frequent meals. It is after they have become opulent and
luxurious that they use but few meals-two meals, or
perhaps but a single meal. The ancient Persians, the
most luxurious people of the world, from whom the
Greeks learned all the pompous apparatus of the dining-
room and the table, had but one meal-dinner. The
Greeks, in their earliest and most simple condition, had,
like our good plain country people of Scotland, four
meals, corresponding to our breakfast, dinner, four-hours,
and supper.
As they became opulent, and acquired
habits of refined entertainment, from their communica-
tions with the monarchs of Lydia and the East, they
began, like the luxurious inhabitants of our modern cities,
to have but two meals-if, indeed, we may reckon their
breakfast a meal, which was, like that of the Romans,
but a slender repast. They seem to have sat down to
dinner, or rather reclined on their couches, about three
o'clock, or a little later perhaps, and to have r tired
about twilight, excepting when the party wished to pro-
long the conversation, or plunge into conviviality.
Devongrove, Clackmannanshire,
December 18, 1830.

beauty, and partly, perhaps, from the particular circumstances under which I first heard it. I mean the " Highland Mary" of Burns. I should like to hear it when I am dying.

What a host of indefinable emotions may be summoned into being by a few words and sounds! We read of kings and warriors who won their way to empire and glory through perils, and famine, and the sword; and yet how small is their triumph, and how little are they to be envied, compared with that man who weds the breathings of his own immortal lyre to melody as exalted and divine as its own!

Blest!--for ever blest !-art thou in my memory, Robert Burns!-and dear and hallowed in my fancy lives the image of thy gentle Mary; though my eyes never beheld either her or you,-and now both have passed away from this earth like a dream!

MUSIC.

By Gertrude.

THE LONDON DRAMA.

Pavilion Parade, Brighton,
Monday, Dec. 27th, 1830.

THOUGH Our last week's critical duties, have been very nearly a sinecure, yet, to prepare for the anticipated fatigues of our Christmas campaign, we have deemed it most prudent, as-seeing his Majesty, God bless him! is here also-it certainly is most fashionable, to spend the holydays at Brighton, and catch invigoration, as well as inspiration, from the ocean breeze. Since our last notice, the performances at both theatres have been repetitions of pieces already criticised; and it is therefore merely necessary to say, that "Werner" and Miss Inverarity are nightly increasing in public favour; though all attention is now so completely absorbed in preparations for the pantomimes, that Tragedy and Comedy "hide their dimi

WHOEVER loves nature loves music, for each is full of the other; and what the changes of the seasons are to the skies, and hills, and streams, the various tones of melody are to the sympathies, and moods, and affections of the soul. As an almighty and invincible hand can turn in a moment into calm and sunshine the darkest storm of sea and land, so the unseen and mysterious power of music can chase away the deepest shadow from the heart-attuning every chord to divinest harmony. I have seen many summer days that I could compare to nothing but one glorious piece of music. Their commencement in the morning was a wild burst of rap-nished heads" before the genius of Harlequinade; and turous joy, as if the voices of a thousand young and radiant spirits sung Pæans to the Goddess of Delight far up among the clouds. The noon was gorgeous and magnificent, but more subdued and tranquil in its grandeur; and then the strain, analogous to the fall of evening,-oh! how gently, how beautifully, it died away to the close!-till a holy sadness came over every heart, and tears stood in every eye!

