"Campus Nautica may be sailor-latin for a pleasant exhibition, though not quite concordical. A sailor at Oxford some time ago, wished to prove the whole University to be sailor-like, and he managed it in this way. 'The Gownsmen are Puppes, the Tradesmen are Naves, and the women are nautœ.' What though the puns don't quite spell, they are not less true for all that."—(Times, Feb. 29, 1796.)
"Lately died, in Scotland, James Anderson, a well-known itinerant tinker, at the astonishing age of 114, after carrying his budget since his 14th year."—(Times, March 12, 1796.)
"We learn from Chester, that the Grand Jury at Conway Assizes found an Indictment against the Bishop of Bangor, his Agent, Chaplain, and two other Divines, for a riot; and also another Bill against the Bishop for an assault!!!"—(Times, April 5, 1796.)
"There was a Bank Note came into the Bank the other day, the interest of which, calculated from the time it had been in circulation, amounted to more than £4300."—(Times, April 26, 1796.)
"Mrs. Mills had fourteen rooms open at her famous Rout and Supper, in Piccadilly, the other night. The bill for green-peas was seventy-five pounds."—(Times, May 18, 1796.)
"At one of Lady B——'s elegant Entertainments at Ham-Common, amongst other amusements provided for her refined company, were a pig with a soaped-tail and a smock-race. A Great Number of young women were collected by curiosity, but none of them could be prevailed upon to contend for the last prize. They declared ingenuously, that they only came for curiosity, as they thought her Ladyship and her Company were to run for it."—(Times, June 29, 1796.)
"'I should like to be an emigré,' said Mr. V——n the other day. 'Why so?' answered a gentleman present. 'Because,' he replied, 'the emigrants are the only people in town who know how to amuse themselves.'
"And surely nothing can exceed the refined elegance of the balls given by some of the emigrated Ladies, where the widows of twenty guillotined poor souls, trip the merry country-dance with all the swiftness of a fairy. We must, however, observe that these eminent dancers disdain the name of emigrées, and call themselves Americaines, from the property they possess in the West Indies, in order to avoid the reproach of thus squandering the superfluities of their incomes, which would be better employed in comforting so many unfortunate families, driven from their own country."—(Times, Aug. 1, 1796.)
"A DAY AT MARGATE.
"Rose at seven; went to Sayer's Bathing House, set my name down on the slate: took a walk on the Pier. Came back and waited a quarter of an hour, then bathed. Not a little delighted with the idea of realising in some degree la theorie des sentimens agreables by dipping in the same ocean with the sea nymphs from the City. Returned to my lodgings to dress for breakfast. Finding nobody in the Coffee-room, went back to the Pier, arrived at the happy moment, just as a hoy was vomiting out its sick: witnessed, as Peter Paragraph says, the Queen of France abuse, like a drab of Drury, one of the passengers. The case seemed a strong one, and well made out on the part of the Lady, but produced, as far as I saw, no conviction.