leaf;' who, with out-stretched hand, and shaded, with small bright red corkscrew perpetual “how d'ye do,' went the round curls ; whilst Miss Anne, from having of the circle, not bating an inch of his rather a higher bridge to her nose than prerogative' of acquaintanceship. was common in the family, had taken the

The second specimen we shall lay Grecian line, and had accordingly drawn before our readers, shall be somewhat two long straight strips of sandy hair of a different cast. It contains a de- across her temples, as she thought a la scription of the Hobson family, very

Madonna, The third, Jemima, was at tip-top people in Manchester, who that becoming age when young ladies' have been seized with the travelling hair is neither long nor short. As to the mania, so endemic of late years among

conversation of these Manchester graces, all classes. We are not quite satisfied -being in considerable awe of a person that the noble author has been very

of whom the Morning Post said so much successful in this part of his subject.

as it did of Lady Matilda, they confined The old Hobsons appear neither very

that to occasional verbal corrections of bright conceptions, nor very new, but

their mother's slip-slop, which their Jem Hobson compensates amply for boarding

school education fully qualified

6

daughters, of having arrived before them ; stranger! As the arrival of fresh com. and the consciousness of having thereby pány made the conversation less conforfeited their best claim to that admira- strained, this was explained, though not tion hitherto so lavishly bestowed upon to the satisfaction of Lord George and them from that quarter : the young ladies' Mr Penryn, by overhearing Lady Eating. idea of being quite the thing,' consisting ton telling the duchess, whose ears were in nothing so much as pre-eminent un- almost as defective as her eyes, a long punctuality.

story, of which they caught Must re“ The stranger bowed slightly to the collect - Augustus Arlingford'-long duchess as she passed to his end of the abroad'- supposed early disappointroom, which she answered with an in- ment'-recent death of his brotherquiring curtsey,-her Grace's eye-sight, now Lord Ormsby'_ very rich,' &c.which was none of the best, being now which immediately produced from her rendered more treacherous by the dark- Grace, in rather a high tone, meant to ness of the room. • Who is it ?' said catch his lordship's ear at some distance, she to Lord George, in a low whisper; Excuse my blindness, my lord-Leto which he replied, “Indeed I don't titia and Cecilia-Lord Ormsby-you know,'-in a tone of voice au but im- must recollect Mr Arlingford, though pertinently audible. At this moment you were then very young-quite chil. their host and hostess appeared from an

dren.' inner room-Lady Eatington employed “ The reflections of Lord George and Mr with a half-drawn-on glove-his lordship Penryn, upon their half-wilful mistake, applying a half-opened pocket-handker- were not very consolatory, as the former chief to his nose; both wbich actions fame of Augustus Arlingford occurred to were meant to signify rather reproach- them in all its pre-eminence. Lord fully, than apologetically, “You have George now recollected that, in his first come sooner than we expected—but here conference with his tailor, he had been we are.'

strongly recommended the Arlingford “ As we have introduced our readers collar, and that a part of his dress, about to their house, we shall be expected to which he was very particular, had been make them acquainted with the master called • Arlingford's.' Mr Penryn, too, and mistress; but Lord and Lady Eat- had a disagreeable reminiscence, that ington were those every-day sort of peo- whilst still at college, he lost a rouleau, ple of whose characters it is almost im. when Mr Arlingford's colt won the Derpossible to speak in affirmatives. Per. by; and both distinctly remembered, that haps the two most positive characteris- when they first came out, if any very tics of his lordship were, that he was a well-looking young man appeared, all the receiver of rents in the country, and a oracles declared that he had ' a look of giver of dinners in town. To speak ne- Arlingford;' and this was the man whom gatively - he was no politician they had voted an awkward actor, a farmer-no bel esprit-A0 connoisseur; squab singer, or a methodist parson. but the most distinguished of all these “ From this time the cannonade at the classes met at his house, to pronounce street-door became almost incessant, and upon the merits of one of the best cooks every possible variety of arrival was conin Europe : in consideration of which, stantly swelling the circle, which, with every one, in accepting his invitations, truly English instinct, bad formed itself wrote to himDear Eatington, round the place, where (strange to say)

• Yours truly.' there was not a fire; and many were the And every one enfiléd the crowd at Al- different ways of presenting themselves mack's, to squeeze Lady Eatington's which might be remarked :-- First, The hand when she first came to town. tender scion, just budding in the first

