man.

and tractable. They startle our Eng- daughters into the train, and comes lish Peregrine by their huge, long up joyfully to take a house in some backs, and the four horns, or chim- street not far away from the leading neys, which grow out of their backs, “squeares.” The Earl of Tumbleand discourse murky vapours. They towers and his family come up from roll across the billows, and their steel Tumbletowers to the ancestral town viscera move harmoniously, with a mansion, and the family coach, with sort of peristaltic motion. Peregrine, the faces of the Hon. Misses Shindysitting afar off, hears the clank of the man looking from the windows, may steel viscera, uttering their chant be seen in the streets. Everything monotonous.

tends, by a natural, social gravitaThe sea inonster has done its work, tion, towards Eblana and its season. and lies gasping and blowing along- Taking it, then, to be this most side, secured by a halter from its neck favourable time, and that it is a to the shore. Peregrine has stepped bright, clear morning (perhaps an unon to the land-to King's land-the reasonable postulate, for, in respect of special town which was rebaptized rain, Eblana is held to be suffering an after the First Gentleman of Europe. eternal douche), Peregrine goes forth A little granite pawn marks this con- upon the streets, beginning with the secration; and Peregrine's heart Belgravian quarter, and wanders into thrills with a sort of First-Gentle- the decent solitude. Naturally, he is manly sensation as he sees the affec- confounded by the spectacle of a tionate tribute to this great and good gigantic private square, which is ex

actly one mile round, holding twentyEBLANA at last!. Peregrine de- four acres of ground, and which, as bouching from the railway, adrift, as may be conceