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been a person of fortune; she, nevertheless, once or twice seemed to consult, in a whisper, a young gentleman who, I understood, || is a near relative of her Mentor. She was obliged to leave him, however, to go and receive her mother, with whom she continued for half an hour in the hall, through regard for a rich new carpet that had just been fitted up in her room.

"I then went to the sale of the household furniture of a nobleman who was leaving town. The whole was allotted to me for one-fourth of what I had received for them a short time before-goods sell for so little at those auctions! I was more hurt than himself.

who last year was called Madame la Baronne, three years ago Madame la Generale, and, I know not why, is now called Lady Palma, came to desire me to procure an execution, to have brought to the hammer the furniture which four years back I was paid for, one half by the General, the other moiety by the Baron. As I was always a friend to the ladies, I granted the request, and this morning remitted to Mademoiselle Eugenie, Baronne, Generale, and Lady, the whole amount of the goods that were seized and sold."

Mr. Louis was going to proceed in his narrative, when M. de Berville was announced." He is one of my customers, too," said Louis; "it is not long since I have furnished for him a petite maison, where he retires every now and then to reflect on the frailties of the poor human race.”

"On my return home my wife told me that the Marchioness of Gerolles had just called to let me know that she was to have a grand rout in a couple of days. Upon those occasions I supply her with a variety Berville was introduced: Louis recomof articles of furniture; the same as I do mended to us both his successor, and bowCounsellor Dumont for his yearly ball.ed to me with a smile which he made as The one lives in the Marais, the other in satirical as possible. I verily believe he the Fauxbourg St. Germain, so that the surmised the use I intended to make of his travelling articles are not recognised. conversation. T. SIMPLETON.

"I next prepared for another whimsical expedition. Mademoiselle Eugenia T

THE WONDER OF WONDERS!—AN ULTRA-FASHIONABLE
TRANSFORMED TO A DOMESTICATED MATRON.

(Concluded from Page 79.)

"DURING my long practice," said Dr. Bryant," I took hasty notes of my diurnal proceedings as a physician. I have no spare moments to arrange those sketches: you, my dear Hampden, are endowed with a clearness of perception, and general knowledge, truly adequate to the undertaking; I know Olivia will sometimes wish you engrossed by herself alone, but the scarcity of attendance you can give to her cannot fail intensely to endear the sunny hours of relaxation you pass together; and when she thinks you have too long bent over the desk—why, let her wield the quill for you. Her vivacity can enliven the style of your grave compilation."

"Now you deride your poor Olivia, papa. Or, let me see, you want to contrive employment for me."

"Yes, my child; and you will soon find your destined employment a luxury. A mind such as yours must take delight in developing its acute and refined capacities; and thus you shall bauish the demon ennui. Opulence may be idle, but can neither evade nor charm away the haunting torments of ennui, that claim the idle as a devoted prey.”

Hampden and Olivia perceived the parental prevenance which induced Dr. Bryaut to intrust them with notes on which he rested his fame in future ages, and they resolved to contribute all in their power to his satisfaction and enduring celebrity. Besides this literary engagement, their elegant accomplishments afforded a fuud of diversified interesting recreations; and couples less highly gifted, who are anxious

With those written remains of antedilu vian elegance, Hampden contrasted the recent absurdities at Baggaria, where invention has tortured itself to combine in each animal the most incongruous parts of

Hampden led his fair pupil to frigorific climes, and directing her mind's eye to the iceblink, explained how a lucid expanse in the atmosphere reflected a correct map of the ice, far beyond the reach of human vision without this providential aid; and he feelingly awakened sentiments of piety,

luminous appearances of icebergs and fieldice in gloomy weather, and even in the darkest nights, preserve the experienced mariner amidst dreadful perils. Natural evils are accompanied by mitigating circumstances, and man is endowed with faculties which, stimulated by the command

rectify his moral ills. Under the guidance of her beloved, Olivia's thoughts were transported to the desolate Paramos of South America, and he informed her that even there, although nature ceases her visible operations, the active goodness of the great Creator hath appointed the huge Andes to generate winds that purify the pestilential vapours of the moist vallies, steaming beneath the rays of a vertical sun.

