I saw these anecdotes in the Weekly Amusement or EDINBURGH-Magazine, 1772. 8vo.

3. At the KING'S BENCH PRISON, I met with a MR. THOS GILLILAND, who was well acquainted with WM MEREDITH ESQ. of HARLEY-PLACE, who had the paving of MARYLE-BONE PARISH, and died worth £70,000. His brother, GEO. MEREDITH, was SURVEYOR of ISLINGTON; the Nephew GEORGE died in EGYPT, and wrote the Life of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS; the widow of the brother enjoys the property worth £100,000. He says that TH. TAYLOR was a dram-drinker latterly. MR. GILLILAND met Dr PARR at HORNE TOOKE's. He says H. TOOKE had a pension of £700 a year from a gentleman of large fortune, who lived in WIMPOLE OF DEVONSHIRE-STREET, and whom he considers to have been HENRY CONSTANTINE JENNINGS. When TOOKE was asked by the Commissioners of the Income-Tax at Brentford about his Income, his reply was, that there were three modes of raising an income, You may beg, borrow, and steal: I get my income by none of the three,what I have, is given to me.

Mr GILLILAND met Dr Parr at the house of a sculptor, called GAGER, who was making a bust of CHARLES JAMES FOX; PARR took off his wig, and asked if his head was not like Fox's, the only head which he wished his to resemble. Mr G. told him that his own head was a good one, and he need not look for any resemblance.

When PARR was at COLCHESTER-SCHOOL, a Lady who lived in the neighbourhood, had a spoiled son, about 14, who was under PARR and who chose to play truant, lying in bed, etc. He apologised to his mother for his conduct by saying that he had a fistula; his mother did not know what that meant, but the medical man should see him. The boy was sent to School. PARR gave to him a flogging; when he came back, his mother asked him if he had not been flogged? The boy hung down

his head, and looked sheepish; the medical man came in, and asked him about the fistula, when the boy very cleverly said, 'Oh! I have been cut for it!'

Parr once asked Mr Gilliland to shew Mr Mainwaring to he was pointed out,-Parr eyed him, and said, 'What poverty of intellect!'

him ;

Mr Gilliland was the author of a pamphlet called Diamond cut diamond (in reply to a Letter of Mr Jefferies the Silversmith addressed to the Prince Regent,) in vindication of the Prince Regent, who gave to him 500 guineas for it.

It should seem that he has also a pension of £400 a year from the Prince Regent, secured by a crown-grant.

Mary Ann Clarke wrote a book called The Rival Princes, which bore her name indeed, but was written by Mr Gilliland; there was, afterwards, another book put forth by her, and Mr G., who however did not write it, was employed to buy up the work; he was commissioned and gave to her £10, 000 with a Pension of £400 a year to herself, to be continued to two daughters in succession; he received 3000 copies, was directed to burn them, and read one of them through, while the fire was at work. He had an original Letter from LADY DOUGLAS, or LADY ELGIN, and has a copy of it now, in . . . .

CVII. Ellenborough, Porson, &c.

KING'S BENCH PRISON, May 7, 1837. MR GILLILAND says that, when the late Lord Ellenborough, who was a severe Judge, was dining with the Marquis of Lansdowne, he said to the Marquis that he would try another slice of beef; If you do, my Lord, whispered Tom Moore, it will be Hung Beef!

12

Porson, as a Mr Charles James of St John's College said, bet a wager that he could make a rhime to anything: it was proposed that he should make trial of the Latin gerund in dum, when Porson said,

Dido found Æneas did not come,

Dido wept, and was Di-do-dum[b.]

When the great Prince to Dido did not come,

She mourned in silence, and was Di-do-dum.*

Mr Gilliland says that Lord Hutchinson, afterwards Lord Donoughmore, the successor of Abercrombie in Egypt, wrote all the Letters of the Prince Regent to his father.

CVIII, Gilliland, Sheridan, &c.

KING'S BENCH PRISON, May 13, 1837. Mr Gilliland did write the RIVAL PRINCES, 2 Vols 8vo, published in the name of Mrs Mary Anne Clarke; in the copy, which he lent to me to read, he had scratched out the name, and substituted

his own.

He also wrote the DRAMATIC MIRROR, 2 Vols, in which he has inserted many amusing anecdotes, and for the copyright of which he received £300.

He says that he was with SHERIDAN, when he fell down drunk in the gutter; people passing by crowded round him, and one of the party enquired his name, when he replied, Wilberforce, Member of the Society for the Suppression of Vice!" He was with all due honor put into a coach, and

* I have seen a much more harmonious couplet, expressing the same idea. When Dido's love to Dido would not come,

She mourned in silence and was Di-do-dum [b].

dispatched to Mr Wilberforce's residence at Kensington-Gore.

Sheridan was passing along Charing Cross, when a man was standing in the pillory for sodomy; a carriage, containing a lady and her daughter, could not proceed from the pressure of the crowd; they perceived Mr Sheridan, whom they knew, beckoned to him and asked what was the matter. Sheridan hesitated,-was pressed for an answer by the ladies, who pleaded the natural curiosity of women, and at length said that he was put there for doing what he ought not to have done, and for not doing what he ought to have done.

A Quaker, who was a single man, had a maid-servant of the same religious fraternity. She was very amorous and anxious to marry her master; he gave no encouragement to her, but her passion increased to such a degree, that she at length lay down on his bed, when he was in it. He was a pure Joseph, and refused. The Society heard of it, and he was called to account; he explained, when one of the Quakers drily said, "He is convicted on his own confession," which produced a smile even among the gravities assembled therein.

This anecdote was told to me by George Merrell, a Quaker whom I met in the prison.

CIX. Sir F. Burdett, H. Tooke &c.

May 27, 1837. In the Globe of to-day it is stated that Horne Tooke distrusted his pupil Sir Francis Burdett, having observed certain aristocratic and Tory tendencies, which have recently developed themselves in an extraordinary manner; he complained of it to his acquaintance.

Mr Moore, a surgeon, generally called Dr Moore, who is a prisoner in the Bench, says that the Rev. Dr Shepherd, of

Liverpool, was with Horne Tooke at Wimbleton 3 weeks before his death. He had been reading or talking to Tooke about that far distant country, from which no traveller returns. 'Well,' said Horne, 'I do not doubt what you say about that fine country, but I must confess that I had rather be here.' He died three minutes afterwards.

The Rev Mr Bowes of Chilwell, (in Lancashire, I think) bet a wager that he could preach extempore to the satisfaction. of those, with whom he laid the wager, and of the congregation, on any text, which was handed to him, when he was in the pulpit. Accordingly at the time appointed a text was handed to him, which was something like this: Let him that saveth others, save himself.' A ludicrous effect was given to the text because S with Mr Bowes was always pronounced Sh. He preached a most pathetic Sermon about our Saviour, caused one gentleman, whose feelings were too much excited, to leave the Church, and won his wager. This was about 1789, I think. The celebrated Lavater's nephew, John Caspar Lavater, heard of this feat, and told it to his Uncle, who said that he had done the very same thing before the Grand Duke of Baden, from a text handed to him, 'God made the world out of nothing.' The Grand Duke was so highly delighted with the Sermon, that he made him a very handsome present, 100 Louis.

When the late Mr Rothschild left Manchester in 1800, Mr M. refused to take from him a Bill for £25 at 2 months; yet 6 weeks after he contracted for the Loan of 25 millions.

CX. Anna's grave.

1.

I wish I was where Anna lies;

For I am sick of ling'ring here,