iment more of frolic-making beings who, like Falstaff,
were not only, witty themselves, but the cause of keeping it alive in
others: to these succeeded Porson the Grecian, Captain Thompson, Tom
Hewerdine, Sir John Moore, Mr. Edwin, Mr. Woodfall, Mr. Brownlow,
Captain Morris, and a host of other highly-gifted men, the first lyrical
and political writers of the day,--who frequented the Cider Cellar after
the meetings of the _Anacreontic, beefsteak_, and _humbug_ clubs then
held in the neighbourhood, to taste the parting bowl and swear eternal
friendship. In later times, Her Majesty the Queen of Bohemia{7} raised
her standard in Tavistock-row, Covent Garden, where she held a midnight
court for the wits; superintended by the renowned daughter of Hibernia,
and maid of honour to her majesty, the facetious Mother Butler--the
ever-constant supporter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, esquire, and a
leading feature in all the memorable Westminster elections of the last
fifty years. How many jovial nights have I passed and jolly fellows
have I met in the snug _sanctum sanctorum!_ a little _crib_, as the
_fishmongers_ would call it, with an entrance through the bar, and into
which none were ever permitted to enter without a formal introduction
and the gracious permission of the hostess. Among those who were thus
specially privileged, and had the honour of the _entre_, were
the reporters for the morning papers, the leading members of the
_eccentrics_, the actors and musicians of the two Theatres Royal, merry
members of both Houses of

7 The sign of the house.

~351~~Parliament, and mad wags of every country who had any established
claim to the kindred feelings of genius. Such were the frequenters
of the Finish. Here, poor Tom Sheridan, with a comic gravity that set
discretion at defiance, would let fly some of his brilliant drolleries
at the _improvisatore_, Theodore Hook; who, lacking nothing of his
opponent's wit, would quickly return his tire with the sharp encounter
of a satiric epigram or a brace of puns, planted with the most happy
effect upon the weak side of his adversary's merriment. There too
might be seen the wayward and the talented George Cook, gentlemanly
in conduct, and full of anecdote when sober, but ever captious and
uproarious in his cups. Then might be heard a strange encounter of
expressions between the queen of Covent Garden and the voluptuary, Lord
Barrymore,{8} seconded by his brother, the pious Augustus. I