-In vain I sigh, And restless turn and look around for night: In the year 18—, the month of June was literally a summer mon‘1, genuine summer, burning days, and oppressive nights. The scorching rays of the sun darted on the London flags with a fervency not usual to our northern climate, and certainly not congenial to many of the numerous gentry who, being accustomed to mansions sufficient to hold half a village, were now most inconveniently residing in the sma tenements that, by the courtesy of the auctioneer, VOL. I. B are termed mansions in London, though the ground they occupy might be taken from some nobleman's hall in the country and leave good space behind. Here the nobility and gentry are obliged, by the caprice of fashion, to remain inhaling a combination of every thing injurious to health; while their parks, pleasure-grounds, and gardens are exhibiting every charm of nature, and "redolent of sweets." How far more lovely is the violet, just peeping from its velvet bed, in the full flush of beauty and fragrance, to the close-packed, and half-crushed bunches that are conveyed to the metropolispurple balls, without either beauty or fragrance! There were, no doubt, many of the country families, now congregated together in London, who would gladly have sought their sylvan homes, and who bewailed the long debates that kept the members of Parliament still employed, without hope or expectation of their labours being terminated. Even in the last week of July there appeared no probability of so de |