---
* We suspect that Mr. Larkyns is again intentionally deceiving his
freshman friend; for on looking into our Wordsworth (~Misc. Son.~
iii. 2) we find that the poet does ~not~ refer to the establishment
of Messrs. Spiers and Son, and that the lines, truly quoted, are,

"O ye ~spires~ of Oxford! domes and towers!
Gardens and groves! Your presence," &c.
We blush for Mr. Larkyns!
-=-


[96 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

themselves quite a small but gratuitous Academy exhibition, - our hero
became so confused among the bewildering allurements around him, as
to feel quite an ~embarras de richesses~, and to be in a state of
mind in which he was nearly giving Mr. Spiers the most extensive (and
expensive) order which probably that gentleman had ever received from
an undergraduate. Fortunately for his purse, his attention was
somewhat distracted by perceiving that Mr. Slowcoach was at his
elbow, looking over ink-stands and reading-lamps, and also by Charles
Larkyns calling upon him to decide whether he should have the
cigar-case he had purchased emblazoned with the heraldic device of
the Larkyns, or illuminated with the Euripidean motto,-

{To bakchikon doraema labe, se gar philo.}

When this point had been decided, Mr. Larkyns proposed to Verdant
that he should astonish and delight his governor by having the Green