"Arrived on Brand-sands, the Vulture, Captain Nabob; the Tortoisesnow,
from Lapland; the Pet-en-l'air, from Versailles; the Dreadnought, from
Mount Etna, Sir W. Hamilton, commander; the Tympany, Montgolfier; and
the Mine-A-in-a-bandbox, from the Cape of Good Hope. Foundered in a
hurricane, the Bird of Paradise, from Mount Ararat. The Bubble, Sheldon,
took fire, and was burnt to her gallery; and the Phoenix is to be cut
down to a second-rate."

In those days Old Sarum will again be a town and have houses in it.
There will be fights in the air with wind-guns and bows and arrows; and
there will be prodigious increase of land for tillage, especially in
France, by breaking up all public roads as useless.


[Sidenote: _Horace Walpole_]

One of the Duke of Marlborough's generals, dining with the Lord Mayor,
an Alderman who sat next to him said, "Sir, yours must be a very
laborious profession." "No," replied the general, "we fight about four
hours in the morning, and two or three after dinner, and then we have
all the rest of the day to ourselves."


HIS MARRIAGE
[Sidenote: _William Cobbett_]

When I first saw my wife she was _thirteen years old_.[5] I was within a
month of _twenty-one_.[6] She was the daughter of a sergeant of
artillery, and I was the sergeant-major of a regiment of foot, both
stationed in forts near the city of St. John, in the province of New