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PREFACE.

SINCE the publication of the FIRST EDITION of the Dictionary of Anecdotes, various works of the same nature have appeared; but not to such an extent, either in number or in quality, as to render a SECOND EDITION unnecessary.

To none of these shall we deny the due meed of praise; yet still for our own work must we support the claim of originality, both in design and execution-even when stating the same as in our former Preface, where it was observed, that Collections of Anecdotes are common in our language as well as in most others; nor had the Editor of the one then offered to the Public, any inclination to depreciate the value of those labours by which he had frequently been amused, and of which, in that Selection, he had occasionally profited.

But it must be allowed, now, as well as at the period of our former edition, that even some of the best of these Compilations have deviated from the strict propriety of their title, by giving criticisms and opinions, fictitious narratives, and pieces of poetry, as Anecdotes; to which appellation most unquestionably such articles can have no legitimate claim.

Most of these works, with one or two exceptions, are also defective in the mode of arrangement; the greater part of them being miscellaneous, observing no order in the disposition of the subjects; while in many of those which preserve some form of classification, it has been customary to place the Anecdotes under the names of the persons concerning whom the matters are related. This last method, however, is not particularly objectionable; though it by no means possesses the advantages derived from the plan pursued by Wanley, in his "Wonders of the Little World;" where the most striking phenomena of human nature are disposed in a regular manner under their respective heads and qualities: as recently imitated in a popular work; yet under a classification too contracted for ready reference. But

even this mode does not seem to be the best for a collection of historical facts and extraordinary circumstances.

The French Dictionnaire des Anecdotes, therefore, appeared to the Editor of the First Edition, as a model which might be successfully imitated in our language, even though it should be necessary to relate many stories over again which had been already repeatedly told; and in his endeavours to produce a work of entertainment, he sedulously examined numerous volumes, both English and French; some of them very scarce, and others large and expensive; from which he culled the most striking and agreeable incidents that appeared likely to prove instructive and amusing.

But since the appearance of that Edition, an immense field of novelty and variety has been opened, extending, we may say, over the whole surface of the globe; the produce of which has been so prolific, as to enable us to glean sufficient of the best and richest ears of the crop, to fill our public granary; whilst our only difficulty has been that of selection, so as to secure the very best for general reading.

In doing this, it has been our aim, as in the first instance, to apply to the most recent, yet less easily attainable sources; extending also our abecedarian plan, so as to embrace a greater variety of subjects: upon the principle that one Anecdote, pointedly illustrative of its subject, is worth an host of others less applicable, though they may still be much in point in their proper places. We may be permitted to add, although we have abstained from "system," forcing no faith or opinion upon any reader, yet, wherever a moral could with propriety be introduced, it has not been neglected-wherever an illustration' could be offered, it has not been withheld: but still subservient to our general rule, that nothing approaching to INDELICACY OF INDECORUM, however broad its humour, or however applicable its point, should be admitted in our pages.

We shall conclude with observing, that although much of the best of the former Edition has been retained in the present; yet the reader will find that THREE-FOURTHS of THIS EDITION are entirely new, both in matter and arrangement,

NEW

DICTIONARY OF ANECDOTES.

ABSENCE.

THIS complaint may sometimes be fortunate, perhaps intentional; as was exemplified by Aristotle, when a tiresome declaimer, after long prosing, expressed his fear that he must have appeared tedious to that philosopher: but who cut short his apologies by remarking, that they were unnecessary, as he really had not listened to one word that the other had been saying.

To fits of Absence, the great moralist Johnson was often subject. In Watkins's Life of Sheridan it is stated, that he was intimate with Mr. Chamberlaine, Mrs. Sheridan's eldest brother, by whom Johnson was often invited in the snug way with the family party. At one of these social meetings, Johnson, as usual, sat next the lady of the house. The dessert still continuing, and the ladies in no haste to withdraw, Mrs. Chamberlaine had moved a little back from the table, and was carelessly dangling her foot backwards and forwards, as she sat enjoying the feast of reason and the flow of soul. Johnson, the while, in a moment of abstraction, was convulsively working his hand up and down, which the lady observing, she roguishly edged her foot within his reach, and, as might partly

B.

have been expected, Johnson clenched hold of it, and drew off her shoe: she started, and hastily exclaimed, "O fie, Mr. Johnson!" The company, at first, knew not what to make of it; but one of them perceiving the joke, tittered. Johnson, not improbably aware of the trick, apologized: "Nay, Madam, recollect yourself: I know not that I have justly incurred your rebuke: the emotion was involuntary, and the action not intentionally rude."

The story has often been told of the brave seaman, Sir George Walton, who, with a very inferior force, maintained the sovereignty of the seas in the Mediterranean, in the early part of the last century, and who, after achieving this gallant action, wrote the following letter to Sir George Byng, commander-inchief on that station:-"Sir, We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and vessels that were upon the coast, the number as per margin. I am, &c. George Walton."-It is singular enough, however, and not generally known, that, as appears from the original, still preserved at the Admiralty, no names whatever were inserted in the margin, having through haste or absence been omitted.

The late Serjeant Hill, of eccentric and facetious memory, was once invited to the country residence of a friend, where the strictest and most punctilious formality was observed. The serjeant, as is well known, was never remarkable for the cleanliness of his person, or the polish of his manners; and, as his legal character was very high in public estimation, his absence of mind, owing to the duties of his profession, was proverbially eccentric. His wife, who was well acquainted with his occasional mental aberrations,

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