to £60,000, was dinner, one shilling; supper, sixpence; the best claret one shilling a bottle, and rooms gratis.

The man's

of Tristram Shandy." head, indeed, was a little turned before, now topsy-turvy with his success and fame. Dodsley Mr. Sterne passed the ensuing eighteen years has given him £650 for the second edition, and partly at his "retired thatched house" in two more volumes (which I suppose will reach Sutton, and partly in York, in the discharge backwards to his great great grandfather); Lord of his clerical duties, varied by the amuse- Faulconbridge a donative of £160 a year; and ments of "books, painting, fiddling, and shoot- Bishop Warburton gave him a purse of gold ing." For art he had considerable taste, and and this compliment (which happened to be a a real passion for music, as numerous passages contradiction), that it was quite an original comin his works prove. At Skelton Castle, forty position, and in the true Cervantie vein. The miles or more away, lived Sterne's college-mate, only copy that ever was an original, except in Stevenson Hall, the licentious author of "Crazy painting, where they all pretend to be so. Tales," and the Eugenius of "Tristram Shandy." Warburton, however, not content with this, Congenial company and a rare library of quaint recommended the book to the bench of bishops, old books, which have lent a flavour to the and told them Mr. Sterne, the author, was the Shandean writings, often tempted the parson to English Rabelais. They had never heard of seek relaxation with his friend. A little society such a writer. Sterne went up to London in the was formed by the wild spirits who frequented latter part of March, 1760, to enjoy his triumph. "Crazy Castle," called the "Demoniacs," and Welcomed and introduced by Garrick, he was Sterne made one. To such visits and to such at once plunged a fortnight deep in engageinmates are doubtless due in no small measurements-dining among others with Lord Chesterthe unbecoming jests which the author has freely introduced into his works. A reputation for eccentricity and wit grew up around him, and for some unexplained reason the name of Yorick was fastened upon him. He gave his neighbours a taste of his quality in the "Good Warm Watch Coat," a satire called out by the bickerings of Cathedral politics. A daughter was born on the 1st of December, 1747, who was named Lydia, from a sister of Mrs. Sterne. A previous child of the same name had lived but a day.

field, Lord Littleton, and the Marquis of Rock-
ingham, afterwards prime minister.
He accom-
panied the latter nobleman to Windsor to witness
his investiture with the Garter."

Of the mood of the town a century since, Mr. Fitzgerald says: "Do we want a lookingglass for the follies, whims and capricious turns of the London public of that day, we have only to turn, as Mr. Forster has shown, to the delightful Chinese letters, Goldsmith's Spectator, where is shown with an exquisite humour and more graphical detail than is found in Addison's In 1759, that glorious year when victory "Sketch Book," a perfect picture of the humours smiled on British arms in every quarter of the of the London Vanity Fair, when Mr. Sterne globe, with Clive and with Wolfe, at Quiberon stepped in. A perfect whirligig-every one flyand at Minden, "Tristram Shandy" was written, ing from booth to booth. What was purely and appeared at York in December, ten years fantastic and extravagant became all the rage, after "Clarissa Harlow" and "Tom Jones," and and the fashionable world was busy patronizing eleven years after "Roderick Random." It was the wonderful dog of knowledge,' and the 'man bought eagerly, for the curiosity of the neigh- with the box,' and the fellow who was making a bourhood had been aroused for some time by fortune by tossing a straw from his toe to his the rumour of a strange comic novel which the nose. The pretensions of rival actresses at rival old parson of Sutton was preparing for publica- houses were more important than the concerns tion. The success of the two neat pocket- of the nation, and a singing woman' might volumes, published by Dodsley in the style of well go about collecting subscriptions in her Goldsmith's "Enquiry," price five shillings, was coach and six." (Fitzgerald's Life of Sterne, as immediate and complete in London as among vol. ii, p. 4). Such a society was of all others the friends and acquaintances of the author, the one to delight in the fun of a Shandy, and and the book divided the attention of the public the indications of his popularity are characteristic. with the poems of the King of Prussia, our A game of cards was invented and named magnanimous ally," then in the heat of his seven Tristram Shandy, "in which the knave of hearts, years' struggle, the scholarly Lord Littleton's if hearts are trumps, is supreme, and nothing Dialogues of the Dead," and the pamphlet can resist his power." A Shandy salad graced accounts of the court-martial of Lord George the bills of fare, and race-horses bore the name Sackville for disobedience of orders at Minden, of the same hero. A host of imitations and the trial of the Methodist Lady Huntingdon's appeared: "Yorick's Meditations ;" ""Life and nephew, Lord Ferrers, for the murder of his Adventures of Tristram Shandy;" the "Life steward, Horace Walpole, writing on the 4th of and Amours of Hafen Shawkenbergins;" the April to "that man of worth, scholar and wit," Life and Amours of Sukey_Shandy ; "A Sir David Dalrymple," gives us the testimony Shandean Essay on the Human Passions ;" and of an unfriendly witness to the popularity of even a continuation of the book itself, by a Dr. Shandy:-"At present nothing is talked of, Carr, which at first deceived a few readers. nothing admired, but what I cannot help calling a very insipid and tedious performance; it is a kind of novel, called "The Life and Opinions!

