the Chancellor, before quitting the
woolsack, addressed the unfortunate suitor thus:--"As a judge I have
decided against you, whose virtues are not unknown to me; and in
acknowledgment of those virtues I beg you to accept from me a
presentation to a living now vacant, and worth L600 per annum."

Capital also are the best of many anecdotes concerning Eldon and his
ecclesiastical patronage. Dating the letter from No. 2, Charlotte
Street, Pimlico, the Chancellor's eldest son sent his father the
following anonymous epistle:--

"Hear, generous lawyer! hear my prayer,
Nor let my freedom make, you stare,
In hailing you Jack Scott!
Tho' now upon the woolsack placed,
With wealth, with power, with title graced,
_Once_ nearer was our lot.

"Say by what name the hapless bard
May best attract your kind regard--
Plain Jack?--Sir John?--or Eldon?
Give from your ample store of giving,
A starving priest some little living--
The world will cry out 'Well done.'

"In vain, without a patron's aid,
I've prayed and preached, and preached and prayed--
_Applauded_ but _ill-fed_.
Such vain _eclat_ let others share;
Alas, I cannot feed on air--
I ask not _praise_, but _bread_."

Satisfactorily hoaxed by the rhymer, the Chancellor went to Pimlico in
search of the clerical poetaster, and found him not.

Prettier and less comic is the story of Miss Bridge's morning call upon
Lord Eldon. The Chancellor was sitting in his study over a table of
papers when a young and lovely girl--slightly rustic in her attire,
slightly embarrassed by the novelty of her position, but thoroughly in
command of her wits--entered the room, and walked up to the lawyer's
chair. "My dear," said the Chancellor, rising and bowing with old-world
courtesy, "who _are_ you?" "Lord Eldon," answered the blushing maiden,
"I am Bessie Bridge of Weobly, the daughter of the Vicar of Weobly, and
papa has sent me to remind you of a promise which you made him when I
was a little baby, and you were a guest in his house on the occasion of
your first election as member of Parliament for Weobly." "A promise, my
dear young lady?" interposed the Chancellor, trying to recall how he had
pledged himself. "Yea, Lord Eldon, a promise. You were standing over my
cradle when papa said to you, 'Mr. Scott, promise me that if ever you
are Lord Chancellor, when my little girl is a po