piece had long withstood the tooth of time, and my imagination presented in vivid colouring the successive scenes whch Shakspeare has dramatized. I fancied myself in the Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire,' where Falstaff was swearing ' upon a parcel-gilt goblet' to marry Dame Quickly, and make her 'a Lady,' as she was washing the wound on his head, which had been broken by the Prince ' for likening his father to a singing-man of Windsor.' In short the entire adventures of the merry knight from his exploit at Gads Hill, until his departure for 'Arthur's bosom, in a burning quotidian tertian, when his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields,' were progressively exhibited to the mind's eye; which at length became so exalted in its hallucinations, that the shade of Dame Quickly appeared visible before me, and thus paraphrastically continued the history of the Boar's Head."*

"My body was no sooner laid in the dust, than the friar and several of his convent came to purify the tavern from the pollution with which they said I had filled it. Masses were said in every room, relics were exposed upon every piece of furniture, and the whole house washed with a deluge of holy water. My habitation was soon converted into a monastery; instead of customers now applying for sack and sugar, my rooms were crowded with images, relics, saints, whores, and friars. Instead of being a scene of

• Printer's Devil. Mem. After the words 'tooth of time,' I find nothing like the remainder of this paragraph in the quoted "Reverie!"-Editor. Indeed! then call it mine.

occasional debauchery, it was now filled with continued lewdness; the prior leading the fashion, and the whole convent imitating his pious example."

After much loquacious narration respecting the imaginary conduct of the various hostesses of this tavern, the visionary Dame relates the following anecdote, but on what authority Goldsmith refers it to the Boar's Head, remains to be discovered.

66

Kings themselves have been known to play off, at primero, not only all the money and jewels they could part with, but the very images in churches. The last Henry played away, in this very room, not only the four great bells of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the fine image of St. Paul, which stood upon the top of the spire, to Sir Miles Partridge, who took them down the next day, and sold them by auction."

Stow, speaking of the year 1410, 11th of Henry the Fourth, at which time "there was no tavern then in Eastcheap," acquaints us, in immediate connection with his former statement of friendly entertainments being made in "the cook's dwellings," that the King's sons, Thomas and John, "being in Eastcheap at supper, (or rather at breakefast, for it was after the watch was broken up, betwixt two or three of the clocke after midnight) a great debate happened betweene their men, and others of the court, which lasted one houre, till the maior and sheriffes, with other citizens appeased the same." For this interference the mayor, alderman, and sheriffs were cited to appear before the King, "his Sonnes, and divers lords, being highly moved against the citie." Gas

coigne, the chief justice, advised the citizens, "to put them in the King's grace;" but they replied "that they had not offended, but, according to the law, had done their best in stinting debate, and maintaining of the peace: upon which answere," continues the historian, "the King remitted all his ire, and dismissed them." Might not Shakspeare from this very occurrence, have been led to fix upon Eastcheap for the scene of the festive revelries of Prince Henry and the never-to-be forgotten Sir John Falstaff?

The back windows of the Boar's Head, or rather of the present houses upon its site, look into the adjacent burying-ground of St. Michael's: and it is a somewhat curious fact that it contains an inscribed gravestone in memory of one Robert Preston, who was a drawer, or waiter, at this tavern in the early part of the last century. He died on the 6th of June, 1720: the poetical part of his epitaph is as follows.

"Bacchus, to give the toping world surprise,
Produc'd one sober Son, and here he lies.
Though nurs'd amongst full hogsheads, he defied
The charms of wine, as much as others' pride.
O reader, if to justice thou 'rt inclin'd,
Keep honest Preston duly in thy mind;
He drew good wine, took care to fill his pots,
Had sundry virtues that outweigh'd his spots.
You that on Bacchus have the like dependance,
Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance."

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.-MONUMENT OF THE GREAT

EARL OF CHATHAM.

-Bacon there

Gives more than female beauty to a stone,

And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips.-CowPER.

THIS monument, which immortalizes the memory of William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham, who died on the 11th of May, 1778, in the 70th year of his age, stands on the west side of the North transept, in the above edifice, within a few yards of the vault wherein the ashes of that great man lie buried. It is, principally, of statuary marble; and was designed and executed by the late John Bacon, R. A.; in consequence of a vote of Parliament, by which 60007. was granted for the purpose; but out of that sum the sculptor was obliged to pay about 7007. in fees to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, exclusively of the expenses attending its erection !

This magnificent performance is conceived and executed in a style of colossal grandeur worthy of the exalted character whom it commemorates. The lower part consists of an expansive basement, on which is Britannia, seated upon a rock; and at her feet are incumbent figures of the Ocean and the Earth. In the middle of the design, upon a sarcophagus, are the figures of Prudence and Fortitude; and immediately over them, in a niche at the upper part of the pyramid which forms the back ground, is a statue of

the Earl, in his Parliamentary Robes, in an attitude that bespeaks him to be engaged in debate. There is an air of imposing greatness in this composition, and a degree of classic elegance in its allegory, which have but few, if any, equals among our public monuments; the general sentiment being, that, by the united exercise of that Prudence and Fortitude which distinguished the illustrious Deceased as Minister of the Country, Great Britain had risen triumphant, both by Sea and Land, over all the efforts which had been aimed against her Independence, her Prosperity, and her National ascendancy. The vastness of the figures, the excellency of their execution, and the interesting pyramidical grouping in which they are arranged, evince the possession of extraordinary talents in the Sculptor, as well as of superior judgment. It may be mentioned also, that the inscription on the base of the monument was of his writing. His late Majesty George the Third, after approving and adopting it, said to the artist," Now, Bacon, mind you do not turn author; stick to your chisel:"—an injunction, as politely complimentary to the writer of the inscription, as it was indicative of his own foresight of the possibility, that a vanity in aiming at distinction in more than one branch of science, might constitute an impediment to greater attainment in that department, for which by nature and study the individual addressed was more evidently designed. Even the minor parts of this monument are conceived in a good taste. Ocean is represented as leaning on a Dolphin; the Earth re