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Trusting our little merchant friend,
May prove a Gresham to the end,
And leave a monument more strong,
Than brass, to write her deeds upon;
A monument up-raised by merit,
Of charity and public spirit;
And shew to all the sons of commerce,
That Virtue's stamp departs not from us.

M. R. S.

[The following Lines are said to have been found at the foot of Muswell Hill, near to a small white cottage, inhabited by the celebrated poet Thomas Moore in the summer of 1817, while his "Lalla Rookh" was printing. The Poet's death is supposed, and the favorite subjects of his Muse are invoked, to pay the last tribute of affection to his memory. Whether the lines are the beginning, middle, or end of a Poem, cannot easily be determined; probably the rest of the Manuscript may have been lost in the pond hard by. The circumstance of Moore's having lived in the neighbourhood, has imparted a classical interest to the natural beauty of the spot, which is well worth the attention of the admirers of Nature and romantic landscape. At the top of the hill is a white conspicuous house, which serves as a beacon at a considerable distance to all who travel that way; it was formerly the banqueting house and library of the famous Topham Beauclerc, who with the luminaries of the day, Dr. Johnson, Burke, Reynolds, &c. used there to assemble to partake of the "feast of reason, and the flow of soul," and return to London, the city of the world, at night. With such recollections, the house and the spot deserve consideration.]

Bees, drop your honey o'er his last remains; Melodious Birds, pour forth your sweetest strains;

* Sir Thomas Gresham, a Merchant of London, knighted by Queen Elizabeth; he built the Royal Exchange, and transacted the Queen's mercantile affairs so constantly, that he was called the Royal Mer

chant.

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Go, then, if she whose shade thou art, No more will let thee soothe my pain; Yet tell her, it has cost this heart

Some pangs to give thee back again.

Tell her, the smile was not so dear, With which she made thy semblance mine;

As bitter is the burning tear,

With which I now the gift resign.

Yet go-and could she still restore,

As some exchange for taking thee, The tranquil look which first I wore,

When her eyes found me wild and free. Could she give back the careless flow,

Yet, ah! 'tis vaingo, picture, go,
The spirit which my fancy knew;
Smile at me once, and then adieu !

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London : — Printed by G. Larrance, Borset Street, Salisbury Square; And Published by the Proprietor at No. 8, Raquet Court, Fleet Street, where all Com munications are requested to be addressed, and where the Editor's Letter-box will be found.---It may also be had at 42, Holywell Street; of SHERWOod, Neely, anD JONES, Paternoster Row; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, Stationer's Court; and of all other Booksellers.

THE

TICKLER MAGAZINE.

No. 12. VOL. III.]

LONDON, DECEMBER 1, 1821.

[PRICE 6d.

Anecdotes.

PETER THE GREAT.

IT is well known that Peter the Great inspected with the greatest attention and care the work-shops of different artists. He frequented that of Muller, who was inaster of a forge in Istria, and learned there to forge bars of iron. One of the last days which he passed in that place. he forged eighteen feet (a foot weighs forty pounds nearly). One of the gen. tlemen of his bed-chamber and his boyards supplied coals, stirred the fire, and I worked the bellows. When Peter had finished, he went to the proprietor, praised his manufactory, and asked him how much he gave his workmen per foot. “Three copecks or an altina,” answered Muller. Very well," replied the Czar; "I have then earned eighteen altinas." Muller fetched eighteen ducats, offered them to Peter, and told him that he could not give a workman like his Majesty less per foot. Peter refused

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'Keep your ducats," said he, "I have not wrought better than any other man; give me what you would give to another I want to buy a pair of shoes, of which I am in great need." At the same time he shewed him his shoes, which had been once mended, and were again full of holes. Peter accepted the eighteen altinas, and bought himself a pair of new shoes, which he used to shew with much pleasure, saying, "These I earned with the sweat of my brow."

LEOPOLD, DUKE OF LORRAIN.Leopold, Duke of Lorrain, had a bear, called Marco, of the sagacity and sen

