s works were known.

G.W.N.

* * * * *

ANECDOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS.

Notings, selections,
Anecdote and joke:
Our recollections;
With gravities for graver folk.

* * * * *

THE COCK AFLOAT IN THE BOWL.

Many attempts have been made to explain why the cock is sacred to
Minerva; and his claims to her protection are often founded on an
assumed preeminence of wisdom and sagacity. This brings to our mind a
story related by a gentleman, late resident in the Netherlands, of a
cock in a farm-yard somewhere in Holland, near Rotterdam, whose sagacity
saved him from perishing in a flood, occasioned by the bursting of one
of the dykes. The water rushing furiously and suddenly into the village,
swamped every house to the height of the first story, so that the
inhabitants were obliged to mount, and had no communication for awhile,
except by boats. The cattle and other animals and many fowls perished.
Our friend chanticleer, however, had the adroitness to jump into a large
wooden bowl, containing some barley, in which he eat, and quietly
floated, till the flood had subsided, having not only a good ship to
carry him, but provision on board during his voyage.

_Forster's Perennial Calendar._

* * * * *

GENERAL WOLFE.

The minds of some men are so elevated above the common understanding of
their fellow-creatures, that they are by many charged with enthusiasm,
and even with madness. When George II. was once expressing his
admiration of Wolfe, some one observed that the general was mad. "Oh!
he is mad, is he?" said the king with great quickness; "then I wish he
would _bite_ some other of my generals."--_Thackery's Life of the
Earl of Chatham_.

* * * * *

LORD ELLENBOROUGH.

An amateur practitioner wishing upon one occasion, in the court of
king's-bench, to convince Lord Ellenborough of his importance, said, "My
lord, I sometimes employ myself as a doctor."--"Very likely, sir," said
his lordship drily; "but is any body else fool enough to employ you in
that capacity?"--_Mems., Maxims, and Memoirs_.

* * * * *

"FOUR THIEVES' VINEGAR."

A report of the plague in 1760 having been circulated, Messrs. Chandler
and Smith, apothecaries, in Cheapside, had taken in a _third_
partner, (Mr. Newsom,) and while the report prevailed, these gentlem