and prime favourite, she has become a phrenologist, and frequently, when I happen to be at her house, and there are other phrenologists in company, she insists, you will hardly believe it, Mr. Editor, but it's a fact, upon my honour,-she insists on my taking off my wig, that she may point out to them certain organs, which she is pleased to say are very strongly developed" on my "cerebrum and cerebellum." To be sure, these organs are rather of a flattering description, or I should never suffer such a liberty; but, bless me, Mr. Editor, what's to become of us if these things go on? We shall have no need of judges and juries at this rate: a man has only to be suspected,-take him up,-examine his scull,-there's the bump, and off with him!

Then, there's Miss Myrtle, Rose by name, and the prettiest girl in the parish, she has turned botanist, forsooth; and if I present her with a Forget-me-not, a flower of all others that I think the properest to be presented to a lady, she begins to examine the pistil and stamens; and when I tell her, in a neat impromptu, that it is an emblem of love, and consecrated to the tenderest emotions of the heart, she declares that it's a Pentandria Monogynia, and immediately enters into a learned harangue about the nectarium, and the corolla, and the receptaculum, and the pericarpium. Her sister Mary is a confirmed mineralogist, and puzzles you by calling the very commonest things by the very uncommonest names. If you admire her diamond ring, or pearl necklace, she assures you that the one is nothing but a bit of crystalized charcoal, and the other neither more nor less than the wen of a certain kind of oyster. These NO. VIII. VOL. II.

things are too bad, Mr. Editor; they are subversive of our most pleasurable feelings, and inimical to all poetical conception: they are generally useless, frequently injurious; they are always impertinent, often disgusting. In my younger days, there was not a more gallant man than I in the universe; and the melting verses that I wrote, and the civil speeches that I made, were copied by the beaux for miles round. But now, alas! the age of civility is gone by, and though I see beautiful forms rising around me, and feel beautiful thoughts glowing within me, I am obliged to admire the one in silence, and to suppress the other in sorrow. I cannot call Rose Myrtle an Hexandria Monogynia; and it would be ludicrous to assure the lovely Mary that her eyes,-those beautiful eyes!-were but two lumps of levigated charcoal.

This is not all, Mr. Editor; there are the languages too! Formerly it was deemed sufficient if a lady could speak good English grammar, interlarded with a few "pardonnez mois," and "je vous remercies;" but now, by Jove, she must warble Italian, and jabber German, or else she's set down for an Antediluvian; and the education that then-a-days sufficed for a Duchess, or a Maid of Honour, would now only form the rudiments of a charity girl, or a maid of all work. Nay, the very mother tongue has not escaped the contagion, and I have known the pronunciation of a plain English word change as frequently as the fashion of the hair, or a lady's sleeve.

Then there are the Albums, those rat-traps of the drawing-room," full of wise saws and modern instances," which no gentleman dare even peep

S

into without being in danger of paying a visit to his eminence Mount Parnassus. Give me the oldfashioned Scrap-Book, with a portrait of General Washington stuck at the top of the page, and all the most popular jests of the last half century, cut out of some hundreds of "comical corners," lying like regiments around him. There one might read and reflect for hours with advantage; but to seek reason or reflection amid the yellow and pink leaves of a modern Album were sheer madness,-where a straggling hare-bell gives rise to three or four pages of neatly-written bout rimés, and the prospect of a fierce-looking tom cat is accompanied by a doleful elegy on a drowned kitten.

These, Mr. Editor, are but a few of the discrepancies of the age. Consideration for you prevents me from entering more largely into the subject; though the higher I mount on the wings of criticism, the wider is the prospect of absurdity beneath me. I shall now wait to see the effect of my letter on the public mind; and, if my advice and strictures remain still unregarded, shall have no alternative but to forswear society altogether, or begin life again on the Hamiltonian system.'

I have the honour to remain, Sir, your obedient humble Servant,

LX.

RABBIT SHOOTING.

Engraved by WEBB, from a Painting by A. COOPER, R. A.

RABBIT Shooting, or rather waiting for Rabbits, is the subject of the annexed plate; a sport which oftentimes proves very successful, provided you have a spaniel or terrier that will not move without orders, which will be found very useful in chasing such as are not killed dead, and would otherwise have crept into their burrows; for it is astonishing what a quantity of shot these determined little creatures will carry.

