Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/217

181 JOHN MURRAY. 181 ever on his walls. Famous tales, too, are told of the " publisher's dinners ;" of tables surrounded as never any king's table but that of the " Emperor of the West's " had ever been. As Byron makes Murray s^ay, in his mock epistle to Dr. Palidori " The room's so full of wits and bards, Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards, And others, neither bards nor wits, My humble tenement admits All persons in the dress of gent, From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent. A party dines with me to-day, All clever men who make their way ; Crabbe, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantrey Are all partakers of my pantry. My room's so full we've Gifford here, Reading MS. with Hookham Frere, Pronouncing on the nouns and particles Of some of our forthcoming articles." Mr. Planche, in his recently-published "Recollec- tions," gives us an amusing account of one of these literary reunions ; this time, however, at the house of Horace Twiss. Murray, James Smith, and others re- mained in the dining-room very late, and the party grew noisy and merry, for Hook was giving some of his wonderful extempore songs. Pressed for another, he declared that the subject should be " John Murray ;" but the "Emperor of the West" objected most vehe- mently, and vainly chased Hook round the table in fur- tive endeavours to stop a recitative, of which Planche only remembers the beginning : " My friend, John Murray, I see, has arrived at the head of the table, And the wonder is, at this time of night, that John Murray should be able. He's an excellent hand at supper, and not a bad hand at lunch, But the devil of John Murray is, that he never will pass the punch !"
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