to render home agreeable to each other, may always procure a variety of resources for amusement. Hampden and Olivia excelled as musicians, and in guiding the plastic pencil; engraving, sculpture, che mistry, and mechanics, were favourite pur-many, forming in all a hideous monstrosity. suits of her husband, and Olivia could not be indifferent to any pursuit in which he found pleasure. Affection aided the progress of her intellectual improvement: hitherto she had wasted her time in the perusal of horrific romances, or enervating superficial sentimentality. Hampden did not arrogantly suppose he could, by a sud-by observing that the iceblink, and the den transformation, change this perverted task; he knew gradual remedies to be the most effectual, and mingling indulgence with edification, ransacked ancient and modern history and biography for facts the most similar to novel adventures. He culled from natural history wonders such as Lady Florentia related to her adopted charge;||ing energy of his will, can enable him to for Olivia, in this respect, was but a child of larger growth. We have seen, in No. 109, of LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE, the description Hampden succinctly gave of the animal flower, and more detailed particulars excited Olivia's ardent curiosity. The dreadful and sudden inhumation of the inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii; the discovery of those ill-fated cities after being lost in the bowels of the earth near a thousand years; discussions whether an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, or a rising of the waters, overwhelmed them; the probability, or exaggeration, of the accounts we have concerning the gardens of Latomi, in Sicily old writers tell us the rocks excavated for the building of Syracuse, accumulated soil, and, being protected from parching winds and scorching sunbeams, produced the most profuse variety of highflavoured fruits; the Lago Magiore, near Milan, with the lovely islets Isola Madre and Isola Bella, delineated by Hampden as Olivia, hanging on his arm, walked through the shrubbery in her father's fiue country residence, charmed her luxuriant fancy. Hampden pictured to her the lofty terraces commanding a sublime perspective, and the near view of sylvan and floral beauties in the groves of lofty cedars, aromatic shrubs, and all the pride of gardens laid out with sumptuous grandeur, and graced by statues of the most perfect workmanship.

Our limits warn us to hasten the conclusion, and we shall only mention the garse, or dropping tree, which in the Ca. nary Isles, and the Isle of St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea, supplies water for arid regions. Hampden did not neglect the enchantments of poesy to unfold the perceptions of his docile companion, and he found in well-selected Magazines the most material assistance to the prose and poetical tuition he had undertaken. His lessons were short, and seemingly fortuitous, growing out of the present occasion, or suggested by some conversation that had passed in company. Olivia had a new world of delectable ideas laid open to her; and to lengthen the space allotted for conversation, she tried to take the pen for Hampden, if other engagements interfered with writing out her father's notes. She did not venture to insert her transcript in the book, but having copied it on separate sheets, and the contents being approved or

amended by Hampden, she wrote while he hastened to prepare for walking. The frequent use of her pen helped her to think more correctly, and this was all that Hampden desired, or her father intended. To qualify her by various occupations to amuse solitary hours, to reflect with solid judgment, and to act with selfpossession, discernment, and consistency; || in a word, to confer on the external blessings of life a real value, by learning their right application-these were the aims of Dr. Bryant and Mr. Hampden in cultivating the understanding of Olivia; and she imbibed instruction with the sweetest affiance and without the least diminution of sportive animation. In the eyes of her busband every attraction augmented as her complexion was transferred to a blooming group of sous and daughters. Beauty may fascinate the lover, but marriage can perpetuate felicitous sensatious only where complacent graces, unassuming wisdom, and companionable attainments endear the wife.

Olivia's first son was nearly of his fa

ther's noble stature, when she said to her own fond parent:-" My dear, dear father, I never can be sufficiently grateful to you for preferring my Hampden to a titled suitor as your son-in-law. The Duke could not have made me so happy, for his habits were the reverse of all that could make me good; and yet he was so handsome, so fascinating, I once liked him better than Hampden."

"You did not know his private character, and your ambition aspired to a coronet. Dread of his success led me to encourage Hampden, as I would rather have my child happy than exalted. With Hampden's regular habits I certainly should have preferred his Grace; and a Duke may be, and often is, not less worthy than a private gentleman. Goodness is not confined to any sphere, nor excluded from any situation, but it is the duty of parents to place their daughters beneath the shelter of true merit, in preference to the pinnacle of grandeur.

B. G.

CURIOUS OBSERVATIONS ON THE DRESS OF LADIES.