In

They say that every thing around us is full of poetry,and how much do we not see daily that breathes of nothing but music! I have heard music in the wintriest night, when I looked at the stars, and there was no sound in the air. It was a low sacred psalm, that spoke of God and prayer, and it sanctified and purified the mind. I have heard music when I gazed on a fair young face, and its tones were soft and silvery, telling of pure feelings and innocent enjoyments. I have heard music when I looked on the furrows of wan and withered age; its chords were strange and melancholy, and they made me weep, for they sounded like the dirge of happiness that had fled for ever! Of all sorts of music, songs are probably the best. songs may be found the perfection both of melody and poetry. As fragrance dwells with the flower, so music and minstrelsy should ever be linked together; and where one is bad, the other should not be degraded by an unequal union. It is painful to see a fine air adapted to silly or inharmonious words, or to hear beautiful and touching verses joined to unmeaning or heartless strains. How often, in these days of refinement, (as they are called,) have we to regret the utter worthlessness of both!-and how refreshing and how ennobling is it for our ears to be taken captive, which they sometimes are, by the unexpected taste and feeling evinced by some enchanting singer-whose very soul seems to come forth from his lips, and whose genius, on a sudden, bathes the hearts of his auditors in a sea of pure and living light! There is one song which I can never listen to without tears-chiefly from its own intrinsic and surpassing

Macready and Miss Kemble are, out of all comparison, inferior to the Clown and Columbine! A few words, therefore, on this all-engrossing subject, must be infinitely superior to any thing else. Unhappily for the originality of the Drury-Lane pantomime, even its very name and fable are both pirated from last year's display at the Pavilion, Whitechapel Road! And " Davy Jones, or Harlequin and Mother Carey's Chickens," having delighted the wonderers of the East, has now travelled to astonish the gazers of the West, though its voyage has had any thing but fair winds hitherto in its progress to this evening's exhibition; the misunderstandings behind the curtain having more than once threatened its shipwreck altogether. In consequence of these, Mr Stanfield's Alpine Diorama has been brushed over in ten days, although, to have received due justice, it should have occupied nearly as many weeks; and the author, as we presume he calls himself, Mr Wm. Barrymore, one day

threatened to walk off with the MS., and abandon the season to its fate. Having escaped these and sundry other difficulties, however, to-night it is to be brought out to an admiring public, and all that we are yet able to announce of its attractions is, that its first scene is to be at the bottom of the sea; that it will be redolent of sea-nymphs and mermaids, and is to have two Columbines! The Covent Garden exhibition is to be entitled, "Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat, or the Giant's Causeway;" the first five scenes of which are to be broad farce, written by R. B. Peake, and the hero, Trismagistus Mulligan, played by Power. The scenery and mechanism will be much superior to the usual average; and amongst them will be introduced the very palpable joke of our Lord Mayor's Show lost in a fog! The minors are all equally busy as their betters; and Master Joseph Sebastian Grimaldi-like the Vicar of Wakefield, we love to give the whole name" fallen from his high estate" through "villainous company," is to

figure at the Coburg. Of their deserts and doings, however, both great and small, we must delay writing farther until we can do them all justice.

Peregrine Somerset.

THE EDINBURGH DRAMA.

But in the twinkling of an eye, the Bell Inn evaporates, and, Mother Bunch only knows how or why, but we are all at once in the vicinity of the Bell Rock Lighthousea delicate transition, no doubt, from the Bell Inn to the Bell Rock. It is a stormy night, full of thunder and lightning, and particularly high waves, so Mr Edmunds walks in and sings, "The Bay of Biscay," and then Harlequin and Columbine dance a pas de deux, though it rains THE man who does not love a Christmas Pantomime, Morayshire floods upon them all the time. The whole is fit for "treason, stratagem, and spoil." "Let no such is as it should be; but, by Our Lady! down all at once man be trusted." In the Christmas week we think of goes both the Bell Rock and the ocean itself, and all the =nothing else. We dream of the pantomime; we break-thunder and lightning, into the solid earth, and our old acquaintance the town and port of Leith, with its ships, sailors, fish-women, and fish, some of them queer enough, starts up before us. At length Leith too goes the way of all flesh, and the best scene of all—a country fair, opens upon us. That strolling player on the platform before his "pavilion of fancy," inviting the ladies and gentlemen to walk up, with a je-ne-scai-quoi in his manner which Talma or John Kemble could never have copied, is a fellow particularly dear to our affections. He plays on the fiddle too! But mark the uncertainty of all human things! Just in the midst of one of his most exquisite flourishes, Harlequin waves his sword, and in a moment his pavilion of fancy is changed into a menagerie of wild beasts! and the clown and the pantaloon, and the strolling tragedian himself, are under the paws of lions, hyenas, leopards, orang-outangs, boa-constrictors, sea-horses and polar bears, who break out of their cages, and swarm over the stage, to the imminent danger of the whole audience, though they have as yet limited their ravages to seventeen individuals in the orchestra. Leaving this too agitating scene, and led by the silver moon, we come to a rural cottage, where we ourselves could spend all our lives with Columbine; but, presto! Mother Bunch slides down on a lunar rainbow, and transports us all at once to her fairy bower and pearly fountain, where, amidst a brilliant display of fireworks, every body is made happy, and then, alas! the curtain falls and shuts out Paradise from our view. Nothing lasts for ever, and even a Christmas pantomime must come to an end, though we have often wished that it had no end, but went on through the whole year, for ever and for ever! We can see it again to be sure, that's one comfort! To-morrow and to-morrow. Jones has played once this week. We were unable to be present, but we shall say something good about him next Saturday, partly in the hope of making it apparent to Mr Green, that the blue silk waistcoat he is continually wearing is of all other waistcoats the most odious and anti-classical. A bitter bad piece, called " The National Guard," represented in the too flattering bills as a "comic opera," has been brought out, and on the whole has been bitter-badly played. But we have the Christmas Pantomime-we have Mother Bunch, and we are happy-yea, we are in good-humour with all the world. Old Cerberus.

