They were bright days, those brief days,
When the gay Courts of Love

Sat in state, dealing fate,

All other courts above.

When knight and monarch, priest and bard, Still bowed to beauty's just award,

And sent the shout along

The high days of chivalry,

And old Provençal song.

They were true days, those few days,
When the vile might not stand;
Nor the false dare mate there

With the pride of the land:

When honour was of soul and heart,
And none that play'd unworthy part,
Could to its ranks belong-

The high days of chivalry,

And old Provençal song.

They were bold days, those old days,
Whose light in darkness set;

Men say, the better day

Must dawn for mortals yet;

But would that ours were now as rife
With the nobler elements of life:

As free from gloom and wrong,

As the high days of chivalry,
And old Provençal song.

M 2

In whatever way beginning, at all events, terminating with the Cricket Polka.

ANOTHER day has elapsed,-there is a great bustle in Colonel Westwood's house; our hero has no share in it, however-not having re-appeared, he has been nearly forgotten-his advent was but a stone thrown into the pool of monotony,-it sunk, and stagnation reigned supreme again.

There is a great bustle also in many other houses,—not only in London, but throughout the whole of England: ay, in every quarter where the spirit of vanity has used her wand in the cause,—and what more favoured one, forsooth, for the exercise of this magic power, than the display of personal attractions to conquer, or to,— hold, to conquer only: let us suppose the result to harmonise with the intent, on the present occasion, at all events.

To be plainer,-ladies and gentlemen, young and old, are preparing to dress for balls-and while, in the moral world, the aforesaid wand, has aroused matrimonial speculations, to end in nothing; or the noose prospects of pretty flirtations, to merge into rapturous intrigues, or nothing,-of ugly intrigues to be absorbed in dolorous repentance, or nothing; uncertain visions about innocence, to realise into positive associations with vice, or nothing; or eagerness for the grand "bubble," of popularity, to be transformed into a secret flight towards the insolvent court of disappointment, or nothing; while all these have been invoked in the moral world, the physical is equally alive as regards coiffures, corsets, crinolines,

* Continued from p. 400, vol. xlviii.

chaussures, and so forth, for ladies,-and whiskers, waistcoats, and an equal number of so forths, for the ruder sex. Wondrous genius of dress! causing, according to chance or circumstances, so many naturally ill-favoured mortals to look well, and, again, making barbarians of so many well-favoured ones: although we feel most particularly indebted to you, at certain times,-there are also times when we must confess that you are worthy of anything but gratitude, nay, rather, when you become a subject for our deepest execrations!

And, it may naturally be asked, to what particular scene of gaiety does all this prologue tend to convey us? why, we wish the reader to accompany Colonel and Mrs. Westwood, his niece and daughter, to the charming town of Richmond, where there is to be one of those subscription balls for which the place has, of late years, become noted: dinner has been ordered in London at six o'clock, and the carriage is to be at the door at half-past eight: let us look into the family dining-room at a quarter past seven. The ladies have just left,-Colonel Westwood is turning, abstractedly towards the window, sipping his wine,-he had meant to wonder whether it would rain, but his thoughts had rested with his eyes upon a cockade on the hat of a footman standing before his door; after looking at this for some moments, a notion crossed him, he had been led into a train of ideas by this said sight, and of these was born a sentiment which made him get up and ring the bell.

Mr. Stubbs entered the apartment.

"Is Ribbons below?" asked Colonel Westwood.

Ribbons was the coachman, and a very good whip too: he had been in the Westwood family for thirty years, and could drive any number, and any description of horses that would go in harness, ay, and a bargain also, as many of his acquaintance could testify. "I'll go and inquire, sir," said Stubbs, with that genuine simplicity which the full knowledge of having left the party in question drinking grog at the kitchen fire, would seem thoroughly to

warrant.

"Never mind,-I don't think it will—” returned the Colonel. "Sir?"

:

"I don't think it will-" repeated the master angrily he had inwardly reverted to the doubt about the weather, and was answering himself on the rain question.

Oh, very well, sir," and Mr. Stubbs was about to retire in perplexity, when it occurred to him that probably he had not fulfilled the object for which he had been summoned, and placidly peeping, from without, round the door which he held half open, he said in the blandest of tones :

"Shall I tell Ribbons that you want him, sir?"

No reply having been furnished to this, the questioner decamped, and, in three minutes more, had entered into a long discussion

with the coachman, on the impropriety of going all the way to Richmond for a ball,—a simple hop.

"I don't see, myself, the use of dancing twelve miles away from your bed, when you can do the thing just as well in town, and tumble in directly afterwards," said Stubbs.

