Monday, November 19, 2007

Dr. Dryasdust


Sir,


o you or any of your readers know anything of the family of that celebrated antiquary, and do you think it probable that he was descended from, or connected with, the author of a work which I met with some time ago, intituled "Wit Revised, or A new and excellent way of Divertisement, digested into most ingenious Questions and Answers. By Asdryasdust Tossoffacan. London: Printed for T. E. and are to be sold by most Booksellers. MDCLXXIV." 12mo. I do not know anything of the author's character, but he appears to have been a right-minded man, in so far as he (like yourself) expected to find "wit revived" by its digestion into "most ingenious questions and answers;" though his notion that asking and answering questions was a new way of divertisement, seems to indicate an imperfect knowledge of the nature and history of mankind; but my query is simply genealogical.


H. F. W.

-from Notes and Queries Vol. 1 (2) November 10, 1849, p. 26.

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