fast, dine, and sup on the pantomime; we give up all our ordinary pursuits, and do not care one farthing for the state of Europe. "The pantomime's the thing by which to catch the conscience of"-OLD CERBERUS ! It makes us young again! and only think what it is to be young! 'Tis to be unsuspicious, confiding, romantic, joyous! 'Tis to be full of rosy health, and never-failing spirits! 'Tis to believe that the world is what it seems, and that all the men and women are not "merely players." O! to be young again is to know nothing of criticism, and the sour harsh thoughts which criticism brings along with it. 'Tis to go with papa and mamma, and three or four brothers and sisters, and half a dozen cousins and second cousins, all crammed into one coach by a process quite inexplicable; 'tis to rattle along with them through streets, all brilliant with lamps and shop windows, till we stop at that palace of young delight-the Theatre! Then, for five blessed hours, what looks of rapture! what peels of merriment! what thrillings of delicious emotions! "Time! Time! Time!" how thou dost change all these things!-but, thank Heaven! "Mother Bunch" is greater than thou; and when she comes to our aid, we defy thee, wrinkled cynic! See the curtain goes up, and Awl the cobbler refuses to give his daughter to Colin as he should do, and wishes the girl to marry that nondescript booby. Colin is dismissed in sore dejection; we'll follow him. Being a woodcutter, he goes to the forest to cut wood; but, to put the finishing stroke to his misfortunes, he breaks his axe, and immediately determines to hang himself. He is just about to carry his intention into execution,-and really it would have been a pity to have done so in so lovely a part of the country, for we never saw a more romantic woodland scene,-when Mother Bunch comes to his assistance, and presents him with a golden axe, on condition that he won't tell whom he got it from. The golden axe is a golden key to old Awl's good graces, and be consents to give Colin his daughter; but the young lady is determined to know how he came by the axe, and he soon finds it impossible-as every lover would have done to keep his secret in opposition to her entreaties. He blabs, and instantly Mother Bunch comes down like a flash of lightning, and the cobbler's household vanishes into thin air, and the nature of all his establishment is changed. Colin is Harlequin, the lady of his heart is Columbine, Awl is Pantaloon, and the opposition lover i is Clown. Off they go, like velocipedes down an inclined plane, and it makes one almost giddy to follow them. Lo they have all got to a barber's shop, and the Clown plays the barber, and of course the poor Dandy, who comes to have his hair dressed, suffers in the cause. What an essay might be written upon the dandies of pantomimes! They are a race by themselves, always looking pleasant, and carrying a jaunty air, but used in a manner that seems to set at defiance Mr Martin's bill against cruelty to animals. Pantomimic dandies are delicious creatures! But even the dandy in the present instance does not suffer so much as the pantaloon, for he gets his head chopped off, and the clown, with his usual complacency, puts it in his pocket, leaving pantaloon to ron after him in search of it. The barber's shop disappears, and here is the exterior of the Bell Inn Tavern and Hotel. The clown and pantaloon's head sup together, and perform many more equally wonderful experiments.

LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES.

THE First Number of The Edinburgh University Magazine, to be continued monthly during the session, is announced to appear next week. The Editors wish to make this Magazine a vehicle for the general talent of the University.

Dialogues on the Rule of Faith, between a member of the British Society for promoting the religious principles of the reformation and a Catholic Layman, to be inscribed to the Office Bearers of the Society, are in the press.

The first Number of The Edinburgh Law Journal will appear speedily. The attention of the Conductors of this work will be directed to two great objects,-the improvement of Scottish Jurisprudence, and the promotion of a thorough knowledge of its principles and practice among the members of the legal bodies. British Melodies, or Songs of the People, by H. S. Cornish, will appear this month.

Professor M'Culloch is preparing for publication a Theoretical and Practical Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation.

The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, by Thomas Moore, Esq. is forthcoming.

Messrs Oliver and Boyd are preparing a second edition of the first volume of The Edinburgh Cabinet Library.

The Incognito, or Sins and Peccadilloes, a Tale of Spain, by the author of the "Castilian," &c. is announced.

OUR STUDY TABLE.-Having again presented our readers on this the first day of the year with a Number containing nothing but original contributions in prose and verse, the new works destined for our reviewing department-a department of the greatest consequence, and which we rarely or never omit, except during the holydays-have been multiplying upon us.-First of all, there is the second volume of Moore's Life of Byron, as replete with interest as the first;-then there is Hood's Comic Annual, far the best of all the comic annuals in point of literary merit ;-then there is the History of Chivalry, by Mr James, a work we have not yet had time to read, but the reading of which we anticipate with pleasure; -then there is the Exiles of Palestine, by our friend Mr Carne, worthy of the author of "Letters from the East;"-then there is the Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, compiled by Drs Macleod and Dewar, and a most valuable addition to philology;-then there is Songs of Solitude, by William Bennet, the ingenious author of " Pictures of Scottish Scenes and Character," and the editor of that well-conducted newspaper, the Glasgow Free Press; and then there are many more which we have as yet scarcely opened, but the merits of all of which shall be brought to light in our next and succeeding numbers.

