summons of Lady Clackmannan, I had the amusement of seeing the Marnma Ronsham in pompadour and gold, looped up here, and flounced down there, bundled into the carriage, by her spouse, in his yeomanry uniform, looking vastly like Major Sturgeon; while the young ladies followed, in pink and silver, their elbows red by nature,-their ears and noses, by the effort of bringing-to the hooks and eyes of ill-fitting gowns. Better have powdered them after the fashion of their two bedizened footmen, whose heads exhibited a bushel of flour,— whose canes exceeded, in length, the djereed of a Persian warrior, and whose bouquets must have deprived Covent Garden of its last polyanthus.

As to

After all, magnificence is a tawdry thing, when viewed under the searching blaze of sunshine. Jewels lack lustre,gold appears mere tinsel,-the circumstantialities of dress are too much seen to admit of any general effect; and even beauty's self becomes less beautiful. The exposure of the person imparts a meretricious air,-the complexion becomes moistened by the stifling atmosphere of the crowded rooms. ladies of a certain age, let them, above all things, avoid the drawing-room-such a revelation of wrinkles, moles, beards, rouge, pearl-powder, pencilled eye-brows, false hair, and false teeth, as were brought to light, I could scarcely have imagined. Many faces, which I had thought lovely at Almack's, grew hideous when exposed to the tell-tale brightness of the meridian sun: the consciousness of which degeneration rendered them anxious, fretful, and doubly frightful. Two or three dowagers, with mouths full of gold wire, chinstays of of blond to conceal their withered deficiencies, and tulle illusion tippits, were really horrific; painted sepulchres,-ghastly satires upon the hollowness of human splendour.

In general the men suffered less by exposure than the women. In these times, so many uniforms are worn, and a wellpadded, well-buckramed uniform goes so far towards the manufacture of a manly-looking man, that I had no fault to find, except with a few quizzes, much resembling that model for courtiers, Lord Grizzle, in Tom Thumb. Mr. Penrhyn had a certain faux air of Sir Charles Grandison, which rather took my fancy; and young Clarence Delaval in the hussar dress of the Duke of Merioneth's yeomanry cavalry, was really perfect. Lady Alicia and Clarence would make a charming couple!

A more charming couple still were Sir Robert and Lady Mardynville, so fussy about arriving in time, and having their names legibly written, and getting forward before their Majesties were too tired to distinguish them, and being prominently noticed by every member of the Royal Family. I stood near them, after we had passed the Presence Chamber; and they would not let me off a single bow. "His Majesty observed to me, with the greatest condescension, 'Sir Robert,

I am glad to see you;' and the Queen inquired, most affably, of Lady Mardynville, after our young people. The Duke of Cumberland, as you may have noticed, nodded to me as I passed him, the Duke of Sussex bowed. The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria smiled; as much as to say, "Ah! Sir Robert and Lady Mardynville,' and Princess Augusta inquired of her ladyship how long we had been in town. Princess Sophia, of Gloucester, treats us quite as friends; Lady Mardynville has a private audience of her royal highness once or twice in the course of the season. In short, it is not every one who can boast of being received as we have been. There is some satisfaction in paying our respects to the royal family, when we know, that our absence would be noticed, and that our attendance is appreciated."

For my part I was too much confused during my presentation to take much heed of what had occurred; not on account of the examination of the royal family, who exhibit the graciousness and indulgence of high-breeding; but because the malicious face of Lady Lancaster was prying from behind the Queen; while her son, who was in waiting, stared me out of countenance. His supercilious nonchalance was quite as insupportable as while enduring the martyrdom of the bad dinner in New Norfolk Street.

Having no claim to aspire to the hospitalities of the King and Queen, I have only to regard the drawing-room as one of the best parties in town; and though, of necessity, far from a select assemblage, comprehending more than any other the nobility and opulence of the kingdom. Many attend, out of respect for the throne; many more, out of respect to their own position in society; and the remainder, perhaps, to exhibit their diamond necklaces and state liveries.

