the production
of one of the members, indicating a certain forwardness in the sphere of
literary investigation, and affording a plausible solution of a literary
problem, which had been so long shrouded in mystery, namely, the true
narrative of "Old Grouse in the Gun-room."

This is the name of the story to which Goldsmith alludes in his comedy,
"She Stoops to Conquer." Mr. Hardcastle, the host of the occasion, in
preparation for the dinner he is about to give his guests, charges his
rustic servants that if he should say a good thing at the table, they are
not to burst out laughing, as if they were a part of the company to be
entertained. Diggory, thereupon replies to his master,--"Then, ecod,
your worship must not tell the story of 'Ould Grouse in the Gun-room.' I
can't help laughing at that--he! he! he!--for the soul of me. We have
laughed at that these twenty years--ha! ha! ha!" Mr. Hardcastle admits,
that this pet narrative of his may properly be considered an exceptional
case. On the other hand, it has uniformly foiled the researches of
critics and commentators to ascertain what this story really was which
"Squire Hardcastle," in the exuberance of his own enjoyment of it, gave
them the liberty to laugh at, if they liked. It has been generally
supposed, indeed, that the story itself was, in fact, non-existent, and
that the ingenious author of the play merely invented the title in order
to show off the uncouth peculiarities which it was his object to
display.

Now, it so happens, that the means are not wanting for the solution of
this mystery, and in illustration of the life of a writer and a man so
interesting as Goldsmith, I am glad to be able to clear up the critical
embarrassment. Years ago, the writer of this article fell by chance into
the company of Miss Goldsmith, grandniece of Mrs. Johnson, who was
housekeeper of old Mr. Featherston, of County Kerry, Ireland. She knew
the story in question very well, and it is gratifying to be able to
verify the authenticity of the allusion of a great poet and writer in
general, of whom Dr. Johnson has said, in those familiar words in his
epitaph, that he touched nothing which he did not adorn, and whose
character has been very much misunderstood, chiefly by reason of the
misrepresentations of Boswell. This parasite of Johnson, who has given us
one of the most entertaining books of biography ever written, was jealous
not only of Goldsmith's literary reputation, so far as it