CONTENTS. PAGE CHRIST'S HOSPITAL FIVE-AND-THIRTY YEARS AGO MRS. BATTLE's OPINIONS ON WHIST.. THE OLD AND THE New SCHOOLMASTER -WITCHES, AND OTHER Night FEARS THE OLD BENCHERS OF THE INNER TEMPLE. DREAM-CHILDREN ; A REVERIE.... THE PRAISE OF CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS A COMPLAINT OF THE DECAY OF BEGGARS IN THE METROPOLIS.. 148 DISSERTATION UPON Roast Pig..... A BACHELOR'S COMPLAINT OF THE BEHAVIOR OF MARRIED PEOPLE 164 PAGI DETACHED THOUGHTS ON BOOKS AND READING. SOME SONNETS OF SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.. NEWSPAPERS THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.. BARRENNESS or THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY IN THE PRODUCTIONS I. THAT A BULLY IS ALWAYS A COWARD........ II. THAT ILL-GOTTEN GAIN NEVER PROSPERS.......... III. THAT A MAN MUST NOT LAUGH AT HIS OWN JEST....... ib. IV. THAT SUCH A ONE SHOWS HIS BREEDING.—THAT IT IS EASY TO PERCEIVE HE IS NO GENTLEMAN...... V. THAT THE POOR COPY THE VICES OF THE RICH... VII. Or Two DISPUTANTS THE WARMEST IS GENERALLY IN THE VIII. THAT VERBAL ALLUSIONS ARE NOT WIT, BECAUSE THEY IX. THAT THE WORST Pt-NS ARE THE BEST. X. THAT HANDSOME IS THAT HANDSOME DOES....... XI. THAT WE MUST NOT LOOK A GIFT-HORSE IN THE MOUTH.... 153 XII. THAT HOME IS HOME THOUGH IT IS NEVER 80 HOMELY...... 155- XIII. THAT YOU MUST LOVE ME, AND LOVE MY Dog.... XIV. THAT WE SHOULD RISE WITH THE LARK....... XV. THAT WE SHOULD LIE DOWN WITH THE LAMB.... ELIA. THE SOUTH-SEA HOUSE. READER, in thy passage from the Bank—where thou hast been receiving thy half-yearly dividends (supposing thou art a lean anmuitant like myself)—to the Flower Pot, to secure a place for Dalston, or Shacklewell, or some other thy suburban retreat northerly,--didst thou never observe a melancholy-looking, handsome, brick and stone edifice, to the left—where Threadneedle. street abuts upon Bishopsgate ? I dare say thou hast often admired its magnificent portals ever gaping wide, and disclosing to view a grave court, with cloisters, and pillars, with few or no traces of goers-in or comers-out-a desolation something like Balclutha's.* This was once a house of trade,-a centre of busy interests. The throng of merchants was here—the quick pulse of gainanui here some forms of business are still kept up, though the soul be long since fled. Here are still to be seen stately porticos; imposing staircases, offices roomy as the state apartments in pal. aces—deserted, or thinly peopled with a few straggling clerks; we still more sacred interiors of court and committee-rooms, with venerable faces of beadles, door-keepers-directors seated in form on solemn days (to proclaim a dead dividend), at long worm-eaten tables, that have been mahogany, with tarnished gilt-leather coverings, supporting massy silver inkstands long since dry ;-the oaken wainscots hung with pictures of deceased governors and sub-governors, of queen Anne, and the two first monarchs of the Brunswick dynasty :-huge charts, which subsequent discoveries * I passed by the walls of Balclutha, and they were desolate.-OBSTAN. 2 |