Note 717 — CANTO THE FOURTEENTH.
Reading edition
{528}In Swift's or Horace Walpole's letters I think it is mentioned that somebody, regretting the loss of a friend, was answered by an universal Pylades: "When I lose one, I go to the Saint James's Coffee-house, and take another." I recollect having heard an anecdote of the same kind.—Sir W.D. was a great gamester. Coming in one day to the Club of which he was a member, he was observed to look melancholy.—"What is the matter, Sir William?" cried Hare, of facetious memory.—"Ah!" replied Sir W., "I have just lost poor Lady D."—"Lost! What at? Quinze or Hazard?" was the consolatory rejoinder of the querist.
[The dramatis personae are probably Sir William Drummond (1770-1828), author of the Academical Questions, etc., and Francis Hare, the wit, known as the "'Silent Hare,' from his extreme loquacity."—Gronow's Reminiscences, 1889, ii. 98-101.]