“Her ladyship was naturally a very silly, rays of fashion, who, after advancing desand by education (so called), a very illi- perately, and retiring awkwardly from the terate woman; but long habits of the 1

circle, seemed anxiously to solicit a proworld enabled her to conceal this; and if tecting nod from those around him, conshe was seldom as well informed as her firmative of the acquaintance he hoped guests, she was always as well dressed as he had made. Then came the wellher dinners—which answered all the pur- established man of the world, who seempose.

ed carelessly to postpone the duties of “ But how surprised were our young recognition, till dinner and lights afford. beaux, and our old duchess, to see, that ed him a more convenient opportunity of whilst they themselves were casually re- doing so. To him succeeded tbe icicognised, the whole of the attention of devant jeune homme,' whose 'way of both host and hostess was directed to the life is fall'n into the sear--the yellow

6

a

no

:

leaf;' who, with out-stretched hand, and shaded, with small bright red corkscrew perpetual how d'ye do,' went the round curls; whilst Miss Anne, from having of the circle, not bating an inch of his rather a higher bridge to her nose than prerogative' of acquaintanceship." was common in the family, had taken the

The second specimen we shall lay Grecian line, and had accordingly drawn before our readers, shall be somewhat two long straight strips of sandy hair of a different cast. It contains a de- across her temples, as she thought a la scription of the Hobson family, very

Madonna The third, Jemima, was at tip-top people in Manchester, who that becoming age when young ladies' have been seized with the travelling hair is neither long nor short. As to the mania, so endemic of late years among

conversation of these Manchester graces, all classes. We are not quite satisfied being in considerable awe of a person that the noble author has been very

of whom the Morning Post said so much successful in this part of his subject.

as it did of Lady Matilda, they confined The old Hobsons appear neither very

that to occasional verbal corrections of bright conceptions, nor very new,

but

their mother's slip-slop, which their Jem Hobson compensates amply for boarding

school education fully qualified

them to give. As to Mrs Hobson, she all his parents' defects. He is indeed

felt no such awe as that with which the a gem, a jewel of great price

name and fame of Lady Matilda inspired “Miss Betty Dornton was some years her daughters. Ever since her brother's older than her brother; and having marriage, she had persuaded herself that brought her charms to market at a time her own consequence was so much inwhen the prospects of her family were creased by the closeness of the connexion, not so extensive as they afterwards be- that she did not feel abashed, even in came, (old uncle Smithson having then the presence of the cause of all that adformed only the nucleus of that immense ditional consequence. So she waddled wealth, which he afterwards scraped to straight up to Lady Matilda, in a scarlet gether; and certainly having no inten- velvet pelisse which made the sun hide tions of bequeathing it in a lump to any his diminished head in the dog-days; and one,) her marriage with Mr John Hob- after a sisterly salutation, said, --(staring son was not at the time objected to. He full at her,)-Well, I'm sure Jem couldwas a steady, calculating foreman, in a n't have done better.' She then broke large manufactory at Manchester. This at once into the subject now always upsituation he had gradually improved into permost in her thoughts ; namely, the that of a master of foremen ; and his extraordinary circumstance of her being

; small back lodging he had changed into actually about to go abroad. the largest extent of staring brick front « « Well,' said she, 'I hope that we in Manchester.

shall all live as one family in foreign parts. “ Mrs Hobson, at the time of her mar- To think of my going trapesing out of riage, was a silly, showy, bustling, chat- Old England ! but my daughters must tering little body; with a brisk figure, have the same advaantages as the Miss and brisker tongue, good-humoured, il- Tomkins's, though they did make old literate, and vulgar. Twenty years, and Tomkins å knight the other day. But more than half as many children, had ra- an’t my brother a baronet ? to say nothing ther taken from her briskness of figure of you, Lady Matilda. Then Dr Snook her person seeming to have kept pace says, that Jemima is rather pilmonary, and with her fortunes, in increase; but no- that the air of Italy will do her good; and thing had abated her activity of tongue, to be sure, if it was not for fear of the as Lady Matilda soon found to her cost, muskittys, or bandittis, or what do they when the servant announced Mrs Hob- call them as attacks one there, I should son, the Miss Hobsons, and Master like Italy well enough, and to see the Hobson; the last a hobble-de-hoyish Pope, and the Venus of Meddi-what is schoolboy. The three Miss Hobsons I it, my dear ?' appealing to one of her shall not attempt to describe individually daughters. “Medici, mamma,' said Miss as to character, till the reader becomes Anne. Ay-Medici—and the Saint by degrees better acquainted with them. Peter's—but I don't think so much of In their dress there was a sisterly same- that, because we've got a Saint Peter's ness, consisting, as it did, of bright pea- at Manchester. And that great cascade green cassimere pelisses, superabundant- (Turny, or what do they call it?) that ly bebraided, and black beaver bonnets Briggs-old Briggs of our town's sonwith pink linings. The only distinction showed a fine picture of it, as he did in their appearance, was, that Miss Hob. there at our exhibition, with the water son's round rosy face was one can't say all so white, and the rocks so black, and

