ourselves in that little paradise of children and nursery-maids, the inclosed part of that pleasant place, so happily improved, and handsomely laid out with lofty tree and lowly shrub, islands "remote and inaccessible, by ducklings only trod," the green oases of the not unwholesome waters winding around them, and dappled with and dabbled by ducks of all kinds, foreign and domestic-always interesting animals, from association, for one cannot look at them without thinking of green peas, and green peas remind one of the green spring, when both peas and ducks are in their prime. I know no spot where a contemplative, benevolent-minded man can spend a sunshiny hour more delightfully; and accordingly it was a favourite haunt of my gentle-natured friend, Hippisley. We were no sooner arrived at the water's edge than a stir and a commotion were visible throughout the entire duck navy that makes the lake so lively: expresses, one would think, had been sent off immediately that Hippy was seen approaching, to all the islands and little creaks of that miniature Mediterranean, announcing the arrival of the well-known, regular old gentleman, laden, as usual, with three or four pennyworth of biscuits; and he was hailed by these navigators as gladly as a victualling-ship visiting a fleet with fresh supplies when run out of stores. Every duck in those waters seemed to know him from afar; for he had no sooner taken his station, and dropped his anchor, a walking-stick chair, than about seventy sail of the line of ducks were seen scudding along for the northern shore, in one wellordered fleet: while solitary sails in the distance, answering the signal of the commodore, that noble three-decker among duck craft, a swan, were seen beating up in the offing.

While this lively movement was going on, Hippy was composedly rummaging every large pocket about his person; for as he was always a walking-library, VOL. I.-G

large pockets, and plenty of them, were necessary. He generally put the book he was reading at breakfast in his pocket, to finish it in his morning walk; and as he breakfasted every day, and generally forgot the books previously deposited there on the days preceding, the consequence was that he carried a pretty extensive library about him. Accordingly, as he rummaged for the biscuits, but found them not, first Dryden was turned out in one volume; Pope followed him; Cowper, Thomson, Gray, and I know not who besides, all turned out, and lay on all sides of him, while he rummaged on; still no effects were visible. An expression of disappointment spread over his benign features: "the murder was soon out:" he had bought the usual bagful of biscuits, and had left them on the counter he supposed-a common act of forgetfulness with him-for he has been known to buy a new hat and walk out of the shop, leaving both new and old hat and his change, behind him, till called after by the hatter. As he stood rummaging his pockets now he looked vexed, which mightily amused Spiffle, who loved to see him nonplussed. The quacking of the expectants grew louder and louder, and the demand for supplies was intense: a deficient Chancellor of the Exchequer standing_before a refractory Committee of Supply, with Mr. Hume at their head, could not have looked more inextricably perplexed. What was to be done ?-the biscuits were evidently non est inventus: he threw himself upon the mercy of the duck members, and rising from his seat, and placing his hand on his heart, stammered out an apology: "I really beg your pardon!" cried he, bowing, "I have quite forgotten the usual: I beg your pardon!" He seemed, or effected to he, thoroughly ashamed of himself, and turning hastily round, snatched up his seat, and shot away,-. of course clean forgetting Pope, Dryden, Cowper, and the rest: I saw to them, and gathered the intellectual harvest up. Meanwhile that spiteful little dog,

Spiffle, stood sneering and laughing at the humorous folly of his friend, and I laughing at Spiffle, that he did not appreciate the humour of the thing better. The fact was, that it was, partly an acted scene, got up to mystify Spiffle, and give him a momentary advantage over him, in return for all the lasting advantages he had over Spiffle; but he saw it not.

As we went along in the greener depths of the Park he made Spiffle laugh good-humouredly. See ing a sheep scratching behind its ears with its hind legs, "Look, Spiffle," cried Hippy, "look at that leg of mutton scratching that sheep's head!" Spiffle forgive him all his late folly, and left off snapping at tim, like the ill-natured little dog he was. Spiffle had no sooner ceased, than one of those semi-denuded French poodles, which you see running about (after respectable young ladies, too) without small clothes, and their stockings all about their heels, took it into his alien head to bark at Hippy as he loomed up the Mall. He took no notice of the gross mistake he was making in barking at him, attributing it perhaps to his ignorance as a foreigner. The poodled creature therefore persevered in trying his patience. "Sirrah, sirrah," at last cried Hippy, "I shall not come again to your dispensary! You exhibit bark enough, but no whine. I shall prescribe the last, if you do not alter your tone;" and shaking his fist at him, Monsieur took the hint and fled.

