Daventry, was formerly
distinguished by the sign of the _Three Crosses_, in reference to the
three intersecting ways which fixed the site of the house. At this the
Dean called for his breakfast, but the landlady, being engaged with
accommodating her more constant customers, some wagoners, and staying to
settle an altercation which unexpectedly arose, keeping him waiting, and
inattentive to his repeated exclamations, he took from his pocket a
diamond, and wrote on every pane of glass in her best room:--

TO THE LANDLORD.

There hang three crosses at thy door:
Hang up thy wife, and she'll make four.

CHIEF JUSTICE WHITSHED.

Swift, in a letter to Pope, thus mentions the conduct of this worthy
Chief Justice:--

"I have written in this kingdom a discourse to persuade the wretched
people to wear their own manufactures instead of those from England:
this treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments
of a whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or
were expectants. Upon which a person in great office here immediately
took the alarm; he sent in haste to Lord Chief Justice Whitshed, and
informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately
published, with a design of setting the two kingdoms at variance,
directing at the same time that the printer should be prosecuted with
the utmost rigor of the law. The Chief Justice had so quick an
understanding that he resolved, if possible, to outdo his orders. The
grand juries of the county and city were practised effectually with to
represent the said pamphle