I should mention, that in my interview with the _soi-disant_ Dauphin, he showed me various portraits of Louis XVI., and then bade me look at his own features, in every attitude and form, and say if the likeness was not most striking and remarkable. I could not deny it; and in truth was so impressed with his whole account, that I began to look upon the humble individual before me with something of the reverence due to majesty, shorn of its glories.
P.S.--I now recollect that the name of this pretended Dauphin was Mevis, and that he was said to have been seen in Regent Street by a friend of mine about five years ago; and may, for aught I know, be still living.
_Visiting Cards_ (Vol. iv., p. 133.).--In answer to your 87th Query, it may serve in part to help to show "when visiting cards first came into use," by informing you that about six or eight years ago a house in Dean Street, Soho, was repaired (I think No. 79.), where Allison and Co., the pianoforte makers, now of the Quadrant, formerly resided; and, on removing a marble chimney-piece in the front drawing-room, four or five visiting cards were found, one with the name of "Isaac Newton" on it. The names were all _written_ on the back of common playing cards; and it is not improbable that one or more may still be in the possession of Mr. Allison, 65. Quadrant. The house in Dean Street was the residence of either Hogarth or his father-in-law.
_Sardonic Smiles_ (Vol. iv., p. 18.).--I beg to refer such of your readers as take an interest in the discussion of "Sardonic Smiles" to a treatise or memoir on the subject, by a learned scholar and antiquary in the St. Petersburgh Transactions for 1851. The title of the memoir is as follows: _Die Talos-Sage und das Sardonische Lachen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Griechischer Sage und Kunst, von Ludwig Mercklin._ The memoir is also printed separately, from the _Mémoires des Savants Etrangers_.
_Darby and Joan_ (Vol. iii., p. 38.).--As no one has answered your correspondent by referring him to a copy of this ballad, I have great pleasure in calling his attention to _A Collection of Songs, Moral, Sentimental, Instructive, and Amusing_, 4to. Cambridge, 1805. At p. 152. of this volume, the "pleasant old ditty" of "Darby and Joan" is given at length, accompanied with the music. The editor, the Rev. James Plumptre, M.A., tells us that it is "attributed to Matthew Prior." As this book is somewhat difficult to procure, your correspondent is welcome to the loan of my copy.