ANECDOTES OF AUTHORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 146, 16 July 1901, Page 4

ANECDOTES OF AUTHORS.

It is related of \.rv<] Macaulay, th« eminent liist< ri ■:■■; :■.;■,] ~. :,•, that on one occasion lie nrei h , :• ~„-iail to purchase sonic ballads (■••: -.i lo- i. ;.. was always very ■ ltd:, ami, ;;s in: was tiie purchase, ' ,onii! children cat: !:t si:,id of him. Crowding around, they sa:d " Hie ge'hnan's goin' to sing," ami 'heieuo. :i followed him into the street, where, needless to say, they were disappointed It is well-known that Macaulay had a very retentive memory, and on oDe occasion he is said to have modestly asserted hat, if by .some peculiar (real; of fortune, all '.hecopies of " l'ar.uhsc Lost" and "Pilgrims Progress" should he swept out of existence, '.: c would guarantee lo reproduce them almost word for word from memory. He lived and died a bachelor, and, when asked .-. hy he (l : d not tr.arry, he used to smile and say lie never had time for courting. Dr. j-.hn.on was notably an ugly man, r.nd it is said that Boswell, his personal friend and biographer, " added five hundred pounds to the fortune of one of his babies 1 ecaitse she was not frightened at Johnson's ugly face " "The "rent lexicographer was a \ iutton Ht the table, seldom speaking much during meat, and scarcely even emitting anything mere than a rude growl when spoken to. So fond was he of his food that, as Mr.caulay puts it, "he tore his dinner like a f.vnishetl wolf, with the veins swelling -■;■ his forehead, and the perspiration running J.nvn his checks" As a child, indeed, tiirc.i jhiuit his life, he possessed a remarkihly retentive memory, and his mother used 1) relate a story ol his early childhood which n'.iflicieiuiy testifies to this fact. On one occasion, she tells us, being desirous ofkeepitiK hint quiet for awhile, whilst she did something in tie upper rooms, she gavehim s book and told him to !ea"rn a certain hymn by heart She then left him, and proceeded upstairs; but she had only reached the si-cord (ii-ht when " Sammy" came running up a i;; ;. i, decl.iiing that he had learnt it. lie ik. i. i pon lepealed it straight off, .ilihi :t.-h. ;'.-. !, s :;:i-il:er tells us, he could nof have !■•.. ■■'. it tl. i!-h more than once. Sir Waiter Scott, whilst at school, was lotcd for his stupidity in learning; he would ; ' only learn when lie thought he would." He .>-as generally to he found at the foot of the .■las-, but at times he was stirred up by an iii'liition to figure at.the head of his class. On one occasion, inspired by this noble .h'sire, he was led lo adopt by no means wide expedients to attain his end. He had passed up to the second from the head, and ihere he stayed The boy who was' at the heaJ saw that Walter was trying to take lik; place, and he, therefore, worked hard ~:id kept his position, so that for days the two boys were battling with each other, but finally Waiie'. despairing of passing his allow by 'air means, determined to pass him by a strategic movement. He soon noticed ihai this boy, whenever asked to answer a ■juestion, always started nervously clutching a button r- the bottom of his waistcoat. This was Waller's chance. As soon as he saw the master coming he took his penknife, and quietly, unobserved, cut off the offending button. The master came, put a question to the head boy, and he immediately dropped his hand in search of the •faithinspiring button, but finding it gone, he blushed, stammered, and forgot 'he answer. Thus Walter won the position he sought