66

66

The "Critical Review" was favourable, the "Monthly" silent, and the press generally impartial; but Goldsmith made his voice heard in

"Tho' in fashion he's

grown,

'Tis very well known His merit is small as it can be; The woman of pleasure

condemnation. The citizen of the world ex- but not to the exclusion of interest in the new claims: "Sir,-A well-placed dash makes half volumes which appeared Jan 27, 1761. Sterne the wit of our writers of modern humour." writing in March of this year to a Yorkshire And referring to pertness and obscenity as two friend, says :- "One-half of the town abuse my well-known figures of rhetoric, he adds: "By book as bitterly as the other half cry it up to the speaking to some peculiar sensations, we are skies. The best is that they abuse and buy it, always sure of exciting laughter, for the jest and at such a rate that we are going on with a does not lie in the writer but in the subject." second edition as fast as possible." Dodsley The reverend author's free life-evenings divided paid £380 for these, the third and fourth vobetween Ranelagh and the green room (Garrick lumes. Coxwould, sixteen miles from York, had made him free of Drury-lane)-gave rise to was now Sterne's home -"a long, low harsh comment in the newspapers. One of the house with two heavy gables, and which rambest of the rhyming attacks upon the gay bled away round the corner into a great tall clergyman runs thus:brick shoulder, and a high pyramidal chimney, that started from the ground like a buttress, whose function it indeed served, and then finished off behind with a low sloping roof within a few feet of the ground." Here he gives us a little domestic picture in a letter of September 21st, 1761: "So much am I delighted with my Uncle Toby's imaginary character that I am become an enthusiast. My Lydia helps to copy for me, and my wife knits and listens as I read her chapters." This passage has raised an outcry against Sterne's moral obtuseness in giving to a girl of fourteen his double-entendres to copy; but his biographer observes, with justice, that the volumes which engaged his attention at this time (the fifth and sixth) are of all the series most free from improprieties, and that the statement is that his daughter helped to copy, and not that she copied them entirely. A chaise for his wife, and a pony for Lydia, increased the pleasures of a country life.

And Rochester's treasure

Are brother and sister to Shandy.

"Sure a virgin may read

As well as her creed,

What a Preb'ndary writes and may stand by,'
Was an answer so pert,
From a girl grown alert,

By reading his Tristram Shandy.

""Tis a new kind of wit

That some fancies may hit,

And melts in the mouth like a candy;
It perplexes and pleases,
With expecting it teases,

And they're left in the lurch by a Shandy."

