instrel
retorted with a parody ending:--

"Is there a county to compare with Notts?
Lots!"

Unfortunately the thing was catching, and other counties did their
best to follow suit, though with considerable difficulty as to rhymes.
I think it was a singer of Tavistock who won the laurels. After
disposing of an adjacent rival with the contemptuous jingle,
"Dorset--Curse it!" he wound up:--

"Is there a country to compare with Devon?
Heaven!"

* * * * *

Lady Crownderby once told me that she was among the first to see Lord
HOUGHTON on his return from Spain, and she asked him what he thought
of Spanish women in comparison with those of our own country. "My dear
lady," replied HOUGHTON, "I feel like LOT when he escaped from the
Cities of the Plain."

* * * * *

At a dinner given in honour of her nephew's appointment to a Rural
Deanery, Mrs. Hinkson-Hanksey told me that she once rallied DISRAELI
on his lack of religious profession, saying how much it compromised
him in the eyes of many of his fellow-countrymen in comparison with
his great rival. "My dear lady," said DISRAELI, "you are aware that
the New Testament divides all men into two categories. Without
specifying the class to which I personally belong, I am quite willing
to admit that Mr. GLADSTONE is a sheep and possesses many of the
characteristics of that admirable animal."

* * * * *

When I was at Hawarden in the summer of 1893, little DOROTHY DREW
asked her grandfather for the loan of a book "to press flowers in."
It is a process, as readers may know, not good for the book, and I
thought the illustrious statesman and bibliophile looked a little
embarrassed. But his face cleared in a moment, and he went out of the
room and presently returned with a sufficient volume, in which the
flowers were duly laid, the book being then, with the united efforts
of the company, subjected to the necessary pressure under a heavy
cabinet. Anxious to know which volume of his beloved library Mr.
GLADSTONE had selected for desecration, I took an early opportunity
of furtively examining the title of the tortured tome. It was
_Coningsby_.

* * * * *

ANOTHER IMPENDING APOLOGY.

"Councillor ----'s son will be married to the eldest daughter of
Councillor ----. The