penny pamphlet or two, are our chief productions: then, too, Perth Magazine was appearing as regularly as our worthy landla announces, that there is "ane o' thae byeuks wi' the picture o' king's fule lying on the table," (alluding to the outward man of « well-beloved Christopher); lately, there have been several attem to establish a literary periodical, and always without success,Amateur reached one number! and the Miscellany shared nearly same fate. Still we are not without some redeeming points. C Literary and Antiquarian Society is prospering, and correspondi with many similar institutions both at home and abroad; its next port is expected to be very satisfactory. Our School of Arts is fai established, and surpasses the most sanguine expectations of its trons, thanks to the able exertions of Dr Anderson. Both of c Newspapers are considered among the best provincial ones in Sc land. We have also our own share of debating societies, rhyn struck youths, and some few blue-stockings, though of the last ma are sadly out at the heels. But what is the best of all, we ha many sincere admirers of the Edinburgh Literary Journal. Theatrical Gossip.-The King's Theatre opens on the 22d January; the names already announced are-Pasta, Lalande, Davi Lablache, De Begnis, Santini, and other old favourites. Mademo selle Schauberlerkner, ("Phœbus! what a name!") from St Peter burg, and Mademoiselle Unghner, (another pretty name,) from Rom are engaged. Those eminent composers, Auber and Meyerbeer, a expected to visit London in the spring.-A petition from Mr Arnol signed by numbers of the nobility, has been presented to the Kin CHIT-CHAT FROM ELGIN.-One of our newspapers, the Elgin and It prays for an extension of his limited season in his new theatre. H Forres Journal, and Northern Advertiser, ceased to exist soon after Majesty has commissioned Lord Brougham to decide on the que the Wellington administration.-A general meeting of the Elgin La- tion of the patents and their privileges. The question is to be argue dies' Society, for promoting industry among the most necessitous on its merits on the 10th of January. The Lord Chancellor and tw poor, was held in the new assembly rooms, North street, on Tuesday common law judges to constitute the Court, and only one counsel to t last. Although this benevolent society of" the daughters of cha- heard on either side.-Raymond, late manager of the Leicester circui rity" has existed only for little more than a twelvemonth, it has and said to be an excellent light comedian, is to be one of Madarn already been productive of much advantage to the poor of Elgin.-Vestris's company at the Olympic.-Watson, late chorus-master at Co The suspension bridge over the river Spey, at Boat o' Brig, in the parish of Boharm; and our iron bridge over the Lossie, at Bishopmill, are now opened to the public, and are both reckoned very handsome structures of their respective kinds.-The library connected with the Academy of Elgin, which was lately established for the benefit of the scholars attending that institution, is increasing. Such an appendage to our excellent seminary deserves every encouragement, and cannot fail to prove highly advantageous to the youthful students, for whose improvement it was instituted.-Very handsome contributions have been given by our respectable neighbours of the town of Forres, to aid in the erection of the Elgin Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which is to be placed near Gray's Hospital, within the grounds attached to that edifice. It is generally expected that, by the new-year, the streets of the Morayshire metropolis will be lighted with gas; this will add another to the many improvements which the good town of Elgin has experienced of late years.

CHIT-CHAT FROM BERWICK-On Wednesday, the 15th instant, agreeably to a requisition, signed by 114 highly respectable individuals, a meeting was held in the King's Arms Assembly Rooms, to take into consideration the propriety of petitioning Parliament on the subject of Reform; the Right Worshipful J. B. Orde, Esq. Mayor, in the chair. It was unanimously resolved to petition both Houses of Parliament on that subject.-We have sent four congregational petitions to the Commons, praying for the total abolition of Negro Slavery.-We have lately got an accession to the religious establishments of our good town, in the shape of a New Jerusalem Temple, and a Primitive Methodist Chapel, or Ranter's MeetingHouse. Our Barracks and our Theatre are shut up; all the old pensioners have been sworn in as special constables, to act under the direction of the magistrates in case of riot.-Our Jail is completely crammed with smugglers, who have been apprehended by the excise while in the act of transporting a little aquavitæ over the Border.[ CHIT-CHAT FROM GLASGOW.-Miss Jarman drew good houses

vent Garden theatre, opened, a short time ago, the Fishamble Stree theatre, in Dublin, in opposition to the theatre-royal; but it close after a season of four nights! It is thought that on the Marquis o Anglesea's arrival, his excellency, from his love of the drama, wil give a fillip to theatricals.-Miss George, about three years since the prima donna of the Haymarket theatre, has returned from a very successful American tour.-A strolling player has become the pur chaser of the late King's coronation robe and star, which were knock ed down at L.7, 5s. The rose-colour satin may yet be sported by a barn-door Richard-Sic transit gloria mundi.—The Christmas Pantomimes are at present the chief novelties in the metropolitan theatres -The following letter has been received, it is said, by Miss Paton, at Brighton :-" MA'AM-Unless the gemman wot you're always a walking with, don't shave off his Mustashers before next Sunday, we'll set fire to your Wood. SwING."-Jones's reappearance, the Pantomime, and Miss Jarman's return on Monday, are the matters of most moment in the theatrical world here.

the Fourth Volume of the LITERARY JOURNAL. They who have
WE this day present our readers with an Index and Title Page to
not hitherto been regular subscribers, but may think of becoming

so, will no doubt see the propriety of commencing with a new Volume
are making new proselytes every day.
and a new Year. We have already been nobly supported, but we

and gained golden opinions here. She is succeeded by a Master David
Bell of Dundee-not Mr David Bell of Glasgow-who, it seems, is to
astonish'us in "The Weathercock."-A tavern has been opened here
lately, quite equal to your Rainbow or Royal Saloon, and has been
crammed every night.-A Philharmonic Society is about to be esta-
blished, under the auspices of Bailie M'Lellan and other able and
influential amateurs, and our music-sellers are all on the alert since
young Mr Fadyen's success in publishing. I see that Horne, who
certainly ranks next to Bishop as a composer, has set the "Right
Loyal Song" that appeared in your pages to spirited music, and has
published it, and "The Standard of England," by the same author, in
London.-Weekes's admirable collection of Irish songs, under the
title of "The Shamrock," is on the eve of publication.-Stockhau-been prodigious.
sen is to be with us this winter.

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

SEVERAL interesting articles are still unavoidably postponed, among which is the paper read by Mr Laing to the Antiquarian So ciety, and the communication relative to the new Gazetteer of Scot land.

We request the Editors of various newspapers in different parts of the country to accept our thanks for the handsome manner in which they have spoken of our CHRISTMAS NUMBER, the sale of which has

"Christmas Day in Rome" reached us too late for our last Num ber, and it is now unnecessary to publish it.-The tale entitled "The Deserter" will not suit us.-Poetical contributions from the following persons lie over for probable insertion in our next SLIPPERS, which will appear in a week or two-John Nevay of Forfar, "N. C." of Glasgow, Jed. Cleishbotham of Gandercleuch, "T." of Stonehaven, and "T. E." We do not remember having received any commu "Pictor."

CHIT-CHAT FROM PERTH.-"There is a tide in the affairs of men," says the poet; so is there, say we, in the affairs of cities; and we fear this tide is far in the ebb here in literary matters. About half a century ago, the Morison press was coping with the Edinburgh ones in producing many standard works, of which the Encyclopædia Perthensis will long remain a lasting proof; now, the Reposts of Missionary and Bible Societies, the County Register, and perhaps a six-nication signed

THE

EDINBURGH LITERARY
LITERARY JOURNAL;

OR,

WEEKLY REGISTER OF CRITICISM AND BELLES LETTRES.

4

No. 113.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1831.

LITERARY CRITICISM.

Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his
Life. By Thomas Moore. Vol. II. London. John
Murray. 1831. 4to. Pp. 823.

THE interest excited by this work, at the present moment, makes every body much more anxious to know what it contains, than what is said of it. Were a reviewer to stand prating at the threshold, as is the wont of such persons, his tittle-tattle would be considered little short of an impertinence, seeing that his readers are thinking all the time not of him, but of Lord Byron. To escape this odium, we propose presenting to-day a selection of the most interesting extracts we can find,-reserving for next week our own opinions, which we shall then deliver with the gravity due to the "wise saws and modern instances," to which we are in the habit of giving birth. The second volume of this noble piece of biography commences with Byron's final departure for the continent, carries us through all the events of his continental life, and finally closes the scene with the premature extinction of all his hopes and aspirations at Missolonghi. We shall commence our quotations with Moore's account of a visit he paid to Lord Byron in Italy, in which there is much interesting matter:

MOORE'S VISIT TO BYRON IN ITALY.

"Having parted, at Milan, with Lord John Russell, whom I had accompanied from England, and whom I was to rejoin, after a short visit to Rome, at Genoa, I made purchase of a small and (as it soon proved) crazy travelling carriage, and proceeded alone on my way to Venice. My time being limited, I stopped no longer at the intervening places than was sufficient to hurry over their respective wonders, and, leaving Padua at noon, on the 8th of October, I found myself, about two o'clock, at the door of my friend's villa, at La Mira. He was but just up, and in his bath; but the servant having announced my arrival, he returned a message, that, if I would wait till he was dressed, he would accompany me to Venice. The interval I employed in conversing with my old acquaintance, Fletcher, and in viewing, under his guidance, some of the apartments of the villa.

