classes of society. Every clerk, apprentice, and even waiter of a tavern or coffee-house, maintained a gelding by himself, or in partnership, and assumed the air and apparel of a petit maitre. The gayest places of public entertainment were filled with fashionable figures, which, upon inquiry, would be found to be journeymen tailors, serving men, and abigails, dressed like their betters.

Harrowgate and Bath were in the height of their glory; but Brighton had not yet been discovered, and was, in fact, nothing more than a little fishing village. Charms, love-spells, and incantations, were in common use among the middle classes, and were especially favoured by young people in love, or by those who were desirous of being in that happy position. "A maiden with connubial propensities would search the coffeegrounds, or the bottom of her tea-cup, for some outward and visible sign of her destined lover. On May morning she would wander into the fields to hear the cuckoo, and if that single-speech bird did utter his imbecile note, she would straightway pull off her left shoe in expectation of finding a hair such as adorned the head of her young man." "On Midsummer Eve, too, if you walked backwards, and in silence, into the garden, gathered a rose, and kept it in a clean sheet of paper till Christmas Day, it would then be as fresh and fair as on the night it was plucked. Put it boldly in the bosom of your dress, and he who snatched it thence would surely be your lord and master in the fulness of time."-It was a common practice when marriages among the wealthy classes were announced in the newspapers, to mention the bride's dowry, as thus: "Mr. James Coutts, merchant, to Miss Polly Pragrum, Knightsbridge, £30,000." -"Rev. Mr. Foyle to Miss Hayter, £10,000."-The adulteration of all kinds of food was much complained of, especially by the Londoners, who averred that, from bread to pickles, nothing genuine could be obtained.

In few things have we made greater progress during the last century than in the means of locomotion. For the common kind of people there was the stage coach; while those who could afford it, might hire a post-chaise, or, if they preferred it, travel on horseback. The journey by coach from Bath to London occupied two days; and that from London to Norwich, twelve hours. The postal arrangements were equally slow and inconvenient. Up to 1755 letters for the Midland counties were despatched from London only three times a week, a single post boy being sufficient to carry the bags to all the chief towns in that district. The ordinary charge for conveying a letter from Bath to London was 4d; but, if sent by express, it cost 41s.

Two more anecdotes, one domestic and one foreign-and then we must

conclude this brief sketch of England and the English as they were last century, for which we are indebted to Mr. James Hutton's instructive and entertaining work "A Hundred Years Ago," recently published. "A lawsuit had been going on for some time against the Princess Emily, for obstructing the public right of thoroughfare through Richmond Park. By the advice of the Attorney-General, she now consented to allow ladders to be erected against the walls, but obstinately refused to open the gates to the people. The latter triumphed, however, in 1758, when the Princess, furious at her defeat, abandoned the Park altogether. Her mother, Queen Caroline, with similar good feeling, had proposed to shut up St. James's Park, but fortunately first consulted Sir Robert Walpole, as to the probable cost. "Only a crown, madam, was his answer."

Here we have an idea of the system of colonisation adopted by Portugal. "The ministry having resolved to people with Christians the country situate on the river Sena, otherwise the gold river, which is inhabited only by savages; public notice was given, that such families as were inclined to settle there should have lands allotted to them, and many other advantages; however, very few offered themselves; whereupon orders were given to take up all the loose and disorderly persons of both sexes, who could give no good account of themselves, and, after joining them in matrimony, put them on board the ship that was to transport them. As there are directions given to take up likewise such married folk as lead irregular lives, we shall be able to send over a considerable colony.”

My First Romance.

CHAPTER IX.

DURING the year that followed these events, I used often to think-as it may be supposed-of Lady Leyster and of our romantic promise; and to question the dim and silent future, if we should ever meet again, when to love each other would not be a crime. It was of course perfectly well known in the society which I frequented-less constantly now than before-that I had caused the separation, and that I had met and wounded Leyster. The notoriety was of a sort that would have flattered the vanity of many youths of my age; but, upon me it reflected only a shade of thoughtful sadness, and sometimes inflicted a pang of remorse. I had, unwillingly, cast a cloud upon a name that was to me the mystic cypher of an idolatry—a spell that conjured up deep and tender memories. There were those three human beings, two of whom I regarded once with indifference and now with pity; and one, to whom I turned with a worship more devoted as it was unsanctioned by the world, and as she suffered for my sake; and for these three I had darkened the sunshine of life. Those feelings were, in a great measure, the safeguard of my promise; and, as time rolled on, the pledge that I had given, standing out more distinctly from the associations of time and place, became a hallowed memory—a poetry—almost a religion. Of all this, the natural consequence was that I kept myself unusually quiet, and led a most regular and studious life for several months. The remorse which I felt came back more vividly and remained longer every time it returned: so that I lost all taste for town and college festivities, as well as for the more exciting recreations of town-and-gown rows and bruising the police. I was also anxious to secure a more indulgent reception at home, by adding one or two new distinctions to those I had already won.

