wife;" she assumed all the rights of one, and when, by chance, I forgot her, she somewhat sharply recalled me to my duty. She was, indeed, an extraordinary creature: without being pretty, she had a thousand womanly charms; her perception and sound sense were as quick as lightning; she was imperious in her carriage, and dark-coloured, like the Creoles, whose good qualities and defects she alike possessed. Her replies to questions always astonished me; so that I sometimes asked myself whether this precocious intelligence, and the superlatively sentimental heart that I was listening to, were not fifteen years old? What she felt for me was a sentiment which I could not define. It was more than the friendship of a child; it was that of early womanhood-the dawn of a young girl's love.

She

At length, my "little wife" was compelled to leave me, to go - to school. Lucy was now serious; and this absence seemed as if it were to be an eternal separation. She took me aside, and made me promise twenty times that she should find me again on her return. During the whole day," said she, "I am thinking of you. But you, Sir, what will you do ?" "I! I shall wait impatiently for the return of my benefactress, my lovely friend.” made a pouting face. "Oh, my dear little wife," added I, correcting myself. "Ah! very well, Sir, and do not forget; I prize you much; dost thou hear?" (this intermixture of you and thou made me smile.*) Why do you laugh? I don't like any body to laugh, when I speak, especially of grave things." I resumed my serious air. "I see I have hurt thy feelings," said she to me immediately, jumping up and throwing her arms about my neck, pardon me; I won't do it any more." She kissed me, and then as if looking into my inmost heart, added, "You, perhaps, think I am joking-because I am a child, you think that I know not what I say; but thou shalt see, thou shalt see! when I love, I love truly, and for ever." In saying this, her voice was animated: but, added she, with a deep sigh, "do men know how to love?" I was confounded." Dear little wife, I will prove to you that all men are not ungrateful." "We shall see, we shall see," replied she, with an inexplicable look; and then she ran to the maid-servant, who was waiting for her.

The conversation of this interesting child, the charm which surrounded her, and the profound calm that I enjoyed in this retreat, made me forget the storm which was raging over my head. It seemed to me that I was to pass the remainder of my life in this peaceful home, and that I no longer had anything to fear. Surely, I thought, he who has laid out these beautiful gardens cannot be a cruel man, but he will protect me. Yet, why does his wife always avoid speaking of him? is it that his name is a mystery? or is this silence but the effect of chance? I was about to communicate these reflections to her, at the risk of appearing indiscreet, when a maidservant, the only domestic I had seen in the house, came running towards us with an affrighted air; she whispered a few words in the ear of her mistress, whom I saw turn pale. "What is the matter, Madam ?" said I to her. "Good Heaven, Sir," she replied, "you see how I tremble. I did not expect my husband to return for two or three The reader should be informed that in translating and adapting this Narrative for the London Saturday Journal, the pronouns "thee" and "thou," so formal to an English ear, have been literally translated and purposely retained; for, during the Great French Revolution, the Republicans employed these terms in conversation, whatever the rank of the interlocutors. Besides, this custom prevails in France, among persons of the same family and intimate friends; and it is a mark of endearment and benevolent feeling between patrons and protégés.

days; but Fanchette tells me that he is just come back, and I would not, for the world, that he should find you here. Retire quickly, I entreat you, into this closet; tonight, when he is asleep, Fanchette and I will come to release you from your confinement, and facilitate your flight." (To be concluded in our next.)

FASHION.

