I like either if good,
Said Alderman Wood;
Sham-pag-nay, a spur 'tis,
Said Alderman Curtis;

Champaigne, not Shampagnay,
Said Alderman Magnay;
'Tis true what he saith man,
Said Alderman Waithman;

This port's of a flat kin,
Said Alderman Atkin;

The crust is quite thin,
Said Alderman Glyn;
Its heat is prodigious,
Said Alderman Bridges;
Some sherry forthwith,
Said Alderman Smith;
1 can't get it down,
Said Alderman Brown;
Its as dead as a herring,
Said Alderman Perring;
Its as cold as a church,
Said Alderman Birch;
If so, then pray egg it,
Said Alderman Heygate;
No mixture-wine solely,
Said Alderman Scholey;
Some liqueurs from that box,
Said Alderman Cox;
Ah! some nice usquebaugh,
Said Alderman Shaw;

'Tis not in the dinner bills,

Said Alderman Venables;

Now if this way some Nantz lay,

Said Alderman Ansley;

Ah! Nantz is life's bunter,
Said Alderman Hunter;

Then with Nantz keep our romps on,
Said Alderman Thompson.

BISHOPSGATE STREET.-MANSION, AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, OF SIR PAUL PINDAR.

On the west side of Bishopsgate Street without, near the London Hospital, is the Mansion formerly inhabited by Sir Paul Pindar, but now degraded into a public-house, bearing his head for its sign. The name of that gentleman stands eminently conspicuous in our mercantile annals. He was descended from an ancient and respectable family, and born at Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, in the year 1566. Having received a good education, he was apprenticed at the age of seventeen, to an Italian merchant of London, who employed him in the latter years of his servitude as his factor at Venice. He afterwards continued trading in that city, and the Levant, on his own account, for fifteen years, when, having acquired a plentiful fortune he returned to England. His probity, knowledge of languages, and great repute as a merchant, induced the Turkey Company strongly to recommend him to James the First, who, in consequence, in 1611, appointed him Ambassador to the Grand Seignor, and he remained nine years resident at Constantinople, to the great advantage of English commerce. On his return, in 1620, King James proffered him the Lieutenancy of the Tower, but he declined that office; he was, however, prevailed on to become

one of the Farmers of the Customs, and whilst in that situation, he advanced considerable sums of money, both to James himself, and his successors, which were never afterwards repaid. He also furnished the crown with jewels, "to his infinite loss and prejudice ;"* and assisted Charles the Second with gold, when at Oxford, in 1643 and 1644, "for transportation," as it is quaintly expressed, by his biographer, "of the Queen and her children."+

Among the services rendered to his country by this gentleman, was the support which he gave to the manufacture of alum; which was introduced from the Papal dominions into Yorkshire, by one of his Italian friends, about the year 1608. The first works were set up at the expense of the crown, which retained the monopoly of this trade, until it was finally abolished by the Parliament in 1643, previously to which, Sir Paul had farmed the manufacture during twenty-eight years, at an annual rent of £12,000. He derived great sums from this monopoly, although his grant obliged him to supply all parts of England with alum at £20. per ton; which was only one-third of the price that had been formerly charged on its importation from Italy.

In the year 1639, the estate of Sir Paul Pindar,

Sir Paul Pindar brought from Turkey a large diamond, valued at £30,000, which James I. wished to obtain on credit; but the merchant wisely declined the contract, yet favoured his sovereign with the use of the diamond, on state or particular occasions. Charles the First afterwards became the purchaser. + Vide European Magazine, for April, 1797.