writer who would probably incline not to leave the
monarch, were he living, not only his head but the little fame he might
obtain by the "Verses" said to be written by him at Carisbrook Castle,
would deprive him also of these. Henderson's death-bed recantation is
also reckoned among them; and we have a large collection of "Letters of
Sir Henry Martin to his Lady of Delight," which were the satirical
effusions of a wit of that day, but by the price they have obtained, are
probably considered as genuine ones, and exhibit an amusing picture of
his loose rambling life.[220] There is a ludicrous speech of the strange
Earl of Pembroke, which was forged by the inimitable Butler. Sir John
Birkenhead, a great humourist and wit, had a busy pen in these spurious
letters and speeches.[221]

FOOTNOTES:

[212] I have since been informed that this famous invention was
originally a flim-flam of a Mr. Thomas White, a noted collector and
dealer in antiquities. But it was Steevens who placed it in the
broker's shop, where he was certain of _catching_ the antiquary.
When the late Mr. Pegge, a profound brother, was preparing to write
a dissertation on it, the first inventor of the flam stepped forward
to save any further tragical termination; the wicked wit had already
succeeded too well.

[213] The stone may be found in the British Museum. HARDCNVT is the
reading on the _Harthacnut_ stone; but the true orthography of the
name is HAREthACNVT. It was reported to have been discovered in
Kennington-lane, where the palace of the monarch was said to have
been located, and the inscription carefully made in Anglo-Saxon
characters, was to the effect that "Here Hardcnut drank a wine horn
dry, stared about him, and died."

Sylvanus Urban, my once excellent and old friend, seems a trifle
uncourteous on this grave occasion.--He tells us, however, that "The
history of this wanton trick, with a _fac-simile_ of Schnebbelie's
drawing, may be seen in his volume lx. p. 217." He says that this
wicked contrivance of George Steevens was to entrap this famous
draughtsman! Does Sylvanus then deny that "the Director" was not
also "entrapped?" and that he always struck out his own _name_ in
the proof-sheets of the Magazine, substituting his official
designation, by which the whole society itself seemed to screen "the
Director!"

[214] He was a Dominican monk,