Page:Witty and entertaining exploits of George Buchanan (10).pdf/23

 The English 'ſquire confeſſed he was fairly beat, and would match him with no more. Then another gentleman would hold five guineas, that he would give him a word or line, that he could not metre at the firſt anſwers and to anſwer it directly as ſoon as he had done ſpeaking: but George ordered him firſt to table the money, and then to proceed, which he did in all haſte; and ſaid as follows:

Then they all cried out, he was fairly beat, and what George had ſaid, was really true; but he never would lay any more wagers concerning poetry.

After this George got a letter from a biſhop, telling him, that he was coming to viſit him, an take dinner with him in his lodging: George ſent an anſwer, that he would wait upon his lordſhip at the day appointed; but well did George know, it was not for any love he bad unto him, he was coming to viſit him, but to ſpy fairlies; therefore he thought he ſhould give him ſomething to talk about. So George ſent his ſervant to a bookſeller's ſhop to buy a dozen of ſmall pamphlets, about a halfpenny a piece; ſuch as a groat's worth of wit for a penny, the hiſtory of the king and the cobler, and ſuch pieces as theſe; taking all his own books away, and putting the pamphlets in their place, which he preſented to the biſhop; when he asked for a ſight of his library. What, ſays the biſhop, have you no mare books but theſe? No more, ſays George, but my bible; juſt no more. O! ſays the bishop, I wonder how you can either ſpeak plain or write a perfect ſentence, when you have no other books than theſe. O! ſays George, do you think that I am a clergyman, to borrow other men's ſermons to beautify my works: no, no, not I; all that I write I dite, I meditate out of my own brain. This check concerning borrowing put the biſhop in a cold ſweat, yet he concealed his paſſion. Then George called to his ſervant, if dinner was ready yet? to which he anſwered, Come, maſter, come, the pot is on the boil, get out the meal poke: then George came into the room where his ſervant was, and ſet the biſhop at the one ſide of the fire, and ſat down on the other himſelf,