ANECDOTE OF DRYDEN AND OTWAY.

DRYDEN and OTWAY were contemporaries, and lived for some time opposite to each other in Fetter-lane. One morning the latter happened to call upon his brother bard about breakfast time, but was told by his servant, that his master was gone to breakfast with the Earl of Pembroke. "Very well," said Otway, "tell your master that I will call to-morrow morning." Accordingly he called the next day about the same hour, "well, is your master at home now?” "No, Sir, he is just gone to breakfast with the Duke of Buckingham." "The devil he is," said Otway; and actuated either by envy, pride, or disappointment, in a kind of involuntary manner, took up a piece of chalk that lay on a table, which stood upon the landing place, near Dryden's chamber, and wrote over the door,

"Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit."

The next morning, at breakfast, Dryden recog nised the handwriting, and told the servant to go to Otway, and desire his company to breakfast with him; in the mean time he added to Otway's line of

"Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit,

"This was written by Otway opposite."

When Otway arrived and saw that his line was linked with a rhyme, being a man of rather a petulant disposition, he took it in dudgeon, and turning upon his heel, told his friend, "that he was welcome to keep his wit and his breakfast to himself."

Herald.

ALL-CHIN IN DEFENCE OF HIS NOSE; OR, BROTHER BUNGS IN BATTLE.

SKETCHES AT BOW-STREET.-No. X.

ONE Mr. Spillings was brought up on a peace warrant, charging him with having threatened the life of Mr. All-chin.

Mr. All-chin is a publican-and a very much mis-named one, for his nose is beyond all comparison the most predominant feature about him. He deposed that Mr. Spillings came into his house with another person, and demanded a glass of orange shrub; and because he refused to serve them, Mr. Spillings told him-firstly, that he ought to be ashamed of himself, for refusing to serve a brother bung; secondly, that he would arrest him, as he had many another bung; thirdly, and lastly, that if he would come out into the street, he would unscrew his ugly nose for him! "Hearing this," continued Mr. All-chin, "I rushed out into the street after him-thinking to give him in charge to the watch; but Mrs. Allchin, poor thing, came hanging about me so, and begging of me not to be rash, that I thought the best way would be, to go another way to work with him. So I let him go, and came here next day and got a warrant for him.”

"Which warrant charges him with threatening your life," said his Worship; "and I have heard nothing yet but his having called you a brother bung, and a nonsensical threat of pulling your nose."

"I beg your Worship's pardon-he didn't say he would pull my nose-he said he would unscrew it! That was the word he used; and I can bring forward many respectable neighbours to prove it."

His Worship said, he really did not know what was meant by unscrewing a man's nose; but as it did not appear that his life had been threatened, he should discharge the warrant. And it was discharged accordingly-the defendant, Mr. Spillings, and other witnesses, having first offered to prove that no threat at all had been used, and that Mr. All-chin was all talk and fury.

Herald.

"SIT PRO RATIONE."

Not a word with him but a jest, and every jest but a word.— LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. Act ii. sc. 1.

MR. CANNING ON THE LEATHER TAX,-" They (Ministers) had overlooked the means which his Honorable Friend (Sir Joseph Yorke) thought were most desirable to attain the wished-for endthey had in all their motions confined themselves to the contents of books, instead of applying themselves to the binding [renewed laughter."-See Courier, May 19.

How much he loves contents, we know,

For either House will daily shew
Them nicely bound together;
But if the non-contents received
The care that's due to the aggrieved,
There'd be no tax on leather.

Not that his Colleagues of the day,
In Ireland hold it sine quâ—

There 'tis not worth the minding-
For there, regardless of contents,
They think it answers all intents,
To shew their love of binding!
LEATHER AND PRUNELLA."

Chronicle.

SIGNS OF RAIN.

AN EXCUSE FOR NOT ACCEPTING THE INVITATION OF A FRIEND TO MAKE AN EXCURSION WITH HIM.

By the late Dr. Jenner.

1 THE hollow winds begin to blow,
2 The clouds look black, the grass is low;
3 The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
4 And spiders from their cobwebs peep.
5 Last night the sun went pale to bed,
6 The moon in haloes hid her head;
7 The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
8 For see, no rainbow spans the sky.
9 The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
10 Clos'd is the pink-ey'd pimpernell.
11 Hark! how the chairs and tables crack;
12 Old Betty's joints are on the rack;
13 Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry,
14 The distant hills are looking nigh;
15 How restless are the snorting swine,
16 The busy flies disturb the kine;
17 Low o'er the grass the swallow wings;
18 The cricket too, how sharp he sings;
19 Puss on the hearth with velvet paws,
20 Sits, wiping o'er her whisker'd jaws;
21 Through the clear stream the fishes rise,
22 And nimbly catch the incautious flies.
23 The glow-worms, numerous and bright,
24 Illum'd the dewy dell last night.
25 At dusk the squalid toad was seen,
26 Hopping and crawling o'er the green;
27 The whirling wind the dust obeys,
28 And in the rapid eddy plays;

29 The frog has chang'd his yellow vest,
30 And in a russet coat is drest.
31 Though June, the air is cold and still;
32 The mellow blackbird's voice is shrill.
33 My dog, so alter'd in his taste,

34 Quits mutton bones, on grass to feast;

35 And see, yon rooks, how odd their flight,
36 They imitate the gliding kite,
37 And seem precipitate to fall-
38 As if they felt the piercing ball.

39 Twill surely rain, I see with sorrow,
40 Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.

British Press.

ANECDOTE OF GARRICK AND WESTON.

ONE evening, when Weston was announced to play Scrub, and Garrick Archer, in the course of the day he sent to Mr. Garrick a letter, requesting a loan of money, as he was continually in the practice of doing, under the impression that he was arrested. This Garrick at last discovered, and in consequence refused sending at that time what Weston had requested; upon which the latter neglected going to the theatre at his usual time; and when the hour of performance arrived, Garrick came forward and said as follows: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Weston being taken suddenly ill, he is not capable of appearing before you this evening; and therefore, if it meets your approbation, I will perform the part of Scrub in his stead." Weston, being in the two shilling gallery with a sham bailiff, hallooed out, "I am here, and can't come; I am arrested." Upon which the audience sided with Weston, by insisting he should play the part, which the manager was obliged to acquiesce in, by paying the supposed debt, to the no small mortification of David. Somerset-House Miscellany.