WHAT makes Maria with that grace and air,
So near her heart, Time's gaudy symbol wear?
Is it an useful moral to impart,

"Time should be precious to a lady's heart?"
Or. does her watch proclaim the general liking
Of ladies fair, to what is smart and striking?
Or is it worn to warn the beaux, and say,
"Speak while 'tis time, there's danger in delay?"
No thoughts like these inspire Maria's breast,
Unconscious she of satire and of jest.
Fashion alone the brilliant toy supplies,
To make her look so fine and seem so wise.
Fred, with a visage which has no pretence,
By form or feature, e'en to common sense;
Of stature short, and lumpish in his make,
Yet Fred assumes the coxcomb and the rake;
Buries in whiskers each pale hollow cheek,
His chin in bristles grown for many a week:
In tone a pigmy, yet in language fine,
Fred struts at once a blockhead and a swine;
But hopes that in so picturesque a face,
The ladies will excuse the want of grace.
Still all excess disgusts, some less some more,
This we can sinile at, but must all deplore,
When in pure Nature's spite, 'tis Fashion's plan,
To show that monstrous being-A FEMALE MAN!
With indignation let us then pursue,

And drive these dandies from the public view;
These master-misses, who no sex compose,
Yet to the fairer are the worst of foes.
But Satire scorns, whatever she may feel,
To break these butterflies upon the wheel;
Fears to disgrace the vengeance of her pen
On those who can't be women-won't be men.
Kirton.
L. L. L.

OLD LONDON.

THE capability of London for the display of architectural magnificence will not be disputed. The positions of other great cities may indeed exhibit more striking features; we cannot, for instance, command an Acropolis; but the situation of this Metropolis happily combines all which may contribute to its wealth and convenience. Seated on a gentle slope descending to the margin of a noble river, its plain is bounded on the north and south by two beautiful ranges of ventilation, and that in which its rival Paris is so deficient, hills, affording at once easy access, facilities to cleanliness and abundant springs of the purest water.

We have high authority for believing that ancient London, (Lyn din, the City on the Lake,) overlooked an extensive basin, whose waters washed the bases of the Surrey hills, though the Thames, now confined by embankments, flows within his proper channel. London was not occupied as a Roman station so early as Colchester and Verulam. It has been doubted if Julius Cæsar ever saw it. The walls were erected by Theodosius, governor of Britain, in the year 369. They were bounded on the east and west by the Fleet and the Wallbrook, on the south by the Thames, and on the north by a morass, beyond which lay an extensive forest, stretching also towards the eastern side of the city. Fitzstephen, who wrote in the time of Henry II. describes it as then filled with beasts of chase. The first bridge was thrown across the Thames about the year 1000, by the monks of St. Mary OverEye, (over the water), who till then had maintained a ferry which gave name to their convent. Even this frail wooden

fabric is recorded to have been deemed an impregnable barrier by the invader Canute, who cut a channel from Rotherhithe into the Thames above the bridge, and dragged his vessels through it to blockade the city. This old bridge having been destroyed by fire, that which has lately been pulled down, was erected in 1176. Within the memory of persons lately living, this second bridge was laden with an irregular pile of crazy buildings, chiefly occupied by pinmakers, (the first of whom was a Spanish negro,) overhang. ing the huge starlings on either side, and bound together by cross beams of timber, beneath which the passengers groped along a narrow and dismal way. The remains of the drawbridge in the middle were guarded by an antique tower, and another bulwark protected the entrance from the suburb thence called Southwark. These singular appendages, which are represented in Hollar's curious print, were removed, together with most of the city-gates, by authority of Parliament in the year 1760. No demand for additional means of communication across the river was made till 1738, when Labelye, a Swiss architect, was employed to build the bridge of Westminster. That of Blackfriars, by Milne, was added in 1761.

The most ancient relic in the city is London Stone,' which may still be seen inserted in the wall of St. Swithin's church, Cannon-street. It seems to have been regarded with a superstitious reverence as the Palladium of the city. When Jack Cade, at the head of his rebel army, entered London, he struck his sword on this stone, saying, Now is Mortimer lord of this citie.'

The fine old gothic cathedral of St. Paul, anciently called Eastminster, which fell in the Great Fire of 1666, covered three acres with its walls. The beautiful spire rose high above the city, and one of its aisles (Paul's Walk) was the daily resort of traders, newsmongers, and sharpers. In front stood Paul's Cross, a pulpit of wood, noted for political sermons, and for the nobler exertions of Latimer and others of our distinguished reformers. This Cross was demolished in 1641, by order of the Long Parliament, who issued a commission for the destruction of pictures and other monuments and relics of idolatry.' The beautiful cross of Queen Eleanor in West Chepe (Cheapside) shared the same fate; and the ancient May Pole which stood on the site of the New Church in the Strand was removed by Sir Isaac Newton to Wanstead park, as a support to his great telescope.

