O D'Israeli! D'Israeli! how well hast thou written of the quarrels of authors! But my readers grow impatient, I must hurry on. "Prisoner's base and rounders, indeed! I wonder with all his pains, Mr. A. S. S. has omitted to recommend those highly respectable games of peg-top, and hop-scotch." Here notwithstanding my chagrin, I laugh immoderately at the idea of Eton fellows playing hop-scotch in the long walk or the High-street, with the Dons at their head. Thank Heaven I have turned over the last page! "What can be more satisfactory than a good 'kick off?' What more exciting than a 'spirited bully?' What two words more enlivening than 'got it?" "I shall be happy to meet Mr. A. S. S. at any time or place convenient to him to discuss these points. He will find my name cut in elegant characters on the middle part of my bureau, up two pair of stairs, Eton. I have given you this exact direction, that you may have no difficulty in discovering your Anti-rounders and all modern humbug correspondent." By the powers you're civil, and barely that-thanks for your contribution; and may I be opposite to you the next game.-Ed. FARNABY DERIVATIONS. A small roll of papyrus has reached us from K. S. containing much matter for discussion of a truly interesting character. On opening the roll we discover an inscription, which, after some toil, we have decided to run as follows: ЕTUTTOV. Imp. ind. act. 3 p. pl. V. act. тw. th. e. ybe, a. t. fut. yw. perf. pa. Now the great difficulty which meets us on the very threshold of our investigation arises from the mixture of two or perhaps three languages in the composition. ЕTуπτоν seems without doubt to commemorate some victory, as the English words below," they beat" (a suggestion we venture to make for the benefit of antiquarians) also seem to imply. Whether " Imp. ind." has any reference to the Indian Empire or not, we leave to the learned. After all, we are more than inclined to think that K. S. has been the victim of an imposition, as he professes to believe the above roll of papyrus to have been discovered in an antique" vessel” by “ Quartus Phormiensis" during his travels in Greece. We leave the question open, at the same time recording our own impression that the roll in question is nothing more than a very antient copy of FARNABY DERIVATIONS, left in an unfinished state by some indolent scholar of byegone days. On the other side we find the following TRANSLATIONS. θνητὰ τὰ τῶν θνητῶν. K. T. λ. Ye thynges of lyfe, lyke manne hymselfe muste die, τίπτε με τὸν φιλέρημον. κ. τ. λ. Ye complaynte of ye grasshopper. Why, shepherds, from these dewie-spangled leaves Drag downe by capture rude From mie loved solitude Ye way-syde songesterre of ye nymphes? who grieves Lo here ye thrushe and blackbird and ye jaye To active husbandrie; 'Tis juste ye plunderers of ye fruites to slaye, Destroye them then; but can you grudge to mee To sporte on dewie leaves yette wylde and free? Q. F. A. D. 1451.* EPIGRAMS. Without a bridle or a saddle, Across a thing I ride a-straddle ; Idem Græce Redditum. *Ανευ χαλινῶν τῶν θ' ὅπλων ἐφιππίων, In a garden there strayed A beautiful maid, As fair as the flowers of morn ; The first hour of her life She was made a wife, And she died before she was born. Idem Græce Redditum. Πλανωμένη τις ἔτυχεν ἐν κήπῳ ποτέ, * Ten years after the foundation of Eton College. ETON BUREAU. No. III. A CHARACTER. Nemo cognoscere imaginem potest, nisi cognito illo, cujus est imago. Hen. de Nettes. Epist. Lib. I. 51. I was much shocked to see in the paper a few days ago the death of Edward Courtland. He was just of age, and had not taken his degree at Oxford. He died in Yorkshire, after a very short illness. No one, I am sure, of his age would be more missed and regretted. I had seen him from time to time since he left Eton two years ago; we corresponded to the last; and knowing him intimately as I did, I am tempted to endeavour to prolong, for a short time, perhaps, the memory of a very remarkable young man. I confess that I loved him warmly, and that I had reason to be very grateful to him; so that perhaps I may overdraw the picture. Be it so ;-I would rather do this, than not give my departed friend his due: however, I will try to be quite fair. Courtland came to Eton very young-too young for his own good, as he always said. When I first knew him, he was in the Upper Division, and soon afterwards was put into the Sixth Form: all the earlier part of his career therefore, I only knew from his account of it. He was placed high for his age, all the boys in his remove being older than himself; and as he was a boy of quick parts, forward in some things, but very deficient in others, he had always to contend with a double disadvantage, being supposed to be possessed of greater acquirements than he really had, and being always pitted against rivals, though not of greater capacities, yet of more matured minds. This he used to say in general of his progress through the school; but as to particulars he was very silent. He seemed to think that he had been misunderstood and harshly treated. He never complained; indeed he used to say that it was always a boy's own fault if he did not get on: but at times he was gloomy and bitter about persons and things in a degree I never before saw in so young a man. It was on some of these occasions that he would let drop a few words of the deepest pathos about himself, and then stop short, and completely change the subject, as if afraid to trust himself to think on it. When I came to Eton, Courtland took me as his fag. From this our connexion began; it soon ripened (I know not how) into the fastest friendship. I do not think that there was a thought in his heart, which he would have kept back from me. I do not mean that he was always talking about himself, and making personal confidences, for there was nothing more certain than this to draw down his sarcastic irony; but I mean that if anything came naturally in his way, he would not have kept it secret from me, any more than from his nearest relation. Thus, loving him much, and being very intimate with him, I had the best opportunities of observing the developement of his character. It was curious to see how unpopular he was at this |