Vander Creek,
Near Cape Town. 
Oct. 1. 1826.

Blackwood’s Magazine.

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THE GATHERER

  A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. 
  SHAKSPEARE.

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BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER.

When Queen Elizabeth dined with Sir Thomas Gresham, before she proceeded to name the Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas pledged her majesty in a cup containing a pearl made into powder, of the value of L1,000.  So runs the story, but we should think Sir Thomas superior to such a piece of ostentatious folly.  The display of his grasshopper crest on the pinnacles of the Old ’Change was in much better taste.

The old fashion of transacting public business after dinner is not unworthy of remark and contrast with the present custom.  In 1696, the foundation-stone of Greenwich Hospital was laid by John Evelyn, with a select committee of commissioners, and Sir Christopher Wren, precisely at five in the evening, after they had dined together, Flamstead, the royal astronomer, observing the time punctually by his instruments.  In our days the only public business transacted after dinner is that of parliament, and the alteration of this to the morning has often been suggested:  but if the motto in vino veritas hold good, it were better left as it is.

All public business in England is an occasion of eating and drinking, which gave rise to “wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”  Gourmands of fruit all flock to the Horticultural Society’s dinner for the sake of its dessert; and by a recent regulation, tea, coffee, and cakes are handed round at the evening meetings of the Antiquarian and other societies.

Professor Jameson, in noticing the Berlin Geographical Society, says, “It does not give prizes, nor publish a journal, but confines itself to its meetings, which, agreeably to the custom of the country, are concluded by a jovial banquet.”  Thus, we are not alone in our festal predilections, and were all meetings of our public societies terminated like those of the Fellows of Berlin, science would become more popular, and the lovers of good living be gainers.  Still, we recommend the fellows to keep out of their after-dinner conversations, all such topics as the course of the Niger, or the position of a new magnetic pole.

Q.

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BELLS.

  Bells are for all things, all events: 
    For victories, for fires. 
  For hanging crimes with ill intents,
    Or law proscribed desires. 
  For this, St. Bride her turret rocks,
    For that St. Dunstan rings;
  The last St. Sepulchre so shocks,
    That all about him swings.

Mr. Jerdan—­in the Gem for 1830.

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