·

In Aggas's map of London, as it was in 1560, Finsbury and Holborn, St. Giles and St. Martin's, appear as scattered villages. Westminster was not only a distinct but a distant city. A long dreary road led through Lud-gate to the village of Charing, where another of Eleanor's crosses (now supplanted by Le Sour's fine statue of Charles I.) pointed the way to the palaces of Whitehall and Westminster. Beyond this cross all was open field and garden. Hedge lane (now Whitcombe-street) and the Haymarket are marked as the roads to Oxenforde and Redynge. On the top of Hay-hill stood the gibbet of Sir Thomas Wyat. In Marybone (now the Regent's) Park, Queen Elizabeth sent her Russian ambassadors to hunt. At a noted Bowling-green and House of Entertainment, (set up on the suppression of Spring Gardens,) were sold a sort of Cakes (? Ruffs,) called Piccadillas, which gave title to the fine street of which this resort was the origin. A little east of this stood the country-house of Lord Keeper Coventry; and, further on, the mansion of Sydney-Earlof Leicester, upon the sites now occupied by the Street, Passage, and Square, which retain these names. North of this arose King's square, on one side of which stood the house of the Duke of Monmouth, after whose execution his friends changed this royal name to Soho,' the watchword with which he advanced to the fatal battle of Sedgemoor, Hanover and Cavendish squares first appeared in the maps about the year 1720; Oxford-street at that time extended no farther than Princes-street, and Bond-street reached only to Conduit mead. Trinity Chapel, which stands in that quarter of the town, has a curious history. It was originally a Popish chapel of wood mounted on wheels, and followed the camp of James II. to Hounslow Heath, where it remained neglected long after the Revolution, till Archbishop Tennison, then

rector of St Martin's, brought it back to its present position, and rebuilt it of more durable materials.

The venerable Abbey of Westminster, on Thorney Island, was surrounded on three sides by a ereck, which opening near Manchester Buildings crossed King's-street and Collegestreet, supplying the Canal in St. James's Park, and thence rejoined the Thames. The adjacent palace of Edward the Confessor, of which the noble Hall of Rufus and a few fragments only remain, covered both the palace-yards, and extended as far as Whitehall, where it joined to the precincts of York House. On the disgrace of Wolsey, the latter was seized for the use of the king, who from that time kept his court there. St. James's Hospital, till then under the jurisdiction of Eton College, was also seized by Henry VIII. who converted it to a palace, and inclosed the Park, which was afterwards planted by Charles II.

The magnificent palace of Whitehall, designed by Inigo Jones, for James I., was to have comprised six distinct courts; but the beautiful Banqueting-room alone was completed. At that period the royal palaces occupied the whole of the east side of the street of Whitehall, and that part on the west where the Horse Guards, and the Home Office and Treasury now stand. The site of the present Admiralty was occupied by Wallingford House, where died, (in 1632,) of a disease as horrible as her depravity, the infamous Countess of Essex, and from the roof of which Archbishop Usher beheld the execu tion of his royal master. In Scotland-yard, stood the ancient palace of King Kenneth. King-street, the only thoroughfare, was guarded by a gate; and another of nobler dimensions, designed by Holbein, stood in the midst of Whitehall, and formed the principal entrance to the palace.

When The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed almost the whole city within the walls, London possessed an architect worthy of raising the fallen capital from her ashes. But the citizens ignorantly rejected the beautiful plan of Sir Christopher Wren, who proposed to carry a spacious street in a direct line from St. Paul's to the Exchange, another to the Tower, and a third westward from the same point to Piccadilly. A terrace was to adorn the bank of the river, beside which he intended to place the Halls of the twelve great Companies. The king and his ministers warmly supported this masterly conception, but to little purpose: the citizens cramped Sir Christopher in his operations so as almost wholly to frustrate the design. He effected, nevertheless, great improvement in the comfort and cleanliness of the city, as one proof of which it may be observed, that the plague, which in the preceding year is stated to have carried off 160,000 persons, never afterwards appeared.