a

6

the trees so green; very pretty it was, brought him here, as he is not going and little Briggs himself sitting on a three- abroad with us, on purpose to see him, legged stool, with it all splashing about as it is right boys should know who they him, poor fellow ;-and then that Capi- are to look to. Jem, I'm sure, will do tal Colossus as the old Romans made.' something for his godson, little Jem, as - Coliseum, mamma,' said Miss Hob- we call him : perhaps make him a parson; "and the Capitol,' said Miss Anne, liament man; it is as good a trade as

is a building by itself.'-Very well, my any; at least, I'm sure, so uncle Smithdears, a building by itself, is it ? I thought son found it. They say, he must make it was in Romembut Jem ought to know, six: so he may as well have one of his for I suppose that's what they teach him own kin as another. Who knows but, in at school.' This changed the current of time, Jem may live to be a--what was her ideas, and called Lady Matilda's at- that great gentleman, who so civilly wrote tention to a nuisance which the presence to thank our people for, killing the Raof more active annoyances had hitherto dicals?'--'A Secretary of State, mamprevented her from observing:

ma,' said Miss Hobson. « Of all the demands that the ties of « Ah! Why should not Jem live to connexion can make upon one's patience, be a Secretary of State, Lady Matilda ? I there is nothing like the precocious intro- can assure you,' continued the fond moduction, into general society, of a genuine ther, that all pains have been taken with school-boy ; where, either by his uneasy his speechifying ;--Jem, suppose you let awkwardness, he makes all who see him your aunt hear that speech that I say equally uncomfortable, or, by his pert makes me think I hear you in the House self-sufficiency, causes a more active dis- of Commons.' Matilda submitted to this, turbance.-Sir James's saying, which he as a minor evil to hearing the mother talk so aptly applied, of Love me, love my about him; and Jem, who, with all his dog,' is nothing to the trial of, Love me, shyness, preferred to his present state of love my school-boy. It is true, though, awkward inaction, that exposure to which that school-boys are, after all, (to use a habit had hardened him, immediately premetaphor peculiarly suited to the Hob- pared to comply; and, throwing his hand son family,) the raw material of which stiffily up, like a way-post, began, . My the finished articles, most sought for in name is Norval,' in that gruffish squeak, a drawing-room, must be manufactured, and with that measured twang, which There are, also, two varieties in the spe. generally accompany such exhibitions. cies; your private school-boy is much He was proceeding, with wonderful sucworse than your public; by private cess : and had just arrived at the point schools, being meant all, however large whereand however open, except two or three,

• A band of fierce barbarians from the hills, where the scholars are more select and

Rushed, like a torrent, down upon the vale,

Sweeping our flocks and herds, gentleman-like; and which schools are when the door opened, and in walked our therefore called public. And never was two friends of the preceding evening, there seen a more regular specimen of Lord George Darford and Mr Penryn, the worst kind of school-boy, than that who usually hunted time in couples, and which met Matilda's eyes in the person meant to kill 'half an hour with Lady of Jem Hobson, as he sat on the very Matilda. Great, indeed, was their astoedge of the sofa; bis pale, shrunk, nan- nishment at the party they found assemkeen trowsers, having worked their way bled, and the exhibition they interrupted. up his spindle leg, which was enveloped Our young actor might have added in a wrinkled cotton stocking; the collar Our shepherds fled for safety and for succour,' of his new coat, and his black stock, for sudden was the flight this produced alone, showing any embryo symptoms of in the family ;--Mrs Hobson displaying incipient dandyism ; his sandy hair plas- to the still wondering eyes of the intrutered sideways with a wet brush, off his ders, as she moved towards the door, the snubby, chubby face; and his hands oc- broad back of her splendid pelisse, whose cupied in studiously brushing, the wrong unequally-worn texture showed at once, way, the nap of his shapeless hat. that her velvet was English, and her

“. Put your hat down, my dear Jem,' habits sedentary. The young ladies folsaid Mrs Hobson. He is Sir James's lowed in a cluster, stooping, shuffling, godson; we reckon him very like him,' poking, and using every other means by appealing to Matilda, wbo, though she which English young ladies of a certain said nothing, could not deny the imputa- class get out of the room. Roscius, alone, tion.