At length vacation came round again, and with a few fresh leaves blown out on my academic laurels I turned my face to the country. For one who has spent much time amid brick walls and lamp-posts, and twilight and books and carbonic acid gas; a horse, a gun, a boat, and the perfumed breeze fluttering through green leaves or over the blue water, have a racy and reviving charm such as the habitual sportsman can never know; and the only chill upon the enthusiasm with which I hastened to the south, was an uncomfortable doubt of my welcome at home.

It was a bright warm fresh summer's morning when I arrived: I had given no notice of my coming, and walked unexpectedly into the breakfast parlour, where the whole family-my father and mother and two sisters were assembled. It was a happier moment than, I dare say, I shall ever know again. There was no cloud upon any face; no coldness in any tone: long years-waves of the rolling ocean of time-have gone over me since then, bringing little and taking away much: I have wandered alone in other lands: friends and enemies have written their names upon my memory: there are but few thoughts or sensations, now, that have the power to awaken emotion; but, that old happy and affectionate home, which I can see so plainly before me, in the lone darkness of night, when all its recollections come back, like the sound of some sweet-toned bell, unheard amid the jarring noises of the day-that home draws forth tears too sacred to be witnessed by mortal eyes.

During that whole day, no allusion was made by any of the family to Lady Leyster, or even to the duel; nor, when my father walked out with me about the lawn, stables, and gardens, and when I was expecting some gentle and serious reprimand, did he seem to have been ever informed of the unpleasant events. In a day or two after, however, my father proposed that we should ride over to pay a visit to an old friend of his, who lived about ten miles farther west along the coast. Up to this time, I had never seen Mr. Dillon, and had merely heard of him, in common with other ignorant neighbours, as a very eccentric and mysterious character, who seldom saw or met anybody, and never-with the exception of my father-in his own house; so that there was associated with the visit a feeling of romantic curiosity, to which I was at that time sensitively alive. The house in which he resided was a castellated and semi-fortified building, lying irregularly along the brow of a rock, which sloped down to the water, and had been, by immense labour, terraced into a hanging garden. On the northern-that is, the inland-side, nothing was visible from the narrow road leading to the gate, but a high dark-grey wall, to which the absence of windows lent the appearance of a prison. The front, which faced the other way, basked in the full light of the sun, and commanded a wide and ever-varying view of the sea: inside, the apartments were spacious and richly-decorated with carved wood'work and arabesque cornices; but, no two of them lay on the same level, and long corridors, with stone steps here and there, leading up and down according to the inequalities of the foundation, obliged an unfamiliar visitor to step cautiously.

Waiting for a while, in a large sunny room lined with dark polished

walnut wood, which was relieved with pictures and statues, we were joined by Mr. Dillon, a stately, strong-framed, grey-headed man, with a musical and almost feminine softness in his voice, and that expression of gentle sadness on his countenance, which tells of sorrows long past and morbidly remembered. His recognition of me, when I was introduced to him, sounded, I thought, rather chilly and repulsive; and after a few commonplace remarks, pushing one of the casements open with his foot, he led my father out upon the terrace which ran along by the windows; leaving me to amuse myself with the works of art, or an open book-case full of venerable white-bound quartos, or, my own meditations-whichever I might prefer. I was turning over some beautiful old Florentine editions of the classics, when the opening of the door attracted my attention; and, looking up, I perceived a young lady enter the room. Seated in an ample high-backed chair beside the book-case, I escaped her notice, until she reached the massive oak table that stood immoveable in the centre of the room; when the turning of a leaf which I moved purposely, at the same time that I stood erect in acknowledgment of her presence, drew her eyes toward me. With a glance of the wildest amazement, and an exclamation to the same effect, she bounded away like a startled fawn and left me once more alone; but, not before a slight and exquisitely rounded figure-very unfashionably dressed, though -light auburn and richly waving tresses; a pair of large deep-blue eyes; delicately tinted and regularly-shaped features, with a child-like but most intelligent expression, had added another remembrance to those impressions of beauty fixed upon my memory. It was one, however, that excited melancholy reflections. I knew by report that Mr. Dillon had an only daughter, but I had heard her spoken of as a child. I saw a beautiful full-grown girl; and I thought, how ungenial and wintry was that spring of life-at such an age, to live in so desolate and hopeless a solitude!-how unjust, for the present, to keep in Oriental seclusion a being so formed to enjoy and adorn society !-how fatal to her future happiness, when she must at length mingle in the world, unfitted for its rude collisions and selfish artifices by inexperience, by self-taught prejudices, by fond enthusiasm; in one word, by ignorance!

I was thinking in this fashion-how long I don't know-when the other two gentlemen returned from the garden; and just as I was expecting that we were about to take our leave and our horses, dinner was announced. Though apparently dull, the evening was not altogether uninteresting; for although Miss Dillon did not appear, and my share of the conversation was a very trifling submultiple, I listened to my com