Punch (10.1846)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 73

weeks. Misrabble shall I say s no, not misrabble altogether ; there wasSsunlike in the
dunjing of the pore prisner. I had visitors. A cart used to drive hup to the priza
gates of Saturdays ; a washywoman's cart, with a fat old lady in it, and a young one.
Who was that young one ? Every one who has an art can gess, it was my blue-eyed
blushing HaDgel of a Mary Hann ! ' Shall we take him out in the linnen-basket, grand-
mamma?' Mart Hann said. Bless her, she'd already learned to say grandmamma
quite natral ; but I didn't go out that way; I went out by the door a white-washed man.
Ho, what a feast there was at Healing the day I came out ! I'd thirteen shillings left
when I'd bought the gold ring. I wasn't prowd. I turned the mangle for three weeks ;
and then Uncle Bill said, ' Well, there is some good in the feller ;' and it was agreed
that we should marry."

The Plush manuscript finishes here : it is many weeks since we saw the accomplished
writer, and we have only just learned his fate. We are happy to state it is a comfort-
able and almost a prosperous one.

The Honorable and Right Reverend Lionel Thistlewood, Lord Bishop of Bullock-
smithy, was mentioned as theuncle of Lady Angelina Silvertop. Her elopement with her
cousin caused deep emotion to the venerable prelate : he returned to the palace at
Bullocksmithy, of which he had been for thirty years the episcopal ornament, and where
he married three wives, who lie buried in his Cathedral Church of St. Boniface, Bullock-
smithy.

The admirable man has rejoined those whom he loved. As he was preparing a charge
to his clergy in his study after dinner, the Lord Bishop fell suddenly down in a fit of
apoplexy ; his butler, bringing in his accustomed dish ofdevilled-kidneys for supper, dis-
covered the venerable form extended on the Turkey carpet with a glass of Madeira in
his band ; but life was extinct : and surgical aid was therefore not particularly useful.

All the late prelate's wives had fortunes, which the admirable man increased by thrift,
the judicious sale of leases which fell in during his episcopacy, &c. He left three
hundred thousand pounds—divided between his nephew and niece—not a greater sum
than has been left by several deceased Irish prelates.

What Lord Southdown has done with his share we are not called upon to state. He
has composed an epitaph to the Martyr of Bullocksmithy, which does him infinite credit.
But we are happy to state that Lady Angelina Silvertop presented five hundred
pounds to her faithful and affectionate servant, Mary Ann Hoggins, on her marriage
with Mr. James Plosh, to whom her Ladyship also made a handsome present—namely,
the lease, good-will, and fixtures of the " Wheel of Fortune" public-house, near Sheppherd's
Market, May Fair ; a house greatly frequented by all the nobility's footmen, doing a
genteel stroke of business in the neighbourhood, and where, as we have heard, the "But-
lers'Club " is held.

Here Mr. Plush lives happy in a blooming and interesting wife : reconciled to a mid-
dle sphere of life, as he was to a humbler and a higher one before. He has shaved off

his whiskers, and accommodates himself to an apron ;vith
perfect good humour. A gentleman connected with this
establishment dined at the Wheel o? Fortune, the other
day, and collected the above particulars. Mr. Plusu
blushed rather, as he brought in tho first dish, and told his
story very modestly over a pint of excellent port. He
had only one thing in life to complan> of, he said—that a
witless version of his adventures had been produced at the
Princess's Theatre, " without with your leaf or by your
leaf," as he expressed it. " Has for the rest," the worthy
fellow said, " I'm appy—praps betwigst you and me
I'm in my proper spear. I enjy my glass of beer
or port (with your elth & my suvvice to you, Sir), quite as
much as my clarrit in my prawsprus days. I've a good
busniss, which is likely to be better. If a man can't be
appy with such a wife as my Mary Hann, he's a beest:
and when a christening takes place in our famly, will
you give my complments to Mr. Punch, and ask him to
be godfather."

THE GRESHAM LECTURES.

These Lectures have hitherto been carried on as a
tete-a-tete between the Beadle and the Professor, in some-
thing like the following style :—

Professor [strolling in). Well, beadle !

Beadle. Well, sir !

Professor. Anybody beeD, beadle I

Beadle. Been, sir ? No ! nor they ain't never likely !

Professor. Ha, ha ! Well, as I've only been lately
appointed a lecturer, I think it as well just to look in.

Beadle. You may save yourself the trouble, sir. No-
body never comes, unless it's a few boys, and I always
turns them out!

Professor. Ha ! you 're a wag.

Beadle. I need be a wag here, sir ; for there's nothing
else to do. If I wasn't a bit of a wag, sir, I'm sure
I don't know what would have become of me long ago.
Professor {going out). Ha, ha ! good morning.

[Exit Professor.
Beadle (singing). " How wery ridiculous.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ; it is wery ridiculous."

Such has been usually the scene at the Gresham Lectures ;
but the other day, by some extraordinary accident, there
was a rush of fifty persons, to hear Mr. Palmer on
Law, but Mr. Palmer not having anticipated that there
would have been any anxiety to hear his lecture, had,
with becoming modesty, stopped away altogether. The
unfortunate beadle was at length compelled to come for-
ward and brave public indignation, and he will hencefor-
ward be known in the City as

"The beadle that weather'd the storm."

We presume that Mr. Palmer will go prepared, on the
next occasion, to edify a large audience, when he will
probably find no audience to edify. It is certainly very
puzzling to a professor to know what to do whan he
usually finds himself " alone in his glory," and at another
time hears of an enormous influx of intended auditors to
his proposed lecture.

State Economy and Principle.

It is a fact, speaking much for the economy of the
Royal household, and the consistency of several of its
humblest officers, that the Royal coachmen, footmen,
and grooms, in the department of the Master of the
Horse have, until a week since, worn the same state
coats for twenty years! Yes, astonished reader; the
same coats for twenty years ; and what is more, though
attached to the Government they have never once turned
them !

CONSIDERATE.

When Sir Robert Peel brought forward his new
grand commercial scheme, he kindly allowed the lapse of
ten days, in order that the House of Commons might
have full time to recover from the speech Mr. D'Is-
Raeli made on that occasion.

Vol. 10.

3—2