was consequently of no use to Lord Shelburne
as a debater and supporter in parliament. A place in the East Indies was
obtained for him, and he sailed in the Aurora frigate for that dependency,
and was lost in her at the same time with Falconer, the author of the poem
entitled _The Shipwreck_. The able tract published by Mr. Pickering,
Piccadilly, would constitute a fair foundation on which to build the
inquiry.

AEGROTUS.

_Pursuits of Literature_ (Vol. iii., p. 240.).--I trust that the following
notes may be useful in assisting your correspondent S. T. D. to ascertain
"how the author of the _Pursuits of Literature_ became known." The first
edition of the first part of the _Pursuits of Literature_ appears to have
been published in quarto, by J. Owen, 168. Piccadilly, in 1794. In a volume
of pamphlets I have the above bound up with the following:--

"The Sphinx's Head Broken: or a Poetical Epistle, with notes to THOMAS
JAMES M*TH**S, Cl*rk to the Q***n's Tr**s*r*r. Proving him to be the
author of the Pursuits of Literature: a Satirical Poem. With occasional
Digressions and Remarks. By Andrew Oedipus, an injured Author. London:
Printed for J. Bell, No. 148. Oxford Street, opposite New Bond Street,
MDCCXCVIII."

This epistle is a very severe castigation for Mathias, whom Oedipus styles
the "little black jogging man," whose

"Politics and religion are very well, but he is a detestable pedant,
and his head is a lumber-garret of Greek quotations, which he raps out
as a juggler does ribbands at a country fair."

And speaking of "Chuckle Bennet," he calls him in a note,

"A good calf-headed bookseller in Pall Mall, the intimate confidant and
crony of little M*th**s, and who, upon Owen's bankruptcy, published
Part IV. of _Pursuits of Literature_ himself."

Of Owen, who published Part I., our author says: {379}

"Hither the sly little fellow got crony Becket to send his satirical
trumpery;"

which is further explained in the following note:

"Becket's back door is in an alley close to his house; here have I
often seen little M*th**s jog in and sit upon thorns for fear of being
seen, in the back-parlour, chattering matters over with old Numscull.
After passing through many hands, the proof sheets at last _very slily_
reached little M*th**s that he might revise the learned lumber."

After alluding to several pieces published by Mathias, our un