“Damn’d neuters, in their middle way of steering,
  Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring: 
  Nor whigs, nor Tories they; nor this nor that;
  Not birds, not beasts, but just a kind of bat: 
  A twilight animal, true to neither cause,
  With Tory wings, but Whiggish teeth and claws.”

* * * * *

OTWAY’S “CAIUS MARIUS.”

When poor Otway’s “unpardonable piracy,” in taking part of this play from “Romeo and Juliet,” was reprobated so severely, the critic might have done him the justice to mention, that, instead of attempting to pass off the borrowed beauties as his own, he, in the prologue, fully avowed his obligations.  It contains an animated eulogy on Shakspeare, which thus concludes:—­

“Though much the most unworthy of the throng, Our this day’s poet fears he’s done him wrong.  Like greedy beggars, that steal sheaves away, You’ll find he’s rifled him of half a play; Among his baser dross you’ll see it shine, Most beautiful, amazing, and divine.”

* * * * *

NANCY DAWSON

Was a dancer at Covent Garden Theatre, previous to the accession of his late majesty; and in 1760 transferred her services to the other house.  On the 23rd of September, in that year, the “Beggar’s Opera” was performed at Drury Lane, when the play-bill thus announced her:  “In Act III, a hornpipe by Miss Dawson, her first appearance here.”—­It seems she was engaged to oppose Mrs. Vernon in the same exhibition at the rival house.  That her performance of it was somewhat celebrated, may be inferred from the circumstance of there being a full-length print of her in it.—­Gentleman’s Magazine.

* * * * *

RELIC OF JOHN BUNYAN.

[Illustration:  Relic of John Bunyan.]

The cut represents the vessel from which John Bunyan, the author of that popular allegory, “the Pilgrim’s Progress,” was accustomed to drink syllabub, during his incarceration in Bedford County Gaol.  The original is in the possession of the correspondent who has furnished us with the sketch for the engraver.  It is of common earthen-ware, 7-1/2 inches in height, and will contain 3-1/2 pints; one of the handles is partly broken off; the glaze is of a light flesh tint; and the vessel is a fair specimen of pottery in the early part of the seventeenth century.

Bunyan, it will be recollected, was born in 1628, at Elstow, near Bedford, where the cottage stood in its original state till within these few years.  It has latterly been new fronted, but the interior remains nearly as in Bunyan’s time.  He was the son of a tinker, and followed his father’s trade; and at Elstow are the remains of a closet in which, in early life, he carried on business.  During the civil war he served as a soldier in the