Notes from a Diary, Vol. 2 of 2: 1892-1895

Excerpt from Notes From a Diary, Vol. 2 of 2: 1892-1895
3. At a house where I was calling to-day, people talked of some absurd schoolboy answers which appeared in the Spectator, and several of which looked as if they had been happily invented. The Dean of Christ Church said: "I should have set down the one I am going to quote as happily invented, if I had not known the man to whom it was actually shown up."
Question: "Enumerate the principal battles between Marston Moor and Naseby."
Answer: "General Marston Moor and General Naseby repeatedly encountered each other; but at last General Naseby defeated his opponent in a great battle, and Marston Moor was left dead upon the field."
6. At Heath Court, Coleridge's Devonshire home, we spoke of Thirlwall. After his great speech in the House of Lords on the Irish Church, which had been preceded by a good deal of exertion, Coleridge said to him: "It must have been very hard work."