sibility of which we have the following example. During the winter of 1709, a Savoyard boy, ready to perish with cold in a barn, in which he had been put by a good woman with some more of his companions, thought proper to enter Marco's hut, without reflecting upon the danger which he ran in exposing himself to the mercy of the animal which occupied it. Marco, however, instead of doing any injury to the child, took him between his paws, and warmed him by squeezing him to his breast until the next morning, when he suffered him to depart to ramble about the city. The Savoyard returned in the evening to the hut, and was received with the same affection. For the following days he had no other retreat; but what added much to his joy, was to perceive that the bear had reserved part of his food for him. Several days passed in this manner before the servants perceived the circumstance. One day, when one of them came to bring his master his supper rather later than ordinary, he was astonished to see the animal roll his eyes in a furious manner, and seeming as if he wished him to make as little noise as possible, for fear of awaking the child whom he clasped to his breast. The animal, though ravenous, did not appear in the least moved with the food which was placed before him. The report of this extraordinary circumstance was soon spread at court, and reached the ears of Leopold, who, with part of his courtiers, was desirous of being satisfied of the truth of Marco's generosity. Several of them passed the night near his hut, and beheld with as. tonishment that the bear never stirred as long as his guest shewed any inclination to sleep.. At break of day the child awoke, was very much ashamed to find himself discovered, and fearing K

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that he would be punished for his rashness, begged for pardon. The bear, however, caressed him, and endeavoured to prevail on him to eat what had been brought him the evening before, which he did at the request of the spectators, who conducted him to the Prince. Hav-. ing learned the whole history of this singular alliance, and the time which it had continued, the Prince ordered care to be taken of the little Savoyard, who without doubt would have soon made his fortune, had he not died a short time after.

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SIR WM. DAVENANT, the poet, who had no Nose, going along the Mews one day, a beggar woman followed him, crying, "Ah! God preserve your Eye sight, Sir, the Lord preserve your Eye sight." "Why, good woman, (said he) dost thou pray so much for my Ege sight?" "Ah! dear Sir, (answered the woman) if it should please God that you grow dim-sighted, you have no place to hang your spectacles on."

ONE asking another which way a man might use tobacco to have any benefit from it. By setting up a shop to sell it, (said he) for certainly there is no profit to be had from it any other way.”

A man who had money enough to make him whimsical, on account of some imaginary indisposition, ordered a physician to be sent for, who, presently attending, felt his pulse, which, finding in good order, he asked him, “Sir do you eat well?" He answered yes," And do yon sleep well?" He said he did. "O then, (says the physician,) I'll find you a remedy that will drive away all these things.

WHEN Rabelais, the greatest drole in France, lay on his death bed, he could not help jesting at the very last moment, for having received the extreme Unction, a friend who came to see him, said, he hoped he was prepared for the next world? "Yes, yes, (replied Rabelais) I am ready for my journey now; they have just greased my boots.”

DR. SOUTH one morning visiting a gen

tleman, was asked to stay to dinner, which he accepting of, the gentleman stepped into the next room, and told his wife he had invited the Doctor to dinner, and desired her to provide something extraordinary. Hereupon she began to murmur and scold, and make a thousand words, till at last her husband, being very much provoked at her behaviour, protested, that if it was not for the Stranger in the next room, he would kick her out of doors.-Upon which, the Doctor, who had heard all that had passed, immediately stepped out, and cried, I beg, Sir, you'll make no stranger of me,

DANIEL PURCELL, the famous pun-
ster, calling for some pipes in a lavern,
complained they were too short. The
Drawer said they had no other, and
those were just come in.
Ay, said
Daniel, I see your master has not bought
them very long

IT was a fine saying of Lord Russell, who was beheaded in the reign of Charles II, when on the scaffold, he delivered his watch to Dr. Gilbert Burnet, "Here afterwards Bishop of Salisbury.

Sir, (said he) take this, it shews Time; I am going, into Eternity, and shall no longer have any need of it."

Character.

THE LATE MR. PIPER. This very excentric Character died at Whitehaven.-lu a few weeks ago speaking of this man, we regret to ob serve that, under the head virtues we have very little to say. Mr. Piper's virtues were only of the negative kind. Abstemiousness, selfdenial, and inflexible perseverance in the attainment of his object marked the whole tenor of his conduct and these are only virtues so far as their object is a laudable one: but his object was, exclusively, the hoarding up of riches, and on this, his whole heart and soul were invariably fixed. At the sordid shrine of Plutus he sacrificed every generous principle. every humane and charitable feeling, and not these only, but even his own com

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forts. We cannot admit the idea that his donations to posterity, extensive as they were, are to be considered as his charities!* for, as some poet says.

"When you beyond the grave extend your

cares,

"You only deal in OTHER men's affairs."