Ir is not long since the following question was proposed in France by a cer tain society, and a prize offered to the author who should answer it in the most satisfactory and incontrovertible manner.

Question.-Has the art of the toilet attained, under the meridian of Paris, its highest degree of perfection, and is it now at the eve of experiencing the fate of all human inventions, which degenerate as soon as their developement is completed? Fifteen authors agreed in maintaining that the art of the toilet in France had exhausted the resources of genius, and in discovering, which some censured and others praised, an eminent characteristic of voluptuousness, inquiry, and caprice, together with a tolerably good loss of time, taste, and money, and a proportionate relaxation of morals.

The society, however, unmoved by those declamations, reserved its whole interested attention for the Memorial No. 8, bearing this motto: And I too have drank of the

waters of the Mechacebe river.—This last work discovers an original and independent mind.-“I smile with contempt," says the author, "when I see a society of pensive men resolve thoughtlessly; I feel indignant when I hear Europeans speaking of their toilet, as if in Paris, the same as in London, the art so called was not in its infancy, which no one cares about, a coarse daub entirely neglected!"-These assertions undoubtedly are strange enough; but what will appear still more so is, that the author proves them to be founded on truth. He establishes a parallel between our most refined toilet and that which is in common use in the forests of America; he pursues it with perseverance through an immensity of details; and with equal erudition and logic exposes our inferiority.

Instruments and preparations.-He has only been able to find out seven hundred and twenty-nine on the most fashionable dressing tables of the Chaussée d'Antin; whereas he produces a catalogue of two

thousand and thirty-five which are indispensably requisite amongst the Iroquese.

Extent on which the operations are performed. It is only the fourth part, says he, of the person of a Parisian lady that receives cosmetic ointments, whilst over the whole bodies of the females of the Missouris he has never found the space of one inch square but on which the ingeni ous attention of coquetry had deposited insignia of its impression.

Are the progress of the art considered?— The preparations for the body of an Euro pean fair lady are limited to the blending of, and covering over each other, four colours at most; which does not excel the abilities of a house-painter; but the diape ed skin of a savage combines, in the eye o an amateur, historical, landscape, arabesk, and portrait painting.

Is courage brought into quest on? -The American female endures the torture of the stiletto, of fire, and of caustics; whereas papering hair, crisping it, or using pincers to pull off such as are superfluous, &c. are scarcely parodies of the other executions suggested by vanity.

Good taste.-No one as yet has presumed to deny but the costumes of the new world offered drapery better suited to the taste of our artists, and revealed nudity with

more sublime truth.

Richness.-There are dresses in the Flo. ridas, masterpieces of skill and patience, the making of which speak thirty years of assiduous working, moreover, the feathers, metals, and colours, are incomparable.

Habit. The undress, so common among us, is a gross liberty quite unknown in the woods of America, neither would the most brutal huntsman start from his hut without carrying the implements of his toilet wrap. ped up in duck-skin round his waist.

Eagerness and passion.-It is known that for a frivolous ornament the savage is always ready to give up his hut; and his wife to forfeit her honour; it is even probable that exchanges of the kind are effected among them with greater expedition still, if possible, than in our country.

"Silence!" exclaims the author, “ ye national flatterers who are enraptured at French eloquence! hold your tongues ye covetous husbands and scolding fathers, who bewail the excesses of dress! Alas! every article in Paris is still plain, innocent, and homely; far from undergoing a decay, the art of dressing is in its cradle, or rather at its first dawn. The thought, I confess, is disgraceful; but we may still entertain great hopes, for we are in a fair way towards improvement. Nature would have it that the progress of the toilet should be in an inverted ratio of civilization; and as it is evident that, in many respects, we retrograde with regard to the latter, it is but right that we should gain ground towards the former. We shall be no losers by the bargain; for I have studied the age we live iu, and have only found it afforded two supports to human kindness, viz. sleep and dress; this last especially, which, monopolizing all the leisure hours of the savage tribes, secures them at once against ambition, ennui, scandal, and female authors."Speaking of these, the same author says:— "The books written by a mau are generally better than himself; a woman, on the contrary, is always more deserving than her publications. A book and a ball are, for a woman, two public representations; and it is no more possible for her to make her appearance in the one with the style of her mind, than at the other with her natural complexion."

TOPOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM.-No. XXI.

COUNTY OF KENT, CONTINUED. FOLKSTONE. This town was rendered famous for a victory obtained over the Saxons, and grew into a very considerable place in the Saxon period, to whom it owed its name of Folkstone It is built on the side of a kind of chasin opening to the sea; a part skirts the water, and the

church, with some buildings, occupy the summit on the westeru side. This town wants a pier, for the famous Folkstone cutters, so noticed for their sailing, lie upon the beach. Since the suppression of smuggling, fisheries have been very successfully carried on at Folkstone.

In 1578, this town had the honour of

giving birth to the celebrated William Harvey, to whom we owe the important discovery of the circulation of the blood. At the age of ten this renowned physician was sent to school at Canterbury, and after the benefits of a foreign education, he settled at London, and was appointed physician to James I. and Charles I. During the troubles of the latter he retired into Kent, where he died in 1657, aged eighty, and was buried in the church of Hempstead, in Hertfordshire.

HYTHE-Consists of two long streets, intersected by others at right angles, and has a very neat appearance. In 849, Alfred bestowed Hythe, or Hyde, as it was called by the Saxons, on the priory of Christ Church, in Canterbury. It is one of the Cinque Ports, and still continues to enjoy its privilege of sending its Barons to parliament. In the time of Edward II. near four hundred houses were burned by an accidental fire, and immediately after the place was visited by a most destructive pestilence.

The parish church is seated high above the town, on the rising grounds. It is a large and venerable pile, dedicated to St. Leonard, once a convent. There is much singularity about this church; such as passages cut through the five great buttresses, with a strange grotesque face over one of the doors. There are three windows at the end of the chancel; they are narrow and Gothic, with most elegant slender and lofty pillars on each side. Under the chancel is a great vault, with neat Gothic door opening to the churchyard, full of sculls and other bones neatly sorted and piled: it is thought that they have formerly belonged to some Danish pirates, who having landed and being defeated with great slaughter, their bones were left to be bleached on the naked beach: they are certainly uncommonly white.

COUNTY OF SUSSEX.

RYE.-This is another of the Cinque Ports: Edward III. encompassed it with walls; some of the gates of which are still standing, but in a ruinous state. The trade of Rye consists chiefly in mackarel and berring fisheries, and in trawling for flat fish, which are sent to London: it also exports corn and malt.

No. 114.-Vol. XVIII.

121

WINCHELSEA-Stands on a flat piece of ground on the brink of the hill: the town was originally divided into forty squares, or quarters, with spacious streets, some of which yet remain, and the houses have a neat and comfortable appearance: few vestiges of the others can be traced, for even the foundation of the buildings are in general lost; yet vast vaults, now converted into magazines, have been frequently discovered in digging, the roofs of which are secured by ribs of stone.

In the middle of the town was a large square, in the centre of which stands the church: three aisles and the chancel of the original building still remain, and three of the lofty arches which supported the tower; the column consists of clusters of elegant slender pillars. The outside has lost all its ancient beauty, except a venerable coat of thick ivy on the ruins of one of the transepts; and from its solemn green is seen peeping out a snow-white monumental tablet. Within the church are several very ancient monuments; amongst which is a knight, with his legs crossed, his hands in the posture of prayer, and covered with mail to his fingers' ends: on his shield a lion rampant. This belonged to an Oxenbridge of Breede, in this county, who was descended from the Alardes, a family that came in with the conquest.

Winchelsea had two religious houses; one of Black Friars, or Dominican, the other of Grey Friars. The first was founded by Edward II. the latter by William of Buckingham. The choir of the church of Grey Friars exhibits a magnificent evidence of its former grandeur. It has at the end three Gothic windows placed in a tribune, and four on each side in a narrow but lofty style. An arch at the west part, twenty-six feet wide, is of a height uncommonly grand and striking. It stands now in the garden of a gentleman of fortune.

Other remains of antiquity are the courthouse and the gaol, both evidently of Norman architecture; and three of the gates are still to be seen in a very ruinous condition. In the time of Edward I. the old town, which stood on the shore, was, in six or seven years, totally ruined.

Old Winchelsea had been a very powerful port, and Queen Elizabeth was so struck with the splendid appearance of the mayor

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