Page:Studies of a Biographer 1.djvu/96

 but perhaps they are not so famous now as to forbid a specimen. Colin is terribly put out by Phebe's absence.

'I'll give him another' is a phrase for which I have often been grateful to the excellent Byrom. It gives a pleasant sanction to one's own humours. Though the metre limps a little in this stanza, it is often very dexterously used by Byrom; and the poem is worthy of a high place in the age of Mat Prior. Probably, though an absurd construction has been put upon the facts, the master was not the less friendly towards the young fellow for this compliment to his bright little daughter. 'Mr. Spectator' judged rightly that it would divert his readers; and a Mr. Mills, years afterwards, 'kissed the book' when he read it.

Byrom had some difficulty at the time in taking the oaths to the new family; and he made a rather mysterious journey soon afterwards to Montpellier.