صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

«Yes,

““

* Vaus

light gossamer net dress, with a silk slip, is abominable after two balls." "Mercy!" ejaculated my aunt, “pray what is to become of my silks and satins? My damasks you have long since dis posed of for chair seats." (Both nieces together.) "Why the rose-colour will cut up for shoes, the black will serve for a work-bag, the green will make shades for the lamp, and all the others will do for a bed for Napoleon, the poodle; but pray look to your engagements: a fancy ball at a Lady's whose name we never knew until yesterday,—Mrs. Sydenham's "at home," our county member's dinner party, the Countess Fleury's opening of her house, a stupid concert at our banker's, and the opera, play, Vauxhall, and private theatricals to attend, all that in six days; then we must make a magnificent return." "I wish it was a return to the country sadly," said the aunt; but all this work must be got through, since you have dragged me from the country, because it is necessary that you should enter into life just as I am thinking of leaving it." plaisantez ma tante," answered Grace; you are only just seeing the world; who knows but you may get a sweetheart yet, ha, ha, ha." Aunt Deborah smiled at the word sweetheart, but it was followed by a deep groan at the expence, just as the distant thunder murmurs as the sudden refulgence flashes through a cloud. Now Aunty was persuaded to take a lesson of decarte, and to play guinea points at whist, and was drawn upon for a ballet master to perfect Misses in quadrilles and waltzes, and to pay for chalking the floor for a magnificent return; she was also (not likewise) prevailed upon to invite a hungry Lancer to dine daily en famille, and to tolerate a half-pay captain of infantry to attend her everywhere, and to laugh at her over his left shoulder. Pride occasionally triumphed in her entré amongst high titles and splendid circles, and partial affection at times repaid her for her vigils, and losses at play, from witnessing the admiration bestowed on her nieces, and what she deemed their growing celebrity'; but moments of cool reflection would as often engross her mind, and destroy all her brief enjoyment. Languid and fatigued with what the giddy call pleasure, and fevered after a morning sleep, she would not unfrequently unload her trunks, her boxes, and her carriage seats, to sigh over a huge mountain of articles of wearing apparel, presenting an account of money unprofitably sunk, and of articles now prohibited, as it were, by the veto of

pigeon; then again Circassian dews, and Bayadere tooth powders, vegetable teeth, and ivory imperceptibles, induce those whom age, accident, or decrepitude, has deprived of their grinders, or whose breath is not that of the violet, to empty their purses in order to be able to smile in spite of their teeth, and to sigh out spicy gales under the nose of admiring beaux. Every grandam expects now to be a Minor de L'Enclos, as the respect able powdered gentlemen of old times now vapour about in auburn peruques, Cossacks, and whale-boned body clothes. Alas! alas! our youth is now too experienced, and old age is no longer reverend and honourable." Thus spoke aunt Deborah, when the French dressmaker appeared with a variety of dresses for her use. Oh law," cried the old lady, "I should be starved with cold in that spider-web concern, with a taffetas slip under it, why it is only fit for a girl of thirteen; frocks and slips indeed for the wrong side of sixty!" Oh! milady, dats nutting," replied mademoiselle. "Nutting indeed; why this is a mere net to catch butterflies in." "Very well, catch what you like." catch and catch can," said aunty; "but surely my madcap nieces must have sent me this in order to laugh at me, by making me ridiculous: how different from my silk or satin modest gown, with a turban for my hair, and a dust of powder to give a grave respectable air." Ha, ha, ha! ha, ha, ha! (the door opens, and Isabella and Grace come in). "Mademoiselle, ban jaur, (in indifferent French) don't listen to my auntaunty, you must be dressed like a Christian." Aunty, "well I think this masquerade affair (holding up the dress) is a great Ideal more like the dress of a Pagan." (Dress maker) "Well, ma'am, dat it is, from a fine Grecian model." (Aunt) "Well, but then what is all this in front?" "C'est bien garnt," well garnished. "Yes, but I cannot expose my chest thus." "Chist, oh! never mind; you open your chist for me, and me open your chist for you; (loud applause) but here come some French gloves and silk shoes." Here poor aunt Deborah murmured out; "The gloves are cheap and soft, but I have already burst three pair; and as for the shoes, they pinch me to death for five minutes, and wear out at the sides in an hour; they will only serve for a night." (Niece Grace.) "Law, aunty, a night! to be sure, all people of fashion wear out three hundred and sixty-five pair of shoes, and as many pair of gloves, in a year: silk stockings should never be washed but once, and a

