in the month of conjugal felicity they are about to pass at Cowes. She had settled it with herself that I should accompany her, and that we were to have yachting parties, regattas, and I know not what; and cannot pardon me for preferring Bedfordshire. But I feel the want of quiet, and of my sister's society; and, even when I not resolved upon visiting the Herberts, Cowes, is the last place I should have preferred, as I find Lord Penrhyn is amusing himself in the Isle of Wight, having already plucked off his Rossana willow.

Hollybridge, Beds.—What a pleasant sensation, after` the tumults and heartburnings of a season in town, to be awakened by the song of birds, from a tranquillizing night's rest! How beautifully green appears the verdure of the paddock under my windows, and the coppice towards which it slopes after the dingy Green Park, and the dusty groves of Buckingham Palace! How fresh, how fragrant the air here, after the stifling atmosphere of London! I fancied that the recent dispiritment of my mind arose from regret at the idea of leaving town; but, no sooner were the change of habit broken, and I found myself ensconced in my travelling carriage, than I felt relieved from the pressure of a thousand imaginary evils. I am delighted to find myself here.

Armine and the children have recovered their good looks and good spirits, and received me at the gate, all bloom and cheerfulness; even Herbert seems to be quite a different creature here in his little domain.

The place is a thousand times prettier than I expected; and, though "a cottager of gentility," its pride does not even pretend to be humble. There is a pretty green-house attached to the drawing-room; and the gardens are good and extensive for the size of the domain. The windows command an animated landscape; the book-room is well furnished; altogether, there is an air of cheerfulness which fully explains my brother's distaste for the smoky house in New Norfolk Street. Hollybridge is a home that seems to invite one to be happy.

It appears an established rule in country neighbourhoods, that the moment a friend or relative arrives on a visit, all the surrounding families shall confederate to interrupt their enjoyment of each other's society. For three days only was I

permitted to be alone with my sister and her rosy children. On the fourth came Lady Farrington, of Farrington Park, full of reproaches to Armine, that she had not more immediately apprised her of dear Mrs. Delaval's arrival; and insisting that an early day should be fixed for a visit to Sir John and herself. Supposing that the word "visit" purported only a formal full-dress dinner party, to be purchased by a drive of five or six miles, I still attempted to telegraph to my sister an entreaty that the project might be negatived. But Lady Farrington was there only to enforce her demand; and we found it impossible to deny that no pre-engagement prevented our accepting her invitation for Thursday, the second of August. The knotty point thus adjusted, she withdrew; but what was my consternation on learning from Armine that the neighbourhood of Hollybridge is what is called "a charming sociable neighbourhood;" . e. one of those in which it is decreed, that those who dine must sleep, and that those who dine and sleep, extend the penance to eight and forty hours. We have, therefore, impending over us, a visit of two days to fussy, empty, parading Lady Farrington. But this is not my only grievance. She appears to have made a round of visitations for the sole purpose of circulating through the country the arrival of Mrs. Herbert's sister; the following day, our pretty little drawing-room was crowded with all the visitables within eight miles distance of Hollybridge.

I now admit that I was inhuman in my verdict, that quiet country families, such as the Gresham Ronshams and Farringtons, were better at their country seats than amid the fashionable corruptions of London. I did not know, or had forgotten, the stupifying triviality of a sociable, gossiping country neighbourhood. Amongst the five detachments of fiddle-faddlers who yesterday bestowed their tediousness upon Hollybridge, exactly three topics of conversation were started; the committal of one Phil. Robinson by a certain worshipful 'Squire Smith, on a charge of having poisoned a foxcover; the probability that Sir Thomas Elliot, the highsheriff, would start a new carriage for the approaching assizes; and the injustice of a bill passed last session, for turning the road between Gorse Hill and Broomby Bottom, so as to secure Lord Forcefig's wall-fruit from the dust. On these three nothingnesses did they ring the changes; arguing, rearguing, swallowing their own arguments; misapprehending, and apologizing for their own stupidity; misrepresenting, and sneaking out of their own equivocations, till I scarcely wondered that poor Miss Augusta Gresham Ronsham should have been captivated by the fine, gay, bold-faced villany of a

Count Schwarzkiewicz, with his man-of-the-world-like diversity of small talk. No pismire, domesticated in its anthill, can entertain a narrower view of life and manners than two-thirds of Armine's country neighbours; valuable people, no doubt, in their generation ("bien heureux les pauvres d'es prit"), but tedious beyond all patience, save that of my gentle amiable sister. I have been trying to persuade Armine to remove our work-table and books to-morrow into a delightful grove of lime-trees, a few hundred yards from the house; but the earnestness with which she pleaded-" Still we must receive our visitors; they are kind friendly people; and, you know, it would be impossible to say, 'not at home,' to those who come several miles, only to show us attention," was unanswerable. It seemed any thing but impossible to me; but Armine knows best.

