“20, Russell Court,
Covent Garden, East,
Half-way up, next the corner,
Left-hand side.”
A lady named Morris, of Plymouth, is recorded to have been the first of her sex to venture under water in a diving bell.
She had wit as well as courage, and wrote to her father a rhyming epistle, saying:—
“From a belle, my dear father, you’ve oft had a line,
But not from a bell under water;
Just now I can only assure you I’m thine,
Your diving and dutiful daughter.”
Frank Smedley, the author of “Frank Fairleigh,” addressed to a lady friend the following letter in verse:—
“Thou better half of Virtue, gentle friend,
Fairly to thee, I, Fairleigh, greeting send;
Frankly I give what frankly you desire;
You thus Frank Fairleigh’s autograph acquire.
To make assurance doubly sure, this medley
Of Franks and Fairleighs this I sign—
Frank Smedley.”
A famous sporting character, named Captain O’Byrne, laid a wager about Admiral Payne, and wrote to him as follows:—
“Dear Payne,—Pray, were you bread to the sea?”
The witty Admiral made reply:—