“The next to whom I made application was Tom Luny, the fat son of a fat merchant on Ludgate Hill. Poor Tom! He died last week, by-the-by, of a surfeit. Well, sir, I harangued him for some time upon the advantages of my scheme, to which he gave his cordial assent. Finally I observed that, of course, it would not be very expensive. ‘Expensive!’ he said; ‘oh yes, very!’—and he walked off. There was liberality!
“Next I besieged Will Wingham. I made my approaches as before, with great caution, and at last summoned the garrison to surrender. ‘Books!’ he exclaimed, ‘I haven’t one but a Greek Grammar, with all syntax out.’ ‘And do you think,’ I resumed, ‘that an Etonian can do well without them?’ ‘Do well!’ he said; ‘oh yes, very!’—and he laughed. There was a wish for improvement!
“Now, my good Peregrine,” continued the old gentleman, putting his feet up upon the hobs of my fire, and looking very argumentative, “what do you say to all this?”
The old gentleman is
Laudator temporis acti
Se puero.
He left the room piqued, when we hurt his prejudices by replying, “Nothing, sir, but that the Etonians of 1821 are not, we will hope, the Etonians of 17—.[Pg 142]”
THE MISTAKE; OR, SIXES AND SEVENS.
“Be particular to observe that the name on the door is——.”
Morning Chronicle, April 1821.
It is a point which has often been advanced and contested by the learned, that the world grows worse as it grows older; arguments have been advanced, and treatises written, in support of Horace’s opinion—