• still hovered about the enemy'-till, "I am sorry his uncle's out. I

with some difficulty, he had extricated

.

a

his shapeless hat from under the feet of Milord Hobson ; une des plus riches faLord George, who was, by this time, milles d'Angleterre ;--Sacre !'-and, to sprawling on the sofa; and having achie- their astonishment, there appeared the ved this, with a formal bow, which he had figure of the much-despised courier, salearnt at the same time as his speech, he creing into the room the identical garçon. left the room.

Leon's altered appearance, in Rule a “6. What, in the name of wonder,' said Wife and have a Wife,' did not create Lord George, ' is that young Esquimaux, greater surprise, nor, indeed, a more comwhom we found exhibiting; and who are plete change in manner and deportment ; his attendant squaws ?'

nor was it easy to recognise the little, “ • That lady was the sister of Sir helpless, much-enduring being, in the Jarnes; the others were her children,' shabby surtout and oil-skin hat, in the Lady Matilda replied, in a tone calcula- arbitrary, bullying, swaggering hero, glitted to stop any further attempts at ridi. tering in gold lace and scarlet, with shicule."

ning yellow leather breeches, and clatterThe Hobsons get into France, and ing about in a commanding pair of bools. the following is a further specimen of It was like the Emperor Napoleon, ri. the author's powers of humour- sing from a sous-lieutenant of artillery,

“ The feeling which one experiences in upon the extinction of the ancien régime, the first change from an English to a

into absolute power. French inn, must be like that of a horse, “ Thus, after the short-lived anarchy of who is suddenly taken out of a warm,

the steam-boat, Pierre had completely suclose stable, and turned into a loose box. perseded all the former legitimate authoIn the first, be is often cramped for room; rities of the Hobson family. From that kept much too hot; plagued with super- time forward, nothing could be done fluous care and attention ; never left without him; all Mrs Hobson's almost enough to himself; and stuffed beyond unintelligible wants were obliged to rewhat he can eat. In the other, he has ceive his sanction, before they could be a fine, roomy, airy place, to walk about satisfied ;-old Hobson's eau-de-vie and in, and nobody ever seems to trouble his water could not be obtained without his head about him, or to come near him, ex- approbation ;- Tom was obliged to recept at random, to feed him, when they sign, into his more efficient command, all have nothing else to do.

future control over the postilions ; “At any rate, if the comparison be not -even the young ladies could not lay quite just, it is one which struck Tom their heads on a downy pillow, unless it Hobson, as he and his family were turned was procured by him; and when Miss into a large, staring, out-of-the-way kind Hobson desired that she might have of room, and left to their fate. Minutes, deux gros matelots on her bed, be it was that seemed hours, passed, and there was that saved her from the danger to which no appearance of any one taking the least an unconscious substitution of one vowel notice of them. Mrs Hobson, on whom for another might have otherwise subthe discipline of the packet had entailed jected her. The dinner was not only a most rávenous appetite, now became obtained at once by the exertion of his most clamorous. All in vain ;-at last authority, but upon the whole gave asshe heard a footstep on the stairs, and tonishing satisfaction. True it is, that sallied forth. There she caught a stray

old Hobson began by dg the soup, waiter, singing-Partant pour la Syrie.' as mere salt-water, with sea-weed floatHe was proceeding on his way, without ing in it; by which he succeeded, as attending to her, when hunger made her usual, in making what, from recent rebold; and though she had lost her · Ma- collections, was to all the party precisely nuel de Voyager,' she screamed at him, as the most unwelcome of similies. Some she thought, in the words of that useful Maintenoncotelettes, too, excited much publication,- Je suis femme il faut me admiration ; Mrs Hobson wondering manger.' The garçon stared a moment, why they were wrapped up in paper; in astonishment; when the truism con- and Tom, supposing that they were tained in the first part of the sentence, meant for them to carry in their pockets, not seeming to reconcile him to the ob- instead of sandwiches. ligation implied in the remainder,-he. “ Dinner being finished, and the rain passed on— Partant pour la Syrie.' Their continuing, the party were again reduced case thus seemed quite desperate ; when to their internal resources for amuse. first an authoritative voice was heard upon ment; and as the detail of these is not the stairs, abusing everybody to the right likely to afford much gratification to my and left; of which the most audible words readers, I shall leave them for the prewere – Sacre ! de faire attendre ; Sacre ! sent, to pursue their journey, turning my Vol. XIX.

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