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would be manure for the holly and elder; and the pofthumous productions of poets would furnifh bays and laurels for their fucceffors. But I tire you, Mr MIRROR, with thefe trifling fancies; the utility of my plan is what I value myself upon, and defire your opinion of.

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N° 53.

TUESDAY, July 26. 1779.

To the AUTHOR of the MIRROR.

SIR,

AM one of the young women mentioned

in two letters which you published in your 12th and 25th numbers, though I did not know till very lately that our family had been put into print in the MIRROR. Since it is fo, I think I too may venture to write you a letter, which, if it be not quite fo well written as my father's, (though I am no great admirer of his ftyle neither), will at least be as

true.

Soon after my Lady 's vifit at our house, of which the laft of my father's letters informed you, a fifter of his, who is married to a man of business here in Edinburgh, came with her husband to fee us in the country; and, though my fifter Mary and I foon discovered many vulgar things about them, yet, as they were both very good humoured fort of people, and took great pains to make them

felves agreeable, we could not help looking with regret to the time of their departure. When that drew near, they furprised us, by an invitation to me to come and spend fome months with my coufins in town, faying, that my mother could not miss my company at home, while she had fo good a companion and affiftant in the family as her daughter Mary.

To me there were not fo many allurements in this journey as might have been imagined. I had lately been taught to look on London as the only capital worth vifiting; befides that I did not expect the highest fatisfaction from the fociety I fhould meet with at my aunt's, which, I confefs, I was apt to fuppofe none of the most genteel. I contrived to keep the matter in fufpenfe, (for it was left entirely to my own determination), till I should write for the opinion of my friend Lady -on the fubject; for, ever fince our first acquaintance, we had kept up a conftant and regular correfpondence. In our letters, which were always written in a style of the warmest affection, we were in the way of talking with the greatest freedom of every body of our acquaintance. It was delightful, as her ladyfhip expreffed it,

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"to unfold one's feelings in the bofom of

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friendship;" and fhe accordingly was wont to fend me the most natural and lively pictures of the company who reforted to ; and I, in return, tranfmitted her many anecdotes of thofe perfons, which chance, or a greater intimacy, gave me an opportunity of learning. To prevent difcovery, we correfponded under the fignatures of Hortenfia and Leonora; and fome very particular intelligence her ladyship taught me not to commit to ink, but to fet down in lemon-juice - I wander from my ftory, Mr MIRROR; "but I cannot help fondly recalling (as Emilia in the novel "fays) thofe halcyon days of friendship and "felicity."

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When her Ladyfhip's answer arrived, I found her clearly of opinion that I ought to accept of my aunt's invitation.. She was very jocular on the manners which fle fuppofed I fhould find in that lady's family; but, she said, I might take the opportunity of making fome acquirements, which, though London alone could perfect, Edinburgh might, in fome degree, communicate. She concluded her letter with requesting the continuation of my correfpondence, and a narrative of every thing

that

that was paffing in town, efpecially with regard to fome ladies and gentlemen of her acquaintance, whom the pointed out to my particular obfervation.

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To Edinburgh, therefore, I accompanied my aunt, and found a family very much difpofed to make me happy. In this they might, perhaps, have fucceeded more completely, had I not acquired, from the inftructions of Lady and the company I faw at her houfe, certain notions of polite life with which I did not find any thing at Mr refpond. It was often, indeed, their good humour which offended me as coarfe, and their happiness that ftruck me as vulgar.. There was not fuch a thing as hip or low Spi rits among them, a fort of finery which, at I found a perfon of fashion could not

poffibly be without.

's cor

They were at great pains to fhew me any fights that were to be feen, with fome of which I was really little pleafed, and with others E thought it would look like ignorance to seem pleafed. They took me to the play-boufe, where there was little company, and very little attention. I was carried to the concert, where the cafe was exactly the fame. I ran down

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