Price 6d.

his coat and cap-all combined to produce that dissimilarity to his former self I had observed in him. He was still, however, eminently handsome; and, in exchange for whatever his features may have lost of their high, romantic character, they had become more fitted for the expression of that arch, waggish wisdom, that Epicurean play of humour, which he had shown to be equally inherent in his various and prodigally-gifted nature; while, by the somewhat increased roundness of the contours, the resemblance of his finely-formed mouth and chin to those of the Belvedere Apollo, had become still more striking.

"His breakfast, which I found he rarely took before patched his habit being to eat it standing, and the meal three or four o'clock in the afternoon, was speedily dis. in general consisting of one or two raw eggs, a cup of tea, without either milk or sugar, and a bit of dry biscuit. Before we took our departure, he presented me to the Countess Guiccioli, who was at this time, as my readers already know, living under the same roof with him at La Mira; and who, with a style of beauty singular in an Italian, as upon my mind, during this our first short interview, of inbeing fair-complexioned and delicate, left an impression telligence and amiableness, such as all that I have since known or heard of her has but served to confirm."

We cannot better follow up this extract than with the following curious occurrence, which Byron describes in his own powerful and original way :

AN ADVENTURE AT VENICE.

"Venice is in the estro of her carnival, and I have been up these last two nights at the ridotto and the opera, and all that kind of thing. Now for an adventure. A few days ago, a gondolier brought me a billet without a subscription, intimating a wish on the part of the writer to meet me either in gondola, or at the island of San Lazaro, or at a third rendezvous, indicated in the note. I know the country's disposition well,'-in Venice they do let heaven see those tricks they dare not show,' &c. &c.; so, for all response, I said that neither of the three places suited me; but that I would either be at home at ten at night alone, or be at the ridotto at midnight, where the writer might meet me masked. At ten o'clock I was at home and alone, (Marianna was gone with her husband to a conversazione, ) when the door of my apartment opened, and in walked a well-looking and (for an Italian) bionda girl of about nineteen, who informed me that she was married to the brother of my amorosa, and wished to have some conversation with "It was not long before Lord Byron himself made his ap-me. I made a decent reply, and we had some talk in Itapearance; and the delight I felt in meeting him once more, lian and Romaic, (her mother being a Greek of Corfu,) after a separation of so many years, was not a little heighten- when, lo! in a very few minutes in marches, to my very ed, by observing that his pleasure was to the full as great, great astonishment, Marianna S**, in propria persona, while it was rendered doubly touching by the evident rarity and, after making a most polite curtsy to her sister-in-law of such meetings to him of late, and the frank outbreak of and to me, without a single word seizes her said sister-incordiality and gaiety with which he gave way to his feel- law by the hair, and bestows upon her some sixteen slaps, ings. It would be impossible, indeed, to convey to those which would have made your ear ach only to hear their who have not, at some time or other, felt the charm of his echo. I need not describe the screaming which ensued. 1 manner, any idea of what it could be when under the in- The luckless visitor took flight. I seized Marianna, who, fluence of such pleasurable excitement, as it was most flat- after several vain efforts to get away in pursuit of the eneteringly evident he experienced at this moment. my, fairly went into fits in my arms; and, in spite of reasoning, eau de Cologne, vinegar, half a pint of water, and God knows what other waters beside, continued so till past midnight.

I was a good deal struck, however, by the alteration that had taken place in his personal appearance. He had grown fatter, both in person and face, and the latter had most suffered by the change-having lost, by the enlargement of the features, some of that refined and spiritualized look, that had, in other times, distinguished it. The addition of whiskers, too, which he had not long before been induced to adopt, from hearing that some one had said he had a faccia di musico,' as well as the length to which his hair grew down on his neck, and the rather foreign air of

"After damning my servants for letting people in without apprising me, I found that Marianna in the morning had seen her sister-in-law's gondolier on the stairs; and, suspecting that his apparition boded her no good, had either returned of her own accord, or been followed by her maids or some other spy of her people, to the conversazione, front whence she returned to perpetrate this piece of pugilism.