the first time to Mr Jeffrey,
and they caught his fancy to such a degree that he could not get them
out of his head, but kept repeating them in a low voice all the time Mr
Jeffrey was conversing with him.

"I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced, by saying that
he followed us to Foston; and after serving us faithfully for thirteen
years, on our leaving Yorkshire, was permitted by our kind friend, Lord
Carlisle, to spend the rest of his days in idleness and plenty, in his
beautiful park, with an unbounded command of thistles."

SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SAGACITY OF THE ASS; A LADY SCARCELY SO WISE AS ONE.

The Rev. Sydney Smith[249] writes to Colonel Fox in October 1836:--

"MY DEAR CHARLES,--If you have ever paid any attention to the habits of
animals, you will know that donkeys are remarkably cunning in opening
gates. The way to stop them is to have two latches instead of one. A
human being has two hands, and lifts up both latches at once; a donkey
has only one nose, and latch _a_ drops, as he quits it to lift up latch
_b_. Bobus and I had the grand luck to see little Aunty engaged
intensely with this problem. She was taking a walk, and was arrested by
a gate with this formidable difficulty: the donkeys were looking on to
await the issue. Aunty lifted up the first latch with the most perfect
success, but found herself opposed by a second; flushed with victory,
she quitted the first latch, and rushed at the second; her success was
equal, till in the meantime the first dropped. She tried this two or
three times, and, to her utter astonishment, with the same results; the
donkeys brayed, and Aunty was walking away in great dejection, till
Bobus and I recalled her with loud laughter, showed her that she had
two hands, and roused her to vindicate her superiority over the donkeys.
I mention this to you to request that you will make no allusion to this
animal, as she is remarkably touchy on this subject, and also that you
will not mention it to Lady Mary!"

* * * * *

Lady Holland relates a practical joke of her father's, which the witty
canon carried out at his rectory of Combe Florey. "Opposite was a
beautiful bank, with a hanging wood of fine old beech and oak, on the
summit of which presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two
donkeys with deers' antlers fastened on their heads, which ever and anon
they shook, much wondering at their horned honours; whilst the attendant