There was no charity, in leaving behind what he could not take along with him; and of depriving his heirs of what he could not bear the thought of depriving himself. Even his heirs, therefore, have little reason either to admire his conduct, or venerate his memory,

He died, (says the Whitehaven Ga. zette) at the advanced age of 91, and had amassed above £30,000. We must now come to a detail of the methods which he adopted to acquire this immense property. He began the world literally with nothing! In early life he was a seaman, and when on board descended to the most servile offices for the meanest sailor for the sake of a pen. ny-Servile as these were, his conduct in the subsequent stages of his life was not more respectable, and as his deportmeut in later years came more immediately under our own review, we shali state a few particulars-not for the edification of his brother misers, but as beacons for the more liberal part of the community. Till within a short period of his long-expected demise, he boarded

The Marine School, in High Street, in this town, was built by the Earl of Lonsdale, in consideration of Mr. Piper's endowment in the way already mentioned. Since the execution of the deed Mr. Piper has been frequently heard to express his regret that he had bequeathed any part of his property for charitable purposes; and to complain of the insufficiency of the building in High Street. It is said that the alleged abuses of Public Charities alarmed him; but the truth is that he was a dissatisfied man that nothing but money could please. He has left 1001. to each of his three executors; the bulk of his fortune descends to his collateral relations. Mr. Piper's donations to the schools at Kendal and Lancaster were paid during his life; and the interest of the money secured to him by the Trustees. But this was not the case with re-. spect to the Whitehaven Marine School, the validity of his endowments, which we understand will be disputed.

at the rate of 8. per week, a sum which he always paid with heart-felt reluctance, and which he usually endeavoured to diminish by some petty set-off. If he happened to dine or drink tea abroad, he carefully calculated the proportionate expense and deducted it from his board wages. He sometimes went a fishing, and the value of the fish which he caught and made use of was deducted in the same way; but most commonly be oblig ed his landlady to take the fish at the highest market price. By the various deaths which from time to time took place among the collateral branches of his family, he acquired some additions to his property; and with the exception of these, and his own parsimonious savings, time and compound interest did all the rest. His dress bespoke the penury of his disposition-one suit lasting many years. As to shirts he had but two which were latterly worn to tatters, insomuch that the poorest mendicant would have sold them for rags. To keep them together defied the power of the washer-woman, who, in her own defence, had them mended with a little fresh linen, for which, on presenting her account, he generously gave her a halfpenny! His barber's fee was a penny per week, for which he got shaved at the shop; and when un. able to travel that distance, he absolutely refused to give more; his friends, therefore, (or rather his expectants) gave something additional out of their own pockets! It is truly said," Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crescit"-if he fingered a penny it was no longer a part of the circulating medium. The last Whitsuntide term falling very late, he fretted exceedingly that he was so long kept out of his rents, and was dying with apprehension lest he should die before the ensuing term. In him the "ruling passion" was "strong in death." Being very faint a few days before his dissolution, it was proposed to administer a little brandy, on which he faltered out," What will it cost?" and, on being told, positively refused the cordial drop. Yet so long as he had any strengh remaining, he partook freely of refreshment which was offered as a gift, saying "the neighbours are very good to me." And thus he acted throughout life, being fond of good eating and drink. ing, when he could gratify his appetite at his neighbour's expense. It has been

said that he disregarded popularity (and indeed he could not expect much of it) but it is certain that he seemed highly delighted with the Bishop of Chester's encomiums on his charitable bequests, and always took much credit to himself for his posthumous beneficence; but was never known to give one penny to the poor. A few days before his death,when a relative called at his lodgings to inquire after bis health, he thus saluted him: "Have you brought the interest ?” “It is not due yet," replied the visitor."No" added the sick man, " and I am not dead yet." As he lived without respect, so he died without regret, and was buried without solemnity-hence it may justly be said.

Poorly he lived, and poorly he died; Poorly was buried, and NOBODY CRIED.

Correspondence.

DISSERTATION ON A CABBAGESTALK.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TICKLER MAGAZINE.

SIR,

I have just taken up my pen to write something for your magazine; but what to write, or on what subject, is at present as unknown to me as it is to that man or woman whose lot it will be to be born the last in this world. Imagination, come hither; stretch forth thy pinions, cleave the yielding air, explore the boundless expanse, and set thy crea tive faculties to work. Imagination is deaf, or she is fallen asleep, or her wings are wet and heavy. Then come thou genius, my little guardian angel, and whisper to me what I am to say. Light up thy torch, and let me pick a quill out of thy wing to make a pen with, instead of this goose-quill. The little rogue is gone a sweethearting, and has forsaken me. Some happy man or woman has two geniuses, and poor I not the shadow of one. To you I must fly for assistance-dullness and stupidity, dictate to ine what I am to write. My voice has struck their auditory nerve-my request is granted. With much gaping, yawning, rubbing of eyes, and stretching of limbs, they deliberately and gradually

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