I have often heard it asserted that an English girl, with the early bloom of girlishness on her cheek, is the prettiest creature in the world; and have thence concluded that a drawingroom, where so many of these rosebuds are brought forward to exhibit their first expansion, must present a most interesting spectacle. This morning I particularly noticed the demoiselles to be presented; and the ghastliness of the ladies of a certain age was scarcely less repulsive than the niaiserie of several of these budding beauties. Nothing but a young calf is so awkward as a girl fresh from the school-room, with the exhortations of the governess against forwardness and conceit still echoing in her ears; knowing no one-understanding nothing -afraid to sit, to stand, to speak, to look,-always in a nervous ague of self-misgiving. The blushing, terrified, clumsy girls, I noticed yesterday, will soon refine into elegant women; but what will then become of the delicacy of their complexion and the simplicity of their demeanour?

I am not one of those who cannot dispense with the casehardened air of fashion, which strips the cheek of its blushes,

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and the eyelid of its downcast veiling. The dureté of expression produced by long exposure to the stare of society, the worldliness stamped upon the brow, are, to me, fearful indications; and one of the charms which distinguishes my cousin, Lady Cecilia, from those of her caste, is a peculiar, whimsical, playful, un-naïve navieté, incompatible with the defying air of what is called Fashion.

And what, after all, is called Fashion? Ten thousand various things, by ten thousand various people! Rank is positive, wealth positive; but Fashion is an airy nothing, which obtains a name and local habitation, according to the fancy of the tribunal sitting in judgment. Provincial people, speaking of their country races, observe, "We had all the fashion of the neighbourhood: the duchess and her daughters, Lord So and So and his sons;" evidently mistaking mere nobility for fashion. London people, of the second class, talk in the same strain, of having met Mrs. Bullion and Mrs. Omnium," or other notabilities of the Bank-stock aristocracy with quantities of their fashionable friends at Hastings or Brighton." While the world, the peremptory world of the two thousand, applies the designation of fashion exclusively to that precarious and uncertain distinction which, for a moment, concentrates the favour of its caste upon certain things, or certain persons; individuals deficient in birth, fortune, morals, and understanding, have sometimes been eminently the fashion; and, as such, preferred before the great or good; have been invited everywhere, courted, caressed, till they attained an air of self-possession-of satisfaction in themselves and the world-conventionally termed an air of fashion.

Nothing, however, is so unaccountable as the generation and progress of this gaseous vapour! Like the malaria or the cholera, it rageth where it listeth; and whether infectious, or contagious, or spontaneous, or what not, no man can tell. It is as little to be commanded or controlled as the winds of heaven; and is more talked about, and as little understood, as political economy, or the metempsychosis.

ble"

A curious example was afforded me the other night, by Lady Cecilia, of the capricious nature of this butterfly goddess, whose frivolous worship seems to form the darling idolatry of London. Opposite to us, at the opera, but on a higher tier, is a small and inconvenient box, in which I have been accustomed to notice the comings and goings of all the "fashionamen about town; that is, the men of rank and fortune, distinguished, furthermore, by the ennobling touch of the tinsel wand. One crimson curtain of the box is always just sufficiently advanced to conceal the person seated behind its folds; and, had it not been for the occasional extension of an arm with an exquisitely fitting white glove, beating time with a glittering fan, I might have been permitted to surmise, that a bishop, or a lord chancellor, enjoyed slily, in that recondite

retreat, the terrestrial harmonies of Mozart or Rossini. But, its inmate thus proved to be a woman, I had only to conclude that she was one of those more sinning than sinned against, concerning whom questions must not be asked by lips polite.

"Last Saturday, however, I was startled by Lady Cecilia's observation of, "Ah! Mrs. Crowhurst is in the duke's box, I see, which explains why her little boudoir of fashion, yonder, is deserted to-night."

"Mrs. Crowhurst?" said I; and, following the direction of her glass to the ducal box to which she alluded, I found it fixed upon a tall, fair, handsome, and strikingly "fashionablelooking" woman.

"How abominable of the duke, whose sisters and cousins are often seen in that box, to allow such a person to enter it!" I exclaimed, in a fit of virtuous indignation.

"Such a person?"

