hazel; but the redundant richness of her eyelashes gives them all that glossy splendour which oriental beauties borrow from their Sirme. But, indeed, colour is a small matter in eyes enchased so deeply beneath such majestic brows. I think Lucretius himself would have admitted, that the spirit must be immortal on which so glorious a tenement has been bestowed!

With this divine exception, I must do the men the justice to say, that the most beautiful women in the room were all matrons. Had she been absent, there were two or three of these on whom all my enthusiasm might well have been expended; and one, Mrs ******, whose graceful majesty was such, that when I met her next evening in a smaller assembly, I almost began to suspect myself of having been too exclusive in my deification. But I have already said more than I should have ventured on to almost any other of your sex-a great deal more than I should have dared to write, far less speak to my cousin,-to whom I beg you will present the humble duty of

Her slave,

&c. &c.

P. M.

VOL. I.

D

P. S. By way of pleasing Jane, you may tell her that I do not think the Scottish ladies are at

all good dressers. They are very gorgeous-I never saw such a display of crimson velvet, and ostrich feathers, and diamond necklaces, except once at a birth-day. But the fashions have a long cold journey before they reach Edinburgh, and I think they do not regain the same easy air which they have before they begin their travels. They are apt to overdo every thing, particularly that vilest and most unnatural of all fashions, the saddle-or I know not what you call itwhich is at present permitted to destroy so much of the back, and indeed, to give so much meanness to the whole air. They say the scrophula brought in the high shirt-collars of the men and the Spectator gives some equally intelligible account of the fardingale. Pray, what hunchbacked countess was she that had wit enough to bring the saddle into vogue? I think all the three fashions are equally abominable, and the two of them that still remain should be voted out by the clean-skinned and straight-backed, who, I hope, are still the major part of the community. But, ne sutor ultra crepidam

P. M.

dyndabó de LETTER VI.

tis yala quwa oda rouban à

Zlever! TO THE REV. DAVID WILLIAMS.

-- ALTHOUGH my sole purpose, or nearly so, in coming to Scotland, was to see and converse with the illustrious men who live here, I have been in Edinburgh for a fortnight, and can scarcely say that I have as yet seen even the faces of most of them. What with lounging about in the mornings with W, and claret in the evening, and routs and balls at night, I fear I am fast getting into a very unprofitable life. The only very great man here, to whom I had letters of introduction, was Scott, and he happened to go out of town for a few weeks, I believe the very day after my arrival. I forward-. ed my letter to him in the country, however, and he has invited me to pay him a visit there, at the castle he has just built upon the banks of

the Tweed. He has been so attentive, morekenge over, as to send me letters for Mr Mathe

Man of Feeling, Mr Jey, Mr Playfair and several other men of note, on both sides of the question; so that I shall now see as much as I please of all the Dons. I shall take the opportunity of W's absence, to call upon all these gentlemen; for, excepting Mr S and Mr M he has no acquaintance with any of them. I believe, indeed, there is little love lost between him and them-and I wish to see things with my own eyes.

Of all the celebrated characters of this place, I rather understand that Jy is the one whom travellers are commonly most in a hurry to see not surely, that the world, in general, has any such deep and abiding feeling of admiration for him, or any such longing to satisfy their eyes with gazing on his features, as they have with regard to such a man as Scott, or even Stuart; but I think the interest felt with respect to him is of a more vivacious and eager kind, and they rush with all speed to gratify it exactly as men give immediate vent to their petty passions, who have no difficulty, or rather, indeed, who have a sort of pleasure, in nursing silently, and concealing long, those of a more serious and grave im

portance. A few years ago, I should perhaps have been more inclined to be a sharer in this violent sort of impatience; but even now I approached the residence of Jey with any feelings assuredly rather than those of indiffer

ence.

He was within when I called, and in a second I found myself in the presence of this bugbear of authors. He received me so kindly, (although, from the appearance of his room, he seemed to be immersed in occupation,) and asked so many questions, and said and looked so much, in so short a time, that I had some difficulty in collecting my inquisitorial powers to examine the person of the man, I know not how, there is a kind of atmosphere of activity about him; and my eyes caught so much of the prevailing spirit, that they darted for some minutes from object to object, and refused, for the first time, to settle themselves even upon the features of a man of genius-to them, of all human things, the most potent attractions.

I find that the common prints give a very inadequate notion of his appearance The artists of this day are such a set of cowardly fellows, that they never dare to give the truth as it is in