recognise many passages from other works.

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NOTES OF A READER.


SCOTTISH LITERARY DINNER.

_As reported by Three Hands_.

It is a miserable thing to quarrel or even differ over a dinner, although
the whole affair be but a matter of taste. It is likewise a miserable
thing to differ after dinner, since it lamentably disturbs the digestion
of the food, as in this case it may the temper of the feeders. Yet
respecting the dinner to celebrate the Birthday of Burns in Freemasons'
Hall, there is a remarkable difference among the critical craft; which
difference, by the way, no shades of opinion can reconcile. As we were not
of the party, (and we congratulate ourselves on the escape from a Scottish
half-dinner,) it may be well to quote from three of the reports that have
appeared, rather than let the affair pass unnoticed in our pages. We do so
from a wish to preserve certain traits and anecdotes which the occasion
drew forth,--to give the pleasant rather than the "untoward" events of the
day: though we must own the whole appears to have been a very droll
business, always excepting the _semi-pransus_.

We start with an extract from Dr. Granville's _Catechism of Health_:--