it, for
he was sick of low life above stairs; and when a waiter at his Club had
been convicted of felony, 'What a horrid idea,' said he, 'the man will
give of _us_ in Newgate!'

Dining with Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, he heard him say, in answer
to a question about musical instruments in the East, 'I believe I saw
one _lyre_ there.'--'Ay,' whispered the wit to his neighbour, 'and
there's one less since he left the country.' Bruce shared the
travellers' reputation of drawing the long-bow to a very considerable
extent.

Two of Selwyn's best _mots_ were about one of the Foley family, who were
so deeply in debt that they had 'to go to Texas,' or Boulogne, to escape
the money-lenders. 'That,' quoth Selwyn, 'is a _pass-over_ which will
not be much relished by the Jews.' And again, when it was said that they
would be able to cancel their father's old will by a new-found one, he
profanely indulged in a pun far too impious to be repeated in our day,
however it may have been relished in Selwyn's time.

A picture called 'The Daughter of Pharaoh' in which the Princess Royal
and her attendant ladies figured as the saver of Moses and her
handmaids, was being exhibited in 1782, at a house opposite Brookes',
and was to be the companion-piece to Copley's 'Death of Chatham.' George
said he could recommend a better companion, to wit--the 'Sons of
Pharaoh' at the opposite house. It is scarcely necessary to explain that
pharaoh or faro was the most popular game of hazard then played.

Walking one day with Lord Pembroke, and being besieged by a troop of
small chimney-climbers, begging--Selwyn, after bearing their importunity
very calmly for some time, suddenly turned round, and with the most
serious face thus addressed them--'I have often heard of the sovereignty
of the people; I suppose your highnesses are in Court mourning,' We can
well imagine the effect of this sedate speech on the astonished
youngsters.

Pelham's truculency was well known. Walpole and his
friend went to the sale of his plate in 1755. 'Lord,' said the wit, 'how
many toads have been eaten off these plates!'

[Illustration: SELWYN ACKNOWLEDGES THE "SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE."]

The jokes were not always very delicate. When, in the middle of the
summer of 1751, Lord North, who had been twice married before, espoused
the widow of the Earl of Rockingham, who was fearfully stout, Selwyn
suggested that she had been kept in ice for three days before the
wedding. So