“A certain bishop in the House of Lords rose to speak, and announced that he should divide what he had to say into twelve parts, when the Duke of Wharton interrupted him, and begged he might be indulged for a few minutes as he had a story to tell which he could only introduce at that moment. A drunken fellow was passing St Paul’s at night, and heard the clock slowly chiming twelve. He counted the strokes and when it had finished, looked towards the clock and said, ‘Damn you! Why couldn’t you give us all that at once?’ There was an end to the bishop’s speech.”
Charles Greville, Memoirs, 1820