[ocr errors]

fashion; here was a rich silk robe, the form of which was quite superannuated; there a black satin dress, trimmed with bugles, which had figured at an election ball, but which was now too short in the waist, and equally unfashionable in other points; another dress had faded; a third (a white one) had acquired a cream-coloured hue from lying by; a fourth was too tight and too short, in consequence of aunty's having growna little larger than when it was first made tight enough to sew her up in it; a fifth (trimmed with sable) had been attacked by moths; a sixth was spoiled by Grace's throwing eau de Cologne over it; one was country made; and another was promised by my niece to her lady's maid; laces had lost their colour, patterns were out of vogue; thus were all her former ornaments come to nothing; thus, in a few weeks, was all the matron like respectability of a worthy country gentlewoman brought down to the standard of drawing-room lumber, and confounded with a legion of old fantwinkling faded coquettes, who out-live admiration, pass by consideration and esteem, and infest the theatres and gaudy apartments of the fashionable world. Nor was this the worst; if her coming to town was so fraught with trouble and vexation, her quitting it was still more serious and perplexing. Her coffers were drained from the ruinous expence of six weeks in town; her niece Grace had run away with the Lancer, whose fortune had long since been spent; and Isabella had lost her character by flirting Aunt It away with a married man. Deborah was blamed for all this, laughed at in town, and pitied in the country. On her return she brought down with her a variety of fashions, which induced her female neighbours to borrow them of her; but instead of the welcome and admiration which she anticipated, her charitable acquaintances and her faithful waiting woman brought her back all the kind expressions of the ladies of the neighbourhood, such as a beautiful gros de Naples indeed, and exquisitely made, but what a caricature must aunt Deborah be in such a juvenile habit! This frock and slip are admirable, but what an old fool must our neighbour be to venture on wearing such a dress! Poor thing, her old noddle must be turned ere she could have been persuaded to make herself thus ridiculous. So much for the tittle tattle behind her back, the conver sation in her presence was little less annoying. "Poor Grace!" was an object of insulting commiseration to half her acquaintance; whilst her other niece was the theme of village scandal during

1

a whole summer. One niece accompanied her husband to the rules of the King's Bench, the other ran away with a recruiting officer: aunt Deborah shut her door against every one, turned Methodist, and thus ended "the Journey to London."---European Magazine.

BLUNDERS OF LEGISLATION. THERE was an article in the Spanish constitution, which enacted that every This absurdity has been equalled in some man must be humane and charitable. minor legislations at home. Some years odicals, finding that the last day of the ago, the publishers of the monthly perimonth sometimes happened on a Sunday, House, when, to remedy the inconvehad a meeting at the London Coffee nience, it was resolved that the publishing day should be the last day but one of the month, never dreaming that it would as day. Both of these blunders are out-stripfrequently fall on a Sunday as any other ped by one of the laws of the Mechanics' Institution, which declares that the first before the first Wednesday. Unluckily Tuesday in every month shall happen for the Solons who drew up this code, they cannot foresee; and in the present month, the first Wednesday falls six days which were to take place on consecutive before the first Tuesday; and proceedings days are delayed a week.

TROUBADOUR SONG, THE CAPTIVE KNIGHT. 'Twas a trumpet's pealing sound! And the Knight look'd down from the Paynim's And a Christian host, in its pride and tower,

power,

Through the pass beneath him wound.
Cease awhile, clarion! clarion wild and shrill,
Cease! let them hear the captive's voice, bo

still!

[blocks in formation]

I am here, with my heavy chain!
And I look on a torrent, sweeping by,
And an eagle, rushing to the sky,

And a host, to its battle plain!
Cease awhile, clarion! clarion wild and shrill,
Cease! let them hear the captive's voice,-be still!