In 1766, (just a century after,) Mr. John Gwynn, an architect of reputation, dedicated to his late Majesty proposals for the improvement of London and Westminster, and plans for the erection of a Royal Palace in Hyde-park, upon a scale of magnificence which would satisfy the most enthusiastic of modern projectors. This work (now scarce) displays excellent taste, and anticipates nearly all the improvements since made or now contemplated. On one of his plans we observe 'St. George's-bridge' occupying nearly the site of our bridge of Waterloo, with a noble street leading north through Bow-street. 'King's-square' is seen occupying the place of the Mews: a great street leads north from Pall Mall, nearly in the line of Regent-street, and another east from Piccadilly. Splendid improvements for Whitehall and Palace-yard are also sketched out, as well as a quay on both banks of the river, extending as far as London-bridge.-No part of his ingenious design, however, was adopted: the publication does not appear to have produced any public interest at the time; and Mr. Gwynn has been so little thought of since, that we have seen some of his designs lately brought forward as original conceptions.

We are not of the number of those who lament the spread of London. We regard it as the most satisfactory assurance of the increasing cleanliness, comfort, and health of the inhabitants. He that was once immured in a cellar or a garret now occupies a floor, whose tenant in like manner has been promoted to an entire house. The density of population

brim turned up, and faced with black velvet. The top of the cap is surmounted by a globular button or ball, from which there hangs a sufficient quantity of crimson silk to cover the crown; the material and colour of which indicate the rank of the wearer. The button, or ball, is a distinctive mark of titular rank among the Chinese. Like on most other occasions, their customs as to covering the head are the very reverse of our own: we consider it a mark of respect to uncover the head; with them it would be a great violation of decorum, unless among intimates, and with leave previously asked. Besides this distinctive button, (the removal of which by the Emperor, would be to degrade the person from all rank in the state,) each grade of mandarin wears a characteristic badge, both upon the breast and back. This is a square piece of black silk, covered with various embroidery, with a bird, a dragon, or tiger in the centre; the figure and colour varying with the rank of the wearer. At the imperial court, by the way, the figure of a dragon denotes the Emperor; and that of a tiger, his Ministers. The articles of furniture in this case, are such as are seen in the houses of the higher classes: the chairs and table are of hard grain, and resemble rose-wood; and on the wall are suspended silk scrolls inscribed with these maxims: "A nation depends on faithful Ministers for its tranquillity.""Men's sons should rest on filial piety as their particular duty." It is worthy of remark here, that the Chinese are the only Eastern nation who make use of chairs. Those in the above Case are massive, and covered with rich crimson drapery; and the table is handsomely carved, and has a marble top, and crimson drapery hanging in the front.

Case II. contains an ecclesiastical and military group. First, is a Priest of Buddha, in full canonicals; next is a Priest of the Taou sect, in full dress. The third and fourth figures are a gentleman and his servant in mourning, i. e. literally in sackcloth, the universal mourning apparel in China. The shoes are white; the hair and beard unshaven; and an odd head-gear surmounts the cranium: the servant carries a mourning lamp, of which the Chinese bear thousands in their funeral processions. Next is a Soldier, in a red tunic, faced with white, and a huge pair of coarse blue nankeen trousers: the cap is of quilted nankeen, with the edge turned up, and a red knot at the top. He is armed with a rude matchlock, the only kind of hand fire-arms known among the Chinese. Mr. Davis occasionally saw soldiers who had the word "yoong"-valour, inscribed on the breast. This may be all very well, but when the same individuals turned round and displayed the identical word inscribed on their backs, the position seemed particularly unsuitable. There is hung upon the wall a bamboo shield, not unlike a basket The next figure represents an archer in the imperial cavalry, or "horse-guards," ridiculously armed with a bow and arrow. Such are the troops which must be falling by thousands before our artillery, of which means of defence the poor Chinese know next to nothing at the moment it is thundering in their ears, and popping off their heads! Case III. Three "literary gentlemen" in summer costume, light and free as the most lackadaisical author could desire, though without the shirt-collar à la Byron ; for as the Chinese rarely change their under-clothing, they have the good taste to conceal it. One of the literati is reading aloud a translation of Esop's fables, and he carries a snuff-bottle. The book-cases in this room are of ebony, and the books are placed in them horizontally. These sages are not "poor devils of authors," for a servant is handing one of them a book; a Mandarin is smoking and listening to the fable.

