Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/317

 HIFFERNAN. 313 tification in the company of their champion; and one of his biographers gravely informs u s , that Hiffernan “was a man very well qualified t o s i t a t a n alderman's table.” Our author not feeling altogether comfortable i n Dublin, (for giving both a n improper licence t o his tongue and pen, h e met with several insults i n coffee houses, and other public places) thought i t advisable i n either 1753 o r 1754, t o illuminate London with his presence. Here, imme diately after his arrival, h e published five numbers o f a pamphlet, entitled “The Tuner,” i n which, with more humour than he ever discovered afterwards, he ridiculed the new plays o f “Philoclea,” “Boadicea,” “Constan tine,” “Virginia,” &c. He was also employed a s a translator from the French and Latin, but was neither suc cessful nor deserving o f success. I n 1755, h e treated the world with a volume o f “Miscellanies i n prose and verse,” which was a happy union o f ingenuity and nonsense, but which produced him some money, a s h e had the art o f disposing o f his books among his friends and acquaintances b y personal application, and other modes o f address, not very creditable either t o learning o r delicacy. The line o f authorship h e took u p after the publication o f these mis cellanies was, any mode which presented itself t o gain a temporary existence; sometimes b y writing a pamphlet, and privately subscribing i t amongst his friends and acquaintances, and, sometimes, b y becoming the patron o r defender o f some novice for the stage, o r o f some artist who wanted t o make his way t o public notice b y puffing, o r other indirect means. I t i s said h e had several players and painters under contribution for this purpose; and, a s h e was a man o f some plausibility, and had a known inti macy with Garrick, Foote, and many o f the literati, i t i s n o wonder that h e sometimes gained proselytes. His grand place o f rendezvous was the cider cellar, Maiden-lane; a place h e usually resorted t o o n those even ings, when, t o use his own expression, “he was not housed for the night.” Here i t was h e played the part o f patron o r preceptor with some dexterity. l f any painter