Part 20 (1/2)
Luttrell visited Sydney Smith at his parsonage in Somersets.h.i.+re. The London wit told some amusing Irish stories, and his manner of telling them was so good. ”One: 'Is your master at home, Paddy?' '_No_, your honour.' 'Why, I saw him go in five minutes ago.' 'Faith, your honour, he's not exactly at home; he's only there in the back yard a-shooting rats with cannon, your honour, for his _devarsion_.'”[165]
JAMES WATT AND THE RAT'S WHISKERS.
Mrs Schimmelpenninck in her youth lived at Birmingham, where she often met James Watt. In her autobiography (p. 34), she says, ”Everybody practically knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of knowledge. When Mr Watt entered a room, men of letters, men of science, nay, military men, artists, ladies, even little children thronged round him. I remember a celebrated Swedish artist having been instructed by him that rats' whiskers made the most pliant and elastic painting-brush; ladies would appeal to him on the best means of devising grates, curing smoky chimneys, warming their houses, and obtaining fast colours. I can speak from experience of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer, and improve a Jew's harp.”
THE POET GRAY COMPARES THE POET-LAUREATE TO A RAT-CATCHER.
The poet Gray very much despised such offices as that of the poet-laureate, or that held by Elkanah Settle, the last of the city poets whose name is held up to ridicule by Pope in the ”Dunciad.” In a letter to the Rev. Wm. Mason,[166] he puts this very strikingly:--
”Though I very well know the bland emolient saponaceous qualities both of sack and silver, yet if any great man would say to me, 'I make you rat-catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of 300 a year, and two b.u.t.ts of the best Malaga; and though it has been usual to catch a mouse or two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall not stand upon these things,' I cannot say I should jump at it; nay, if they would drop the very name of the office, and call me Sinecure to the King's Majesty, I should still feel a little awkward, and think everybody I saw smelt a rat about me: but I do not pretend to blame any one else that has not the same sensations. For my part, I would rather be serjeant-trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace.”
JEREMY BENTHAM AND THE MICE.
The biographer of Jeremy Bentham[167] tells us that among the animals he was fond of were mice. They were encouraged ”to play” about in his workshop. I remember, when one got among his papers, that he exclaimed, ”Ho! ho! here's a mouse at work; why won't he come into my lap?--but then I ought to be writing legislation, and that would not do.”
One day, while we were at dinner, mice had got, as they frequently did, into the drawers of the dinner-table, and were making no small noise. ”O you rascals,” exclaimed Bentham, ”there's an uproar among you. I'll tell puss of you;” and then added, ”I became once very intimate with a colony of mice. They used to run up my legs, and eat crumbs from my lap.
I love everything that has four legs; so did George Wilson. We were fond of mice, and fond of cats; but it was difficult to reconcile the two affections.”
Jeremy Bentham records: ”George Wilson had a disorder which kept him two months to his couch. The _mouses_ used to run up his back and eat the powder and pomatum from his hair. They used also to run up my knees when I went to see him. I remember they did so to Lord Glenbervie, who thought it odd.”[168]
BURNS AND THE FIELD MOUSE.
The history of the origin of this well-known piece of the Scottish poet is thus given by Mr Chambers in that edition of the Life and Works of Robert Burns,[169] which will ever be regarded, by Scotchmen at least, as the most complete and carefully-edited of the numerous editions of that most popular poet.
”We have the testimony of Gilbert Burns that this beautiful poem was composed while the author was following the plough. Burns ploughed with four horses, being twice the amount of power now required on most of the soils of Scotland. He required an a.s.sistant, called a _gaudsman_, to drive the horses, his own duty being to hold and guide the plough. John Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning-up of the mouse.
Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who, he observed, became thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to Blane.
TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785.
”Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou needna start awa sae hasty Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin and chase thee Wi' murd'ring pattle.[170]
”I'm truly sorry man's dominion Has broken nature's social union, And justifies that ill opinion, Which makes thee startle At me, thy poor earth-born companion, And fellow-mortal!
”I doubt na whyles, but thou may thieve; What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave[171]
'S a sma' request: I'll get a blessin' wi' the laive, And never miss't.
”Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin”!
And naething now to big a new ane O, foggage green, And bleak December's winds ensuin'
Baith snell and keen!