In May a second edition of Shandy appeared, with a frontispiece by Hogarth and a dedication The fifth and sixth volumes were published to Pitt, then at the height of his ascend- a few days before Christmas, with a dedication to ency; the House of Commons literally silenced Viscount Spencer, the author's intimate friend. at his frown. Two volumes of sermons, with Early in the new year Mr. Sterne set off for an engraving of the author from a portrait just Paris, although peace was not signed until Febprinted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, were also pub-ruary, 1763. He had suffered from pulmonary lished at this time to take advantage of the tide disease since he was at college, and a severe atof popularity. Four hundred and eighty pounds tack of bleeding at the lungs, of recent occurwere given for the new edition and the sermons rence, had compelled him to ask a two years' -not six hundred and fifty pounds, as Walpole leave of absence from his archbishop, Dr. Hay wrote. The donative which he mentions, from Drummond. His ecclesiastical superior, always Lord Faulconbridge, was the living of Cox- well disposed to him, granted his request withwould, worth seventy guineas a-year after pay-out difficulty. His purpose in going abroad ing a curate for his other parishes. Sterne says that this preferment was the reward of some service which he had rendered to the nobleman. Mr. Fitzgerald finds some confirmation of the current scandal, denied by Sterne, that the Warburton purse of gold was given to prevent the gibbeting of that violent prelate in a future volume of Shandy. The suggestion was made to introduce the Bishop with others into the work, and a hint of this may have stimulated his generosity.

The summer and autumn were passed in the preparation of a second instalment of the novel, and in December we find the author for the second time in the full enjoyment of the London season, not dining at home once in five weeks. George the Third had succeeded to the throne in October, and the town was occupied with the struggle for place which attended his accession,

was to spend the winter in the south of France, but the fascinations of Paris detained him there until mid-summer. Everything English was the rage, and Sterne immediately became the lion of the hour. January 31st he writes to his friend Garrick :-" Tristram was almost as much known here as in London, at least among your men of condition and learning, and has got me introduced into so many circles, I have just now a fortnight's dinners and suppers upon my hands." His portrait was painted for the Duke of Orleans, but no trace of it can now be discovered. He was a frequent guest at Baron d'Holbach's famous suppers, meeting there the foremost philosophers and wits of the

wife and daughter to share with him in the benefits of a more genial climate. Several letters remain which he has filled with minute instructions to guide the stay-at-home ladies in their journey to join him. He tells his wife to bring with her a pound of Scotch snuff, and to be sure at the Custom-house to have half in her own pocket and half in Lydia's. She is to expend sixty guineas in silks, blonds, gauzes, &c., and he adds:-"You must have them-for in this country nothing must be spared from the back-if you dine on an onion, and lie in a garret seven storeys high, you must not betray it in your clothes, according to which you are well or ill-looked upon. "They have bad pins and vile needles here; bring for yourself and some for presents," is another piece of advice. And again:-"I had like to have forgot a most necessary thing: there are no copper tea-kettles to be had in France, and we shall find such a thing the most comfortable utensil in the house. Buy a good strong one which will hold two quarts: a dish of tea will be of comfort to us in our journey south. I have a bronze tea-pot, which we will carry also. As china cannot be brought from England, we must make up a villanous party-coloured tea-equipage to regale ourselves and our English friends while we are at Toulouse." (Works, vol. 7, p. 56.)

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other. My landlord is, moreover, to keep the gardens in order-and what do you think I am to pay for all this? neither more or less than thirty pounds a year, and all things are cheap in proportion, so we shall live for very little." (Works, vol. 7, p. 64). The establishment consisted of a good cook, a "decent femme de chambre," and "a good-looking laquais," and Mrs. Sterne kept "an excellent good house" at the very moderate cost of two hundred and fifty pounds a year.

