252. Plutarch used to say that men of small capacities put into great places, like statues set upon great pillars, are made to appear the less by their advancement.
253. A young fellow being told that his mistress was married; to convince him of it, the young gentleman who told him, said, he had seen the bride and bridegroom. Prithee, said the forsaken swain, do not call them by those names; I cannot bear it. Shall I call them dog and cat? answered the other. Oh, no, for heaven’s sake, replied the first, that sounds ten times more like man and wife.
254. A sea officer, who for his courage in a former engagement, where he had lost his leg, had been preferred to the command of a good ship; in the heat of the next engagement, a cannon-ball took off his wooden deputy, so that he fell upon the deck: A seaman thinking he had been fresh wounded, called out for a surgeon. No, no, said the captain, the carpenter will do this time.
255. A gentleman saying he had bought the stockings he had on in Wales. Really, sir, answered another, I thought so, for they seemed to be Well-chose, i. e. Welch hose.
256. A nobleman, in a certain king’s reign, being appointed groom of the stole, his majesty took notice to him of the odd sort of perukes he used to wear, and desired that he would now get something that was graver, and more suitable to his age, and the high office he had conferred on him. The next Sunday his lordship appeared at court in a very decent peruke, which being observed by another nobleman, famous for the art of punning, he came up to him, and told him, That he was obliged to alter his locks now he had got the key.[B]
[B] The groom of the stole wears a gold key, tied with a blue ribbon, at his left pocket.
257. A gentleman named Ball being about to purchase a cornetcy in a regiment of horse, was presented to the colonel for approbation, who being a nobleman, declared he did not like the name, and would have no Balls in his regiment: Nor powder neither, said the gentleman, if your lordship could help it.
258. Two Irishmen having travelled on foot from Chester to Barnet, were confoundedly tired and fatigued with their journey; and the more so, when they were told they had still about ten miles to London. By my soul and St. Patrick, cries one of them, it is but five miles apiece, let’s e’en walk on.
259. Mr. Pope, being at dinner with a noble duke, had his own servant in livery waiting on him: The duke asked him, Why he, that eat mostly at other people’s tables, should be such a fool as to keep a fellow in livery only to laugh at him? ’Tis true, answered the poet, he kept but one to laugh at him; but his grace had the honour to keep a dozen.
260. An Irish fellow, vaunting of his birth and family, affirmed, That when he came first to England, he made such a figure, that the bells rang through all the towns he passed to London: Ay, said a gentleman in company, I suppose that was because you came up in a waggon with a bell-team.