"Such a person as that Mrs. Crowhurst."

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My dear love, she is not that Mrs. Crowhurst; she is the Mrs. Crowhurst. What have you to urge against her?"

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Nothing! for, till this moment, I never heard her name; but I have always concluded

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Fie, fie! where have you lived, my dear, not to have heard of Mrs. Crowhurst?"

"Seven years at Delaval Castle, and seventeen in a cottage in Staffordshire, since you oblige me to plead my cause," said I, laughing. “But, instead of deriding, pray, enlighten my ignorance.'

"And you really never heard of Mrs. Crowhurst? Vous êtes d'une ignorance crasse, as the French say of those who know twice as much as themselves! Mrs. Crowhurst is, as you see, a handsome woman; she is, as the peerage will tell you, well born; and, as I can tell you, clever and agreeable. Yet, when she first descended upon this most capricious of cities, no one cared for her-she did not get on-she was not the fashion. Some thought her too tall, some too fair, some too lively, some too frivolous-all too something. Almack's turned up its nose at her; and, under such contumelious treatment, most women, ejected from the highest sphere, would have taken to starring it in a lower. But the Crowhurst (let us do her justice!) had a taste for good society; and, after secretly analyzing the nature of the supercilious men and women by whom she was judged unworthy notice, determined on a coup d'état. She made herself talked about, grew affected, lost her character, and-became the fashion! I, and other fools, immediately set about inquiring, Who is this Mrs. Crowhurst, concerning whom there is such a scandal with Lord Alfred? Not the Mrs. Crowhurst I met down at Clackmannan Court?-Well! I had not the least idea there was any thing attractive in that woman!'-and so began to discover merits in her errors. By degrees she became the

rage; nay, she is still the height of the fashion. But if all the world believed her, as I do, to be, in reality, well-conducted, it would be puzzled to assign any motive for her sudden popularity."

f

"You are giving me a terrible lesson," said I, laughing. "What a frightful road to fashionable favour!"

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By no means! Your position and hers are essentially different. Were a breath of scandal to blow upon you, you were lost. You, free, independent, able to marry where you please, have no possible apology for indiscretion. Even flirting is forbidden to a widow. That which passes for flirtation in a girl of seventeen, becomes coquetry in a belle veuve; and, should she raise expectations which she afterwards refuses to gatify with her hand, she is termed, in plainest English, a jilt;—for she must have coquetted with malice prepense. You, my dear cousin, my dear friend, must take some wiser mode of becoming the fashion; luckily, you have only l'embarras du choix."

I was pleased by Cecilia's little lesson, for I saw she was in earnest. With all her légèreté, it would deeply grieve her, were my conduct to provoke a disparaging comment. Towards her niece, lady Alicia, she maintains the same severity; and, in presence of our lovely young friend, is twice as guarded in every sentiment and expression as in conversing with others. Had she been blessed with daughters of her own, I am persuaded they would have been admirably educated (i. e. for women of fashion!) It is a mistaken prejudice which decides a man against marriage with the daughter of one whose early years are supposed to have been years of error. Such a woman is rigorous, above all others, in watchfulness over her child; whereas women like Lady Clackmannan, whose conduct through life has been irreproachable, and who have basked in the sunny side of society, are apt to fancy virtue a thing of descent, or matter of course, leaving it to be inculcated by the governess, with geography and the use of the globes.

-Interrupted by a tiresome morning visit! How could even a woman so misjudging as Lady Farrington imagine that, because, at Armine's desire, I sent her my card, I entertained any desire to listen to her most prosaic prose for three long quarters of an hour! For the first ten minute of her visit, was deceived into thinking her charming; for she talked only of my sister, and of my sister only with praise. "As dear Mrs. Herbert's nearest neighbour in the country, she had such opportunities of admiring her sweetness of temper, her depth of judgment, her softness of disposition! Mrs. Herbert was her standard of perfection. She knew not such a wife, such a mother, such a mistress, such a friend. No one could properly estimate Mrs. Herbert but those who resided in her own neighbourhood, and saw her, young and pretty as she was, devote her time to