o. I knew them well.
Johnson overawed us all, and every one became silent when he spoke." The
colonel observed of Goldsmith, "That no one would have thought much of him
from his company, though he had a great name in the world."

The colonel also knew something of Churchill, described him as by no means
prepossessing in person, and one of the last who could have been supposed
capable of writing as he wrote. The colonel, in his old age, imagined he
too had a taste for poetry, and boasted of Goldsmith's having asserted
(perhaps jokingly) that he possessed a talent for writing verse. This idea
working in his mind for years, had induced him to print, in his old age,
what he called, to the best of my recollection, "A Continuation of the
Deserted Village." He always brought a copy with him of an evening, and
was fond of referring to it, and passing it round for the company to look
at--a weakness pardonable in a garrulous old man. On revisiting the house,
for old acquaintance sake, after an absence of some years from London, I
missed him from his accustomed place, which I observed to be occupied by a
stranger. On inquiry, I found that he was departed to where human vanity
and human wisdom are upon a level, and where man is alike deaf to the
voice of literary and military ambition.--_New Monthly Magazine_.

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER.

* * * * *

THE ANNUALS FOR 1830.

We feel it a duty to the proprietors of these elegant works, as well as to
our readers, to give the following _annonces_ of the several volumes for
1830:--

The _Keepsake_ is very forward. Among the contributors are Sir Walter
Scott, Lord Byron, and the author of "Anastasius." Sir Walter's
contribution is a dramatic romance, in imitation of the German; and Lord
Byron's are ten letters written by him between 1821, and the time of his
lordship's death.

The _Forget-Me-Not_ will contain a very gem--being the first known attempt
at poetry, by Lord Byron, copied from the autograph of the noble poet, and
certified by the lady to whom it was addressed--the object of his
lordship's first, if not his only real attachment.

Mr. Ackermann has likewise announced a _Juvenile_ Forget-Me-Not, so as to
remember all growths.

The _Literary Souvenir_ is in a state of great forwardness. Among the
contributors are the authors of "Kuzzil-bash;" "Constantinople in 1828;"
"The Sorrows of Rosalie;" and