have read somewhat, heard and seen more, and dreamt more than all. My brain is filled therefore, with all kinds of odds and ends. In travelling, these heterogeneous matters have become shaken up in my mind, as the articles are apt to be in an ill-packed travelling-trunk; so that when I attempt to draw forth a fact, I cannot determine whether I have read, heard, or dreamt it; and I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories. These matters being premised, fall to, worthy reader, with good appetite; and, above all, with good-humor, to what is here set before thee. If the tales I have furnished should prove to be bad, they will at least be found short; so that no one will be wearied long on the same theme. "Variety is charming," as some poet observes. There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stage-coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place. Ever thine, GEOFFREY CRAYON. Dated from the HOTEL DE DARMSTADT, ci-devant HOTEL DE PARIS, MENTZ, otherwise called MAYENCE. STRANGE STORIES BY A NERVOUS GENTLEMAN. I'll tell you more, there was a fish taken, A monstrous fish, with a sword by 's side, a long sword, THE THE GREAT UNKNOWN. me following adventures were related to by the same nervous gentleman who told me the romantic tale of the Stout Gentleman, published in "Bracebridge Hall." It is very singular, that although I expressly stated that story to have been told to me, and described the very person who told it, still it has been received as an adventure that happened to myself. Now I protest I never met with any adventure of the kind. I should not have grieved at this, had it not been intimated by the author of "Waverley," in an introduction to his novel of "Peveril of the Peak," that he was himself the stout gentleman alluded to. I have ever since been importuned by questions and letters from gentlemen, and particularly from ladies without |