And now Spiffle had another snap at him on his gross addiction to punning. Hippy was not to be put down by any hypercritical or even hypocritical objections to punning. If he heard you making yourself ridiculous by urging grave objections to the scholar's sport and contemplative man's recreation, he perpetrated the worst possible pun he could get at in the hurry of his indignation, hoping that you would be thus compelled to ring the bell, pay your bill, and leave the room, if you were at a tavern; or order

your cab, chariot, cloak, umbrella, or walking-stick, if in a private house, and take your sullen departure. He held no faith with any such heretics: either you loved a pun or hated him: there was no medium-no middle ground: "love him and love his dog:" despise him, and kick at him, and you, by implication, thrust out your violent toe and protruded your sneering lips at him, Hippy, his loving lord and master. He loved wit better than quibbling, of course: so a man of moderate fortune loves turbot better than soles, but he puts up with soles. Wit is too expensive for every-day use. I will here give some few specimens of his puns-and of his humour generally. It was Mr. Hippy, who, when his barber was going to sleep while dressing his hair, roused him by voeiferously striking up "Ah comè rapida !"-" Ah !”—(“ comb me rapider!") When. some few years since, a creation of Peers amazed and amused the political world, and among the other lifts, Lord Grosvenor was made Marquis of Westminster, Hippy had no partizan objection to the measure: he only said—“ I hope we shall be indulged also with a Marquis of Mile-End, and a Viscount-Off-the-Stones !"Some one censuring a smart, flashy habit he had of wearing his hat cocked on the right side of his head, in a most perilous attitude during blowing weather, he accounted for it satisfactorily, I think :-" You must know, Sir, that I am leaving off this hat by degrees; and, as you may observe, I have left it off on the left side already."-Some one attributing the wants of Ireland to rich absenteeism, "No, Sir," said he, "it is not absenteeism, but absent-dinnerism which is the misery of the poor Irish."-Seeing a large fashionable party rise from their seats to do honour to " the lion" of the evening, who was about to depart, he said "This must be the great leaver which Archimedes wanted to move the world."

He took great liberties with our old, homely pro

verbs. A friend of his, who reverently respected those "old saws," with worn-out teeth, according to Hippy, used to say that he treated the "wisdom of our ancestors" scandalously. I never heard him use a proverb without misusing it: he took a humorous pleasure in perverting it to his prankish purpose. A person of consequence having paid him many flattering compliments, I took leave to congratulate him on the honour which must attach to a person "praised by Sir Hubert Stanley." "Never mind, boy," was his indifferent answer; "it will all rub off when 'tis dry." If you complained of a high wind, he would mutilate another old proverb, and say—" It's an ill wind, you know, that blows nobody." If you pointed out a well-dressed woman, he would say"Fine feathers make fine beds." "What is one man's steak is another man's poisson," &c. &c.

Since his death, I have heard the following trait of his benevolence (which, with him, was a matter of impulse, not of reflection, and sure to have some portion of his usual whim mixed up with it.) An old attached friend is my authority for the anecdote, and though he has not vouched for its authenticity, it bears such veritable marks of belonging to the character of the man, that I unhesitatingly repeat it. In a severe winter's night, he was accosted by one of that unfortunate class of beings who make the road home of a "dismissed bachelor," if he has far to go, one long trial of charity or temptation. The poor creature detailed an artless story of want of lodging for the night-such a night as it was-which plainly told the want of money to procure one. The miserable seem to know at a glance who will listen to them, and who will not. She hit upon the right man in fastening upon my patient, benevolent friend, whose ear and pocket were always open, and continually appealing to each other. Hippy, the kindest of men to all about him-high or low-tender, at times, to G*