"And the hosses," growled Ribbons.

"And the servants," mildly suggested Stubbs, who was no professed grumbler, as we have shewn, but thought himself as good as a four-legged animal any day.

"Ah! but things is very different now, from when I first took service,-them, ah! them was the times :-you should have seen Sir Richard go to Court, and talk to the king,-why the king would ask him for his snuff-box, and put his fingers in too, just as you or I should do,—and then to look at him presiding at a public dinner, he was very fond of public dinners, was Sir Richard,-he never cared for your Poll,-what's the word ?"

"Poll-ker, or pr'aps you mean s'larius?"

"No;-all right:-turtle soup and venison was his pollker,—he was a man who liked your sensible amusements, took the sweets of life only,-paying his bills, and never hurting his fellow-creatures. If he dined at home, he used to say:-' Ribbons, we don't want the horses;'-if he dined out, he used to go precise at the appointed hour, and Buckles, the footman, and I, could always lift him in at eleven, to come back again: ah, my lad, he was one of those who always eat with a relish,—never drank without smacking his lips, and never made a speech without a brayvo, and as many 'hears' as would puzzle a newspaper to find room for."

We hope to be excused for having gone down stairs, and hasten to rush up again, three steps at a time.

Colonel Westwood, left alone, replenished his glass, drank it off, and rose from his chair. After looking at his watch, he walked towards the window, and glanced at the passengers in the street. It was a spring evening, and twilight,-but had it been in the middle of the day, the young man in the mackintosh, walking on the opposite side of the way, would certainly have passed unnoticed, but for the circumstance that, as he had just quitted the pavement at a crossing, he was knocked down, by coming in contact with a carriage and pair. The colonel would have sent out to assist him, but he got up immediately, and walked on: at this moment, the door opened, and Julia came to her father's side, at the window.

"Why, there he is again, I declare!" said she, evidently referring to some one outside.

"To whom do you allude," asked her father.

Julia coloured slightly, -very slightly, -as she answered,"oh, papa, I was thinking that yonder queer-looking man in the odd coat, was the same that-that-"

"That what?-I do not understand you."

"Oh, nothing, I assure you:-that I had seen before, at the theatre, in the park, and in many places; but what his name is, or who he is, I am sure I cannot say.

At this instant, it occurred to Colonel Westwood, that this very individual, when he met with the accident described, was passing for the third time, since he had been standing at the window; the matter, however, did not seem to make much deep impression on him, for he said, good-humouredly :

"Only, my dear girl, let me beg that you do not suffer your fair looks to attract steady young men of business from their homeward path; for I do believe that your friend was looking towards this house when the accident happened."

"How can you say so, papa :--but what accident do you mean?" asked Julia, with evident interest, and an evident wish to disguise that particular sentiment.

all:

Why, poor fellow, he was knocked down by a carriage, that's -on my life, I had a great mind to send for him in here." Julia checked a coming exclamation, said no more, and shortly retired to her apartment. At the appointed hour, the carriage came up, and all were ready to start. The colonel and his sisterin-law were unmistakable as gentlefolk, and the cousins were so well misses, thanks to the surveillance of Mrs. Westwood,-that, as cosmopolites, we feel bound to express our conviction, that the less barbarian eyes like ours are feasted on such specimens of Beauty's choice ones, the better for the happiness of the spectators, and safety of the attractive objects:-madness may grow out of love;-the beloved may be placed in jeopardy by the freaks of the mad lover, -the race of Majnoons* cannot be said to be extinct.

Charming girls, charming girls,—go to the ball,-go, and dance, and talk, and be happy :-go, and let your powerful influence be exerted on behalf of more than one of us, in general easily misguided, but yet, by such as you, easily set right mortals, that they may never fall into the wretched error, that a free throat, an ungloved hand and unbooted foot, an eye which needs no extra light to its usual allowance, and a tongue which is not tied to compliment and polite badinage,-are more desirable than the fashionable imprisonment of a ball-room, which excludes all these things; even though rendered dazzling with bright lamps, bright jewels, and still brighter eyes!

Of all deservedly popular resorts in the vicinity of the metropolis, Richmond is, to our thinking, the most conspicuous. Talk of Norwood, and its Beulah Spa,-of Chiswick, and its horticultural attractions, or of Greenwich and Blackwall, with their fish dinners, no place has, to us, the merit of constant charm, like the

The loves of Leila and Majnoon will have been heard of, if they should not have been iuquired into, by many readers: the true meaning of the Arabic word, "majnun," is" insane."