The cheapness of the place had attracted hither a number of English, who formed a "happy society, living together like brothers and sisters." Mr. Sterne entered with zest into their amusements, and we find him taking part in private theatricals during the Christmas holidays. Ennui, however, soon preyed upon the invalid. He regretted the excitement of Paris and London, and he was even debarred from hearing from home, except after a long interval, for letters were eighteen days upon the road. He inveighed querulously against the "eternal platitude of the French character," which had "little variety, no originality." Amidst all this weariness of spirit he was prostrated by a fever.

The summer of 1763 was passed at Bagnères, but we hear nothing of a trip into Spain, which had been projected some time before. MontWife and daughter profited by the careful pelier was chosen for the winter's sojourn, directions which they had received, and the pre- but its climate proved as much too keen as parations which had been made,-a chaise had that of Toulouse had been too damp. Poor been sent to Calais for them,-and arrived "safe Yorick fell dangerously ill, and at length and sound, in high raptures with the speed and the physicians of the place told him he would pleasantness of their journey." They found die if he remained longer. "Why didn't Mr. Sterne only just able to go out after a severe you tell me before?" said he, sharply. The attack of bleeding at the lungs, which had hap-character of the faculty in whose hands pened in the night. He "bled the bed full" he was compelled to place his health may and lay speechless for three days. After Mrs. be judged from the postscript to one of his Sterne and Lydia had been gratified with some letters :-"My physicians have almost poisoned weeks of delightful sight-seeing in Paris, the me with what they call boillons refraichissants family set their faces toward Tolouse, in weather-'tis a cock flayed alive and boiled with poppyas hot as "Nebuchadnezzar's oven.' A day or two after their arrival at their destination, Sterne wrote to his friendly banker at Paris:-" Well, here we are after all, my dear friend, and most deliciously placed at the extremity of the town, in an excellent house well furnished, and elegant beyond anything I looked for. 'Tis built in the form of a hotel, with a pretty court towards the town, and behind the best garden in Toulouse, laid out in serpentine walks, &c., so large that the company in our quarter usually come to walk there in the evenings, for which they have my consent, the more the merrier.' The house consists of a good sallea-manger above stairs, joining to the very great sallea-compagnie as large as the Baron d'Holbach's; three handsome bedchambers with dressing-rooms to them,-below stairs two very good rooms for myself, one to study in, the other to see company. I have, moreover, cellars around the court, and all other offices. Of the same landlord I have bargained to have the use of a country-house which he has two miles out of town, so that myself and all my family have nothing more to do than take our hats and remove from the one to the

seeds, then pounded in a mortar, afterwards passed through a sieve. There is to be a crawfish in it, and I was gravely told it must be a male one-a female one would do me more hurt than good." (Works, vol. 7, p. 85). Mr. Sterne permitted his wife and daughter to remain in France for a two or three years' residence, while he returned to England. The dissipations of Paris detained him on his way home, and brought on another fit of bleeding. While there he preached before the British ambassador and a distinguished company-Hume, Diderot, and D'Holbach, with his sixteen atheists, among the number. He reached London in May, 1764, and in August he was once more in Yorkshire, attending to parochial duties-let us hope-certainly finishing the seventh and eighth volumes of Shandy, which had been partially written in France.

The business of publishing carried our author to London in the winter, and the new instalment of Tristram was given to the public on the 26th of January, a month or more after Goldsmith's poem, "The Traveller." A ceaseless round of gaieties, as usual, drew him into

that "effort perpetuél pour se divertir" of which | the new-born loves of Captain Shandy: "This the Countess de Boufflers complained, as cha- volume contains the amours of my uncle Toby." racteristic of English society. The town talk (Life of Sterne, vol. 2, p. 326). was of the debates on the Regency Bill, the riots around the Duke of Bedford's mansion, and Lord Byron's grand uncle of the poet-fatal duel with Mr. Chaworth. The summer passed at Coxwould, but early in October (1765) ill health drove the invalid abroad upon his famous Sentimental Journey.

