I consider then that it has simply the same meaning as that of “coming a day after the fair.”  To come at the end of a feast when the various viands (always including mutton as being easy of digestion for dyspeptic people) were still warm, though cut pretty near to the bone, would, by most persons, particularly aldermanic “bodies,” be considered sufficiently vexatious; how doubly annoying then must it be to come so late as to find the meats more than half cold, and, perhaps, but little of them left even in that anti-epicurean state!  Whoever has been unfortunate enough to miss a fine fat haunch either of venison or mutton, which, smoking on the board, even Dr. Kitchiner would have pronounced fit for an emperor, cannot but enter deeply and feelingly into the disappointment of that guest who, arriving, through some misdate of the invitation card, on the day subsequent to the feast, finds but, horribile dictu, cold lean ham, cold pea-soup, cold potatoes, and finally, cold mutton.  Goldsmith’s idea certainly was that Burke was never able to say, in the words of the Roman adage, in tempore veni quod rerum omnium est primum; but rather in plain English, “confound my ill luck, I never yet was invited to a feast but I either missed it in toto, or came so late as to be obliged to eat my mutton cold, a thing, which of all others, I most abhor.”  HEN.  B.

* * * * *

POOL’S HOLE, DERBYSHIRE.

(For the Mirror.)

This cave is said to have taken its title from a notorious robber of that name, who being declared an outlaw, found in this hole a refuge from justice, where he carried on his nocturnal depredations with impunity.  Others insist that this dismal hole was the habitation of a hermit or anchorite, of the name of Pool.  Of the two traditions, I prefer the former.  It is situated at the bottom of Coitmos, a lofty mountain near Buxton.  The entrance is by a small arch, so low that you are forced to creep on hands and knees to gain admission; but it gradually opens into a vault above a quarter of a mile in length, and as some assert, a quarter of a mile high.  It is certainly very lofty, and resembles the roof of a Gothic edifice.  In a cavern to the right called Pool’s Chamber, there is a fine echo, and the dashing of a current of water, which flows along the middle of the great vault, very much heightens the wonder.

On the floor are great ridges of stone—­water is perpetually distilling from the roof and sides of this vault, and the drops before they fall produce a very pleasing effect, by reflecting numberless rays from the candles carried by the guides.  They also form their quality from crystallizations of various flakes like figures of fret work, and in some places, having long accumulated upon one another, into large masses, bearing a rude resemblance to various animals.

In the same cavity is a column as clear as alabaster, called Mary Queen of Scots’ column, because it is said she reached so far; beyond which is a steep ascent for nearly a quarter of a mile, which terminates in a hollow in the roof, called the Needle’s-eye, in which, when the guide places his candle, it looks like a star in the firmament.  You only wonder when you get out how you attained such an achievement.  W.H.H.