EPIGRAMS, ETC.
Reading edition
On Lord Dudley, who was noted for learning all his speeches by heart.
In vain my affections the ladies are seeking: If I give up my heart, there’s an end to my speaking. On Miss Ellen Tree, the singer. On this Tree if a nightingale settles and sings, The tree will return her as good as she brings. On Moore the poet’s excuse to his guests that his servant was ill from the effects of a carousal. Come, come, for trifles never stick, Most servants have a failing, Yours, it is true, are sometimes sick, But mine are always aleing.
On being asked what “on the contrary” meant, when that phrase was used by a person charged with eating three eggs every morning, Luttrell’s ready retort was, “Laying them, I daresay.”
I hate the sight of monkeys, they remind one so of poor relations.
On a man run over by an omnibus.
Killed by an omnibus—why not? So quick a death a boon is. Let not his friends lament his lot— Mors omnibus communis.
At one of the crowded receptions at Holland House, Lady Holland was requested by the guests to “make room.” “It must certainly be made, for it does not exist,” said Luttrell.
On Samuel Rogers’ poem, “Italy,” which was illustrated by Turner.
Of Rogers’ “Italy” Luttrell relates That ’twould have been dished, if ’twere not for the plates! Henry Luttrell (1766?-1851.)