and an earnestness and tenderness that imme- ODD FELLOWS' QUARTERLY. (Manchester.) diately brings the reader's emotions into rapport ort-A pleasant number, agreeably diversified in with those of the author, specially permeate a its contents. "Rue: a Tale of the Tally Sysfew of the minor poems. Those entitled "In tem," will, we hope, prove as usefully illustrative Memoriam" and "Aspiration" occur to us as of this nefarious trade as the author, Mrs. C. A. apposite examples. The narrative-poems of White (who on other occasions has written "The Lady Ina," "The Battle of White-horse earnestly on the subject), can desire. Mr. Down," "A Legend of the Seine," and "Sir Heaviside contributes a pretty sketchy paper, John Franklin," will find admirers for the sake entitled "Coming Home;" Eliza Cook a poem, of their stories and the easy flow of the smooth "On the Death of Richard Cobden "-written verse, There is nothing absolutely soaring or with much feeling and spirit-and the Rev. E. glowing in the strains of our author, but the Hewlet one on "The Life-Boat." "The Penny numbers run on, like a calm brook, smooth and and its Power"-a paper the title of which bright, pure throughout, and sparkling with seems familiar to us-is pleasantly written, and the sunshine of this purity. It is a book to so is "A Rainy Holiday." As a whole, we reput fearlessly into the hands of the young, full gard the present number as a very fair one. of lowly, unobtrusive piety, fair subjects, and [JOURNAL OF THE LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION in our gentle thoughts. next.]

TOILETS FOR THE SEA-SIDE.

(Specially from Paris.)

FIRST FIGURE.-Dress composed of Indian toile de soie, the skirt trimmed at the bottom with four rows of velvet ribbon sprinkled with straw beads. Muslin under-body. Bernese corslet. Jacket of the same material as the dress, and likewise trimmed all round with straw-beaded velvet, and on the top of the sleeves with bows of the same, and ends of plain velvet. Behind, cascades of velvet ribbon, not beaded

SECOND FIGURE.-Toilet composed of a foulard dress, covered with light blue spots, bordered at bottom by a silk cord of the same colour, forming a design at the ends of the seam of each width. Milanaise corslet, and skirt striped blue and white, likewise corded at bottom and looped up in front with a similar cord and tassels. The sleeves are almost tight. Collar and cuffs of fine linen. Straw cap ornamented with long white ostrich feather, fastened by a rosette of blue velvet ribbon, with a pearl clasp in the middle. Behind, long ends of velvet. Burnouse of black Yack lace. Foular is, either black or white grounds, sprinkled with flowers of the opposite tint, are much in favour. I have seen a very pretty toilet destined for the sea-side composed of white foulard, strewed over as it were with little black flowers, at the

bottom of the skirt between entre deux of black
velvet about as wide as a No. 5 ribbon were

bouillonnés of foulard themselves finished
The whole of the velvet trimming was sprinkled
on both sides by velvet ribbon of a less width.
with little white buttons of mother-of-pearl.
The corsage, formed of a corslet incircled with
velvet similarly trimmed, is worn over an under-
body of white muslin, made with five plaits be-
hind and before. The plaits, wide as a No. 4
ribbon, are ornamented en suite with little
buttons of jet in imitation of pearls.
sleeves, cut on the biais, are nearly tight, and
are trimmed with black pearls, forming an orna-
ment at the side near the top, which falls over
on a jockey of foulard, adjusted to the corslet,
and is finished at the bottom with a little
pointed cuff figured with plaited muslin sprin-
kled with black pearls.

The

A basquin of the same material as the dress accompanies it, and is bordered and ornamented in the same way with black velvet, sprinkled with little buttons of mother-of-pearl. Under it is worn a waistband of black silk ornamented en suite. The chapeau assorted for this toilette is round, of the cap form, and is ornamented with a swallow, which retains a very long blue veil at the side.

The greater part of the robes de voyage are of light materials, very soft and generally transpa