The imposture was detected in the sequel,
and our Hibernian pamphleteer retains no part of his assumed
importance, but the bare title of my lord. and the upper part of
the table at the potatoe-ordinary in Shoelane.
Opposite to me sat a Piedmontese, who had obliged the public with
a humorous satire, intituled, The Ballance of the English Poets,
a performance which evinced the great modesty and taste of the
author, and, in particular, his intimacy with the elegancies of
the English language. The sage, who laboured under the
agrophobia, or horror of green fields, had just finished a
treatise on practical agriculture, though, in fact, he had never
seen corn growing in his life, and was so ignorant of grain, that
our entertainer, in the face of the whole company, made him own,
that a plate of hominy was the best rice pudding he had ever eat.
The stutterer had almost finished his travels through Europe and
part of Asia, without ever budging beyond the liberties of the
King's Bench, except in term-time, with a tipstaff for his
companion; and as for little Tim Cropdale, the most facetious
member of the whole society, he had happily wound up the
catastrophe of a virgin tragedy, from the exhibition of which he
promised himself a large fund of profit and reputation.
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