of speculation shrunk from that period, and long before the
close no bets would be taken. From daylight, multitudes thronged to the
course. All the carriages, of which such numbers pass along this
communication between the two great northern towns, went to the side of
the road; even the mails gave way. The affair seemed national, and if
the gallant pedestrian had failed, it might have been followed by a
general mourning in the Ridings.

One of the great Histrionic Dynasty, Stephen Kemble, has lately amused
the Town by his performance of Falstaff. He exhibited the humours of the
jovial knight with skill enough to make the audiences laugh. But he was
perhaps the first actor who ever played the _fat_ knight to the life.
His remarkable corpulence qualified him to play the character without
stuffing. The good-humour of his visage was fully equalled by the
protuberance of his stomach; and if the "totus in se teres atque
rotundus" of Horace, is the poet's definition of a good man, the actor
rose to the summit of human virtue. The best prologue, since the days of
Garrick, ushered in this singular performance.

"A Falstaff here to-night, by nature made,
Lends to your favourite bard his pond'rous aid;
No man in buckram he, no stuffing gear!
No feather bed, nor e'en a pillow here!
But all good honest flesh, and blood, and bone,
And weighing, more or less--some _thirty_ stone.
Upon the northern coast, by chance, we caught him:
And hither, in a broad-wheel'd waggon, brought him;
For in a chaise the varlet ne'er could enter,
And no mail-coach on such a fare would venture.
Blest with unwieldiness, at least his size
Will favour find in every critic's eyes;
And should his humour, and his mimic art,
Bear due proportion to his outer part,
As once 'twas said of Macklin in the Jew,
'This is the very Falstaff Shakspeare drew.'
To you, with diffidence, he bids me say,
Should you approve, you may command his stay,
To lie and swagger here another day.
If not, to better men he'll leave his sack,
And go as ballast, in a collier, back."

1802.

This French peace will not last. The parties to this unnatural wedlock
are beginning to grumble already; and this, too, when the bans are still
in every body's ears. The French, however, have begun the quarrel, by
sending out a huge fleet, with 30,000 men on board, to St Domingo. This
our minister regards as a daring exploit, which may finish by turnin