r bodie" who explained that he
found Lunnon so awfu' extravagant that he hadna been in it more than a
few hours "_when bang went saxpence!_" The reader will be interested to
learn that this expression--which may truthfully be said to have passed
into the language--did really issue from the lips of a visitor from the
neighbourhood of Glasgow. It was Sir John Gilbert who heard it, and
repeated it to Mr. Birket Foster while they were seated resting from
their labours of "hanging" in the galleries of the Royal Water Colour
Society. On the private-view day that followed, Mr. Foster tried the
effect of the joke on two ladies whom he accompanied into Bond Street to
take tea; and as they exploded with laughter, he concluded that it was
good enough for his friend Keene, to whom he thereupon sent it. The
immediate success of the joke was amazing; and Mr. Foster was therefore
the more surprised and amused a year afterwards to overhear a young
"masher" calmly inform a barmaid serving on the Brighton pier that he
was the originator of it, and that he possessed the original drawing!

Another favourite Scotch picture of Keene's is that in which a drunken
workman, remonstrated with by the parson, protests that the latter is
always blaming him for his drinking, but "You forget my droth!" This
incident really occurred at Pitlochrie, and was told by the minister
himself to Mr. Birket Foster, who handed it on to Keene; but--and here
comes out one of the charming qualities of Keene's character--the real
offender was not a man, but a woman. It was a chivalrous practice of
Charles Keene's never to show a woman in a really undignified position;
and when he was remonstrated with on the subject, on the ground that he
distorted the truth unnecessarily, he would reply that "he could not be
hard on the sex." But though "bang went saxpence" is a notable _Punch_
joke--and it may be remarked that it is not less beloved of the
political economist than of the Saturday Reviewer--it is not quite the
best known. That position is easily attained by what is undoubtedly the
most successful (that is to say, the most popular) _mot_ of its kind
ever composed in the English language.

It appeared in the Almanac for 1845 under "January," and, based upon the
ingenious wording of an advertisement widely put forth by Eamonson &
Co., well-known house furnishers of the day, ran as follows:--

WORTHY OF ATTENTION.

ADVICE TO PERSONS ABOUT TO MARRY,--Don't![13]

I