-Farrington Park! Farrington Park !-what a type of antediluvianism!-nothing wanting but the ponderous coachand-six, with gilt springs, to represent the family establishment of all the Grandisons. A great gloomy state drawingroom, without a flower, a book, or a comfortable chair to muse in; a great state dining-room, with portraits of all variety of badness, in oils and crayons, of Farringtons of the three last reigns, ending with Sir John, M.P., painted at the expense of the corporation of Bedford, in a William-Pitt-like attitude, with a business-like standish and corporation rolls on his writing-table; a great state billiard-room, with a table of the last century, its green cloth like my own Green Park, faded into autumnal yellow; a great state staircase, and suite of great state bed-rooms, with great state four-post beds, of dusty damask; and a great state Dutch flower-garden, threequarters of a mile from the hall door! Every thing, in short, to secure the discomfort of its inmates. Herbert groaned aloud, as we drove up to the portico; while Armine felt it her duty to console him by the observation, that, however disagreeable the visit, he would be able to get through a great deal of justice-business with Sir John, in the course of the next two days.

Lady Farrington welcomed us with the hospitable fervour of an Arab.

"I expect a charming party!" said she. "In addition to Sir Thomas Clargess' family, we have Sir Robert and Lady Mardynville, who are coming from Berkshire to pass a week with us; very fashionable people, who live on the most intimate terms with the royal family. Perhaps you may have met them in town?"

To record the two days of parade and dulness that followed, would be too severe a task. At half past nine, the breakfast bell, and a morning sacrifice of pasties, hams, tongues, potted meats, with steaming urns and chocolate-pots, in a room hung with scarlet moreen, and facing the morning sun. Next, a stifling seance round a work-table, covered with worsteds and carpet-work, till the servant's dinner-bell announces a hot luncheon in the scarlet room, now basking in meridian fervour. Then an airing in the family coach, or a walk in the formal Dutch garden, till the half-hour dressingbell a grand toilet of silks and satins,-dinner of four courses, coffee, tea, whist,—and, at half-past ten, a supper. Four regular meals a-day, eaten with the same dull people, in the same dull room, and unseasoned by a single word of rational conversation! In spite of my presentiments, the Mardynvilles were an acquisition to the party; their exceeding absurdity proved a relief, after the common-place jog-trot decorum of Sir John and his wife. Lady Mardynville insisted on making me the accomplice of her affectation; and talked of our "friend, the Duke of Merioneth," and "our balls at St. James's" (to over-awe the country neighbours,) in the style of Lady Blarney and Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs. But this was not her worst offence. When we made our appearance in the drawing-room, jewelled to the teeth, to weary for the second day's dinner, Lady M., who had departed after luncheon on a tour of visits, with her hostess, in the family coach, sailed up to me with a patronizing air, to assure me that dear old Lady Hartston was quite irate with the Herberts, for not having apprized her of my presence at Hollybridge.

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My sister acted in compliance with my request," was my cold reply; "I came to Bedfordshire expressly to visit her, and was anxious that the time we pass together should be as little as possible broken in upon by strangers."

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"By strangers,-very possibly; but, by friends, like Lady Hartston ?"

"With Lady Hartston I have not even the honour of acquaintance."

"Really? Why, she spoke of you with so much interest, and seemed to know you so intimately, that I concluded you had been friends for years. How strange!"

"Your mistake does me too much honour. I never spoke to her in my life."

"Well, you will speak to her soon. She is going to Hollybridge on Saturday, expressly to wait upon you; although Lady Farrington informs me that the old lady rarely pays morning visits."

So, after all, I am condemned to become acquainted with the surly old gentlewoman of the ventilator; and to-morrow she will be here! How snug and comfortable every thing appears in our little greenery, after the glare and gormandizing of Farrington Park! Of all the taxes whose payment falls to the lot of civilized mortals, what is called our debt to society is certainly one of the heaviest.

Saturday. Decidedly, that Lady Mardynville is the fairy Guignon in disguise. As if for the express purpose of annoyance, she persuaded Lady Farrington to drive her to Hollybridge to-day; being well aware that Lady Hartston was to be here. The grave old lady came, evidently disposed to be kind and courteous; but no sooner did the other two take their places at the luncheon-table, than the Mardynville's abominable fine-ladyism disgusted her into silence. Throughout her flippancies and pretensions, she appealed to her dear Mrs. Delaval for confirmation; and I had really no patience to find myself elected the bosom-friend of one, whom I have uniformly avoided as even a visiting acquaintance. What must Lady Hartston think of me, with two such associates as Miss Randall and this lion-and-unicorn hunter; she was very kind, however, in pressing me to visit her; and it is arranged, that on Tuesday we dine and sleep at the Abbey.

Hartston.-I am half inclined to believe that the spirit of local sanctity is never wholly exorcized from the site of a religious house! There is a tone of human tranquillity about this place, which inclines one to expect a procession of monks gliding through its woods, or an encounter with some cowled Benedictine, telling his beads among the ruins of the sanetuary. All is so calm, so still, so holy, that the very belling of the deer under the old oaks becomes a disturbance.

Many people are of opinion that the Sir Jeffrey Hartston who, in the reign of Elizabeth, erected the present mansion, chose ill in fixing the site so close upon the ruins of the