Col. Hawker directs persons waiting for Rabbits to hide themselves in a tree; but for our own parts, we have never seen one in which we would take up our abode for two or three hours in preference to terra firma. Even the celebrated one at Tyburn, on which great pains were taken, we are informed exhausted the patience of its occupant in less than an hour. But choaking apart, we think it better for the Sportsman to take up his position either early in the morning, or about three o'clock in the afternoon to leward of their burrows, or on the skirts of a cover, where, if he and his dog remain quiet, allowing the dead to continue on the scene of action until all is over, sport will crown his efforts.

beds were not in much request till the latter end of the week, and then owing in a great degree to Mr. Osbaldeston's Time Match. On Friday the town began to fill;

beds could hardly be procured for money, and many persons were obliged to sit up all night; and it was generally thought that on the next day there was as great an assemblage of people as when Sir Joshua and Filho-da-puta ran their great match in the year 1816.

The Sports of Monday began with the Rural Stakes, D.I., which were won by the Duke of Richmond's Elvas (rode by Boyce), beating c. by Smolensko and Anthony, who was the favourite, 3 to 1.

The Criterion Stakes of 30 sovs. each, 20 ft. from the turn of the Lands-in, was won by Margrave (G. Edwards), beating by half a length Archibald, and seven others not placed. This race excited a great deal of interest, as being Derby and Oaks nags; 7 to 4 agst Archibald, and 2 to 1 agst Margrave.

A Handicap Plate of 1007. D.I., and won by Bustle (Chapple), beating Guildford, and six others not placed. Guildford made strong play, and was first till near the end, when the mare bustled by him, and won by a neck; 4 to 1 agst Bustle.

A Match won by Lord Mountcharles's Bassetlaw (Robinson), beating Mr. Thornhill's Earwig.

Capt. Rous's Crutch (Robinson), beat Lord Mountcharles's c. by Brutandorf.

Sir M. Wood's, The Marshal (Chapple), beat Mr. Thornhill's Cavenham.

Lord Chesterfield's Titania (Conolly), beat Mr. Wagstaff's Streamlet.

One-third of a Subscription was won by Sir M. Wood's Lucetta (Robinson), beating Varna, B. C. Those two horses to amuse the people walked near half the distance, when Lucetta, the favourite,

On Tuesday, the first race was the Plate, three miles, for all ages, and won by Scipio, three-yrs. (rode by Chapple), beating Pandora, and ten others not placed. Scipio, the favourite, was claimed for 300gs.

Mr. Henry's Agreeable fouryrs. old (Edwards), beat Mr. Chifney's Pigmy colt, three-yrs., 8st. 7lb. each, T.Y. C.

A Handicap Sweepstakes, T.Y.C. was won by Landrail (Robinson) beating Barabbas, and six others not placed. Landrail the favourite, and won cleverly.

A Match.-Lord Litchfield's Terry Alt (Arnull), beat Lord Exeter's Trick. Terry the fa

vourite.

A Handicap Sweepstakes for three-yrs. old, R. M., was won by Marvel, 7st. 10lb. (rode by Buckle, jun.), beating Water Witch, and five others not placed; 8 to 1 agst Marvel, and won by a neck.

Another Handicap Sweepstakes of 30 sovs. each, last mile and a distance, was won by Paddy (rode by Knatt), 7st., beating Eneas, 7st. 81b.; Sarpedon, 8st. 1lb. Rubini, 8st. 3lb.; and brother to Christina 7st. Paddy won by a length, and 3 to 1 agst him.

On Wednesday, a Handicap Sweepstakes of 30 sovs. each, T. Y. C., was won by Incubus (rode by Wright), beating Whiteboy, Pigmy colt, Rattler, and Muff. Won cleverly; 4 to 1 agst Incubus,

A Plate for two and three-yrs. old, T. Y. C., was won by Gen. Grosvenor's Kitty Fisher, beating sister to Pinwire, and five others not placed; 10 to 1 agst Kitty, who made play, and was never headed.

A Sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each, T. Y. C., was won by Lioness (Robinson), beating Whiteboy and