h his earliest and
his latest years were passed, and with the associations of Rochester
Cathedral and its neighbourhood which extended over all his life, this
Tablet, with the sanction of the Dean and Chapter, is placed by his
Executors."

[208] So curious a contrast, taking _Copperfield_ for the purpose, I
have thought worth giving in fac-simile; and can assure the reader that
the examples taken express very fairly the general character of the
Notes to the two books respectively.

[209] In the same letter was an illustration of the ruling passion in
death, which, even in so undignified a subject, might have interested
Pope. "You remember little Wieland who did grotesque demons so well. Did
you ever hear how he died? He lay very still in bed with the life fading
out of him--suddenly sprung out of it, threw what is professionally
called a flip-flap, and fell dead on the floor."

[210] One of its incidents made such an impression on him that it will
be worth while to preserve his description of it. "I have been (by mere
accident) seeing the serpents fed to-day, with the live birds, rabbits,
and guinea pigs--a sight so very horrible that I cannot get rid of the
impression, and am, at this present, imagining serpents coming up the
legs of the table, with their infernal flat heads, and their tongues
like the Devil's tail (evidently taken from that model, in the magic
lanterns and other such popular representations), elongated for dinner.
I saw one small serpent, whose father was asleep, go up to a guinea pig
(white and yellow, and with a gentle eye--every hair upon him erect with
horror); corkscrew himself on the tip of his tail; open a mouth which
couldn't have swallowed the guinea pig's nose; dilate a throat which
wouldn't have made him a stocking; and show him what his father meant to
do with him when he came out of that ill-looking Hookah into which he
had resolved himself. The guinea pig backed against the side of the
cage--said 'I know it, I know it!'--and his eye glared and his coat
turned wiry, as he made the remark. Five small sparrows crouching
together in a little trench at the back of the cage, peeped over the
brim of it, all the time; and when they saw the guinea pig give it up,
and the young serpent go away looking at him over about two yards and a
quarter of shoulder, struggled which should get into the innermost angle
and be seized last. Everyone of them then hid his eyes in another's
breast, and then they