Must 1 pine in my fetters here?
With the wild wave's foam, and the free bird's
flight,

And the tall spears glancing in my sight,

And the trumpet in mine ear!
Cease awhile, clarion! clarion wild and shrill,
Cease! let them hear the captive's voice,-be
still!

They in whose wars I had borne my part,
They are gone! they have all pass'd by !
They that I lov'd with a brother's heart,

They have left me here to die!
Sound again, clarion! clarion, pour thy blast!
Sound! for the captive's dream of hope is
past!
New Monthly Mag.

The Cuts by the celebrated Bewick

[graphic]

WHAT IS DELICACY?

THIS is really a very puzzling question, for we every day see things practised by the most scrupulous persons, which we should a priori consider any thing but delicate, that our ideas on the subject are somewhat perplexed and in that indefinable moral chiaro scuro that just serves to show us darkness visible. Are wedding visits altogether delicate?-Women of the nicest virtue-such is the force of custom, see nothing in them to raise the slightest scruple. Is waltzing, is opera dancing, compatible with propriety and female delicacy?-We shall reply to this debateable question, by the following anecdote, merely premising that it has completely set at rest all the doubts and scruples which we had hitherto entertained. When her late majesty of the Sandwich Islands visited the opera, she was rather shocked at the voluptuous. and significant attitudes of some of the dancers and figurantes. Astonished at the

No. XVI. THE CANONESS. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men." PROV. iv. 14.

beautiful recluse, a striking mixture of THERE appears in this young and gallantry and devotion. On her knees before a little altar, with her rosary in her hand, she is amorously listening to the songs which a young man, seated on a bed, addresses to her, accompanying them with his lute. Death comes to put out the tapers burning on the altar, and to change into sadness the pleasures of this conversation.

liberal display of limb, and fearful as to what extremity the performers might be hurried in, to the delirium of their movements, her majesty hinted to some of her suite, the propriety of retiring: Madam,' said one of her attendants, however repugnant it may be to your delicacy, you must stop. Do you not perceive that your retiring under the present circumstances would be the cruellest libel in the world on all the ladies in the house? Besides, it would be prudery in your majesty to affect to be shocked at an entertainment which English ladies can contemplate with so much complacency, for, have we not been told, over and over again, se non é vero é ben trovato, and that Englishwomen are the most virtuous under the sun? Whether, after all, the anecdote be not somewhat apocryphal, for us that it may serve to throw some we do not pretend to say: it is sufficient light on the question that stands at the head of this paragraph.

[merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

SUPPOSED

NEW METAL, TASCHIUM. A DESCRIPTION of a new metal, with an accompanying specimen, has been sent to the President of the Royal Society. The metal has received the name of Taschium, from the mine of Taschio, in which it was found. The specimen sent was said to be silver containing the new metal, the two metals having been separated by amalgamation, and the mercury afterwards driven off. On dissolving the button in pure nitric acid, it was stated

that the Taschium would remain as a black powder. The Taschium was described as being combustible, with a bluish flame, a peculiar smell, and dissipation of the products. Amalgamating with mercury, and in that way being separated from its ores. Not soluble in any single acid, but soluble in itro muriatic acid. If previously boiled with potash, then soluble in muriatic acid, the solution being precipitated by water. Its solution giving, with prussiate of potash, a blue precipitate brighter even than that with solution of iron, but not precipitating with tincture of galls. The button was therefore dissolved in nitric

No. XVIII.-THE PHYSICIAN. Physician, heal thyself. LUKE. iv. 23.

DEATH is leading to him a sick old man, whose urine he is presenting to him in a phial, and appears to be saying, in a jeering maner, Dost thou think that thou art able to save a man whom I have already in my power? Malomradi tu od ONE VED BOW

[ocr errors]

acid, which left a blackish powder in small quantity, and also some grains of silicious sand. The powder was well washed, and then being heated on platina foil in the flame of a spirit lamp, did not burn or volatilize, but became of a deep red colour. Muriatic acid being added to another portion of the washed powder, and a gentle heat applied, dissolved by far the greater part of it, forming a red solution, which being evaporated till the excess of acid was driven off, and then tested, gave blue precipitate with prussiate of potash; black with tincture of galls; and reddish brown with ammonia. On evaporating to dryness, it left muriate of iron. Nitromuriatic acid being made to act on the minute portion of powder yet remaining, dissolved very nearly the whole of it, leaving a small trace of salica, and producing a solution similar to the former. Hence the Taschium in this button of silver was nothing else than iron; and from the presence of silicious sand it may be supposed to have been introduced into the button through the inaccuracy of the preparatory manipulations. New Monthly Mag.

