TRIVIA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20086, 15 November 1930, Page 13

TRIVIA.

S ' r * , bi °«7at)!iioal fart 6t is waot i io ¥6 most, t iiSvo isiideddtSa. Sat6il6l itol i fratcli Tennyson in his slouch hat, his lusty black suit, «hd his clinging t'bat, Wfinderitt« nWfly ainong th 6 j'ocksj ftssiduoualy rtttended ? ° Ur , *' tGl<!l r,v friend, filid if by uhahco thu p w t escaped his ej'fes for a moment, the voiej. of PalgrflVe tvus htard the sea and the wind, calling feiiftysb,!. while fife dai-ted about here and there until he again held thi» ai*m of the erfanb edtnrade. Hunt. ■si Lol don'tt me J l <T ia V OOll4 t£> iook at [the , tohel i Ma ' rlbor °ug f i's lotterte], ttiiin t me tWo Of i nftlr hHill'Ziii gtandsoil ;to WhOhl, nl iji d liim violently, trtf+ .Ji +{l W everybody else, she $1 ,( at her tllMpoaul, '„V® ilb °ut the cause of their gav6 ,, ft dinner on u bitMfchda.v to all her family, ftnd ' " t ,! 1e, 1 0 s!le wft ß like a i f a tiftttrishine round her'" ; t /{. I" efl .»a hip nfiighl ;«h « i| J inches wouhj floufThis produced great hilar- [ tv - .y lucl ' Attracted, the notice of old ««' T» l ,l ? iisteci m kftbwiftg the? t? s P": no6f himself told hi« owirbon mot,- at which—atid no wonder—«he took great offence. She afteiwards forgave him, and desired !!L' n ? expressc<l his randiw.T !? /'" vljod y «he pleased, i ??. • K ' l °] ee,lt Idm a fist, alpha betidftlly ,-u'ranßed, of suitable fr 68 * i 0 sa 'd lie might ns well take the flist i>n the list, which hrtppenctl to be, letter O, a Cnrterrt.i danghtef of Lord Gfativillej and her ho uCcoidingly t tharried. —Grei'lilt's I>iary, 1841,

it ot Vho has been Bfkmdiri« the .;t Wihottft Lake, Ind,. deriided Uiat the statue of Venus qe Mud. which has been admired there lor twenty vears. should frenf something, and planted arotititl its base iu the hope that the ivy Wduld prow and grow tiritil that ''lndecent figure shall b» al] Covered Up." I/ocar firemen, however, turned the hbee On tfai poison ivy. rooting it up. —Cftblegrflta iti Lrtndcn papers, 1990. # I asked him [Wordsworth] abruptly # hafc he thought of Shelley ad A poet. 'Nothing,' he replied as abruptly. Boeing my surprise, fife added, "A poet who has not produoed a good poem before he ifc twenty--five we. Ifldy eoti* e'ude canitt<rt, arid never Will do so." nJ» "The Cenci'l" I said eagerly. Won t do,'' he Replied, diking his head as he got into the carriage < a rough-coatefl Scotch terrier followed him. ' "This hairy fellow is our flea-trlip," he shouted out as they started off. —Trelawney: "lteeords of Bhelley, Byroa, and the Author." On<xj, When he [Maturin, A literary ecoehtrioj gave a breakfast, ho entered to the company with a red Wafer stuck in the middle of his forehead ; he mnde sighs that he was hot to he spofeerl to. and soon retired and returned with the wafer taken ofif, Atidf ready to oonyerse. He said that when he was in the act of composition he put on /this sigtlnl to denpto thai lie was not -to bo interruotea'; —jr. G. Lockhart: "Life of Seotfc." * # There aro some, indeed, so stronghearted and so sane that they approach examinations daily from the Very standpoint of ignorance, like those bluff travellers who, meeting the aristocracy of a foreign land, grin openly at them for mountebanks, keep their end up superbly in the vast saloons of Some, of Warsaw, of Vienna, and go out eontented with a smile-yet broader than that which dignified their entrance. Of such was the young student of Divinity (later possessed o£ a cure of souls in the Isle of Man and quaintly affecting medieval customs) who, bomg set a certain examination paper to test his qualifications for Holy Orders, read its terms very carefully and discovered that'of six questions he Wat to select three. Of those she questions one-half-meant nothing to him whatsoever; they mentioned things of which he had no more heard- than had tho Oolostians or or whoever they were, of the first century s yet heard of tho Holy Ghost. But the other three contained each a word which he had hoard before t he carefully put a little cross against each such question. They were as follow#: * (1) What do you know of the Council of Ohalcedon?

(2) W&b Sozomen justified irt Ms treatment of -the Apollinariankt (8) What is the distinction between the Oyprianic and the Augustinian attitude towards the Western Patriarchy! He wrote each of these questions out in a fair, round,, clerkly hand, leaving a little space below each. Then, in each of these spaces, he solemnly wrote, for the first the answer "Nothing"; for the second, "No"} for the third, "None." Having thus completed his paper, he went up and presented it to the Invigilator, - bowed, and - walked out. The fledgling olerics around him envied /the facility of his erudition, the rapidity of his completed task, his early liberation into the happy sunlight of an Oxford June; but he was ploughed, —Hilairo Belloc. & ~

I have cried, I can to read Mrs Henrv Wood's "East. Lynn©" and Canon -f arrar'S ' 'Eric." But God forbid that i should .cry over "Lear" or "Othello"—I should know that there was something she matter with Shakespeare or with myself. I remember reading "East Lynne" in a crowded third-class railway carnage; and the manner in which the tears rati down my cheeks made me an object of general attention. So much so. that an elderly and benevolent clergyman seated opposite expressed the hope that 1 was not in any trouble; and r perplexed him, i know, no* a .little by telling him with perfect truth that I was only crying because this Was so bad a book. Thereafter he left me alone, not because hj« saw that- I had made him an inspired answer, bui because, he supposed me -to be beyond his art. to bo past praying for. ' —K. W. Garrod: "The Profession of Poetry." Lord Melbourne was dining where Eaatlake was present, when, alter dinner, . as Lord Melbourne was roosting, they began to discuss fresco. They thought he was asleep, when suddenly he Said: "Whir-h is the lightestP "Fresco, my lord." "Then, damme, I'm for fremce, said Lord Melbourne. —Benjamin Robert Haydon: Autobiography and Memoirs. ■ ■ —J.H.E.S.