cended to
address him. "I am proud, sir," said Suett, with the formality of _Black
Rod_ himself, "to do the honours of my _country_ to the _representative_
of a nation which held my _master_ Garrick in peculiar respect. He was a
great actor, sir; a wonderful man! Your Lekain, or any other _Cain_,
could not come up to him, for he was _Able_, Pardon the pun. Oh,
la!--but he was vain, sir; vain as a peacock; it could not be of his
person. Had he been, as Richard has it, _'a marvellous proper man'_ like
myself, one might have said something. He used to say, I was too _lean_
for _Suett_. Oh, dear. _A votre sante, Monsieur,_ happy to see you on
this side the Channel. Never been to France yet, although in the
_Straits_ great part of my life, and not unfrequently _half seas
over_.--Well, sir, to return to Garrick. There was that man 'frae the
north,' who wrote the History of England and Roderick Random,--the
latter a true story, they say;--he who challenged Campbell the
barrister, for calling him _names_, _To bias_ the cause. Well, sir, Davy
refused one of his farces; but the wily Caledonian _pocketed_ the
affront, in coolly observing, 'that he had nearly completed another
volume of his history, and hoped he might be permitted to name _the
British Roscius_, the pride of his country, and all that sort of thing.'
It was a palpable hit, sir--the thing was settled--the _manager
managed_; and _Smelfungus_ retired, _without_ his manuscript, half sorry
he had not added _another_ scene to his farce. Well, sir, the story got
wind, and some days after Davy dined with a lawyer who had interested
himself vainly for a friend's comedy with him, when, in the course of
conversation, the barrister observed to Davy, before a large company,
that he had nearly compiled another volume of The Statutes _at large_
(would they were all _at large_), and hoped he might be permitted to
name _the British Roscius, the pride of his country._ There was a roar
at the expense of Garrick. 'The galled jade' winced terribly:--he was
touchy as tinder, sir:--never was _Digest_ so ill-_digested_.'"

It was when the meteor-like popularity of little Betty was at its height
that poor Suett fell ill, at what he termed his _town_ residence (a
second-floor in a low street), and the pigmy Roscius, having eaten too
much fruit, kept all London in intense agony for his fate at the same
moment. Bulletins were exhibited in Southampton-row several times
a-day, signed by numerous