After some desultory remarks on female vanity and fickleness, of no great interest or importance, the subjoined words occur in the margin in the form of a note, and evidently were written in a long interval of time after the anecdote itself.
The sequel of the story of this my successful rival is not a little whimsical, nor can a greater contrast be imagined between what he was, when he contended with me in calling
Eyes, which are the frailest softest things,
Tyrants—Butchers—Murderers—
And what he is now; between the levity, facetiousness, and improvidence of his youth, and his present severity, loftiness, and pride. That all should acknowledge and lament youthful indiscretions, should exhibit a contrary conduct, and, by example, encourage the young and the thoughtless to decency and rectitude of demeanour, is expedient and wise; but surely it is not amiable to be cited as an exemplar of rigorous austerity, of inflexible tenacity, with respect to the obsequiousness of inferiors; of a too severe exactor of penalties, inconsiderately incurred by the want of reflection and experience. Such a transition, from contemplating with delight “eyelids where many graces sate,” to minute and aristarchical animadversions on youthful freaks, might, one should suppose, have been somewhat checked by the knowledge and conviction, that there are still in circulation, composed by this now greatly exalted personage, Poetic Trifles and Levities, of which the mildest representation that can be given is, that they are prodigiously amatory. But let this pass; this man is now ⸺.
Here again is a considerable hiatus in our MS. but it is impossible not to smile at the anecdote which succeeds, of which the substance is this:—
One of the tutors of the college was far from being popular, and the principal reason seemed to be, that he was what was then denominated “a Tuft hunter;” that is, one who prefers the society of a peer to that of a commoner, a lord to a baronet, and proportions his obsequiousness in an exactly graduated scale of rank and dignity. It was understood that his Reverence was to dine with a young nobleman, more remarkable for the quantity of claret he could exhaust, than for the brilliancy or variety of his intellectual attainments. The opportunity was accordingly taken to screw up his door so very securely, as to render admission by it impossible till the morning. Let the reader judge of the sensations, wrath, and indignation of a very pompous man, returning at a late hour of the night, with perhaps as much wine as he could decently carry, in vain attempting to procure entrance to his apartment. After some persevering exertions, which were ineffectual, the porter was summoned, and with due examination, aided by numerous lights, the mischief was discovered. The conspirators, who affected to be roused from their beds by the noise which the catastrophe occasioned, assembled, with well-feigned commiseration, and with professed eagerness, to assist, and ultimately enjoyed the wicked satisfaction of seeing their plot fully accomplished, by assisting the unlucky and ill-starred tutor to get admission to his rooms, by means of a ladder placed against the window.
The above nobleman, by the way, ought not to be passed over without a little further notice. He so far forgot in subsequent life the dignity of his elevated station, as to play the part of Pandarus to one greater than himself. The beauty, however, of the lovely object in question, proved so irresistible, that he fell a victim to it himself, and betrayed the trust reposed in him. The circumstances have since been partially related by the lady herself, and the whole would involve sufficient materials for a most curious novel.