Readers of Thackeray will remember the little dinner at Timmins, when the hired chef shed such consternation in the bosom of little Mrs Timmins by his outrageous demands for 'a leg of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham', on behalf of the stock-pot.

Mr. Sam Timmins on these occasions was ever ready with an apt remark, very often containing an apt quotation, and Mr. Sebastian Evans smoked and laughed much, made incisive little observations, and drew sketches on blotting paper.