lid.

Case IV. A group of Chinese beauties, numbering

three ladies of rank in full costume, magnificently embroidered, and their hair dressed with bodkins and flowers. Their dresses are by no means made so low as to allow the exposure which fashion permits in Europe or America; for the Chinese women consider a "low dress" a flagrant offence against true modesty. The hands of these ladies are very delicate, a mark of aristocracy in China, as elsewhere; their eyebrows are gracefully arched; their features regular and oval; their noses too flat for beauty; but the whole countenance, though rather pretty, wants strength of expression: one of these fair ones is playing a guitar, another smoking, and a third fanning herself. Each wears three car-rings in either ear, carries an elegant tobacco-pouch, and rests her feet, ("golden lilies,'') upon an embroidered footstool. The case contains also, two female servants, with feet of the natural size. As information about the fair sex in general is always pleasant, a little gossip respecting the Chinese women will be agree able. They cannot boast of great beauty, and to make up the deficiency, they use freely rouge, which is uniformly among the presents made to a bride on her nuptials! The personal attractions of a Chinese gentleman are a large figure, inclining to corpulency, a full glossy face, and large pendent cars; the latter indicating high breeding and fortune. In females, it is nearly the reverse; delicate forms and slender willow waists being standards of beauty; the eyes are termed silver seas, (thus eclipsing the fishpools of Solomon ;) the eye-brows are often removed, and in their stead, are pencilled willow-leaves, which are used metaphorically for Pleasure: hence the saying, “deceived and stupified by willows and flowers," i. e. by dissolute pleasures this is, certainly, the reverse of our weeping willows. But the main personal attractions are the "golden lilies" of feet, produced by twining the toes under the soles at birth, and confining them thus by tight bandages, till their growth is effectually checked. This bandaging is continued for several years, during which, the poor child suffers the most excruciating torture. "This is, no doubt, an absurd, cruel, and wicked practice; but those who dwell in glass-houses should not throw stones. It is not a whit worse, nay, we maintain it is less irrational and injurious, than the abomination of tight lacing! No vital part is here attacked, no vital functions disorganized; and on the score of taste, if the errors of Nature are to be rectified, and her graceful lines and proportions improved, we do not see why the progress of amendment may not as reasonably be applied to the feet as to the waist. Almost every family in China, however poor, has one daughter with small feet." Head-dresses of natural and artificial flowers are always worn: no woman, says Sir George Staunton, is so poor as to neglect, or so aged as to give up, adorning herself in this manner; the culture of flowers for this purpose being a regular occupation throughout the country. This custom of wearing flowers in the hair, appears to be almost as old as the world itself; and probably Eve dressed a fillet, (of flowers,) as gracefully as any Parisian modiste of our day. Camellias are, doubtless, favourites in China for this purpose; just as they have become uppermost with our ladies of fashion, of late years: thus, when tired of painted art, we return to refreshing Nature!

Case V. Specimen of Chinese theatricals: a tragedian, in costume more splendid than John Kemble ever graced, and two children performing female characters. Most of the plays are historical, but do not touch on events that have happened since the Tartar conquest, so that the stage dresses are those of ancient China, which, for females, is nearly the same now as ever; but, as regards men, is very different. The Chinese are very fond of theatrical exhibitions, although they have no regular theatres; and