EYAM.

(From Rhode's Tour.)

EYAM, a small town in the romantic part of Derbyshire, has become an object of considerable interest, from having been visited, and almost depopulated, by the plague in 1666.

Suffering has sanctified its claim to notice, and the curious and inquiring traveller feels a melancholy pleasure in tracing out the records of the ravages made in this village by that "scourge of nations." Dr. Mead, in his narrative of the great plague in London, particularly mentions its introduction into Eyam, by the means of a box of clothes sent to a tailor who resided there. The person who opened the box was the first victim; and the whole family, with the exception of one, shared the same fate. The disease spread rapidly, and almost every house was thinned by the contagion. Wherever symptoms of the plague appeared, so hopeless was the recovery, that, in the church-yard, on the neighbouring hills, and in the fields bordering on the village, graves were dug ready for the expiring sufferers, and the earth with unhallowed baste was closed upon them. The population of Eyam, at this time, was 330, of whom 259 fell by the plague.

Mr. Mompesson, who at this time held the living of Eyam, was eminently successful in preventing the spread of the disease to the surrounding country, The salutary measures he adopted, and the enthusiastic affection with which they were carried into execution, were attended with the happiest results. He was the priest, the physician, and the legislator, of a community of sufferers; and, even at a time when men usually listen to the suggestion of personal safety only, he was regarded with reverence, and obeyed with alacrity. He represented to the inhabitants the consequences of leaving their homes, and communicating to others the pestilent malady with which they were visited, and the little probability there was of escaping the contagion by flight. His character and example, combined with his authority, drew a circle round Eyam that none attempted to pass, even though to remain within was to hazard almost inevitable death. At his suggestion an arrangement was made, by which supplies of food, and every thing necessary to mitigate the horrors of the disease, were deposited on one side of a little brook, which formed the boundary line, over which none were permitted to pass; and to this brook, when the sellers were departed, some of

the villagers, to whom this task was assigned, came, and deposited their money in troughs, through which the stream ran, and thus purified the purchase money used in this perilons traffic: this rivulet obtained the name of Mompesson's brook:

This excellent man, conceiving that assembling his congregation in the church during the hottest part of the year would aggravate the violence of the disorder, collected his flock together in a deep romantic dell, in the immediate vicinity of Eyam, where, où Sundays, and occasionally, he addressed them from a rocky eminence, now called Cucklet Church, The rock so denominated, projects from the side of a steep hill, where it stands like a rugged and irregularly formed building. It is excavated through in different directions, the arches being from 12 to 18 feet high. From the portico of these arches, surrounded by the rocks and mountains of the peak, the good pastor administered the consolations of religion to his mourning people, during a period of sorrow and suffering almost unparalleled in village history.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Mompesson was, at this time, in the prime of life: he lived to see the disorder subside, and to witness the com plete success of his endeavours to prevent its extension beyond the little village that was his peculiar care, and which it had afflicted for nearly seven months. He was, however, personally destined to participate in the general distress, and to drink deep of that cup of sorrow that went round among his parishioners. His wife, an amiable woman, only 27 years of age, and the mother of two chil dren, was one of the victims of the plague. She died in the month of August, and her remains lie near the church of Eyam. In a beautiful letter, written to Sir G. Saville, when the destroying Angel had entered his dwelling, and under the expectation of his own immediate dissolution, he says, "Had my dearest wife loved herself, as well as she did me, she had fled from this pit of destruction with the sweet babes, and might have prolonged her days; but she was resolved to die a martyr to my interests."

The conduct and character of Mr. Mompesson procured him many friends, and promoted his advancement in the Church; and had he been solicitous of ecclesiastical preferment, he might have attained to yet higher honours. He died in 1708, but, as Miss Seward observes, "his memory ought never to die: it should be immortal as the spirit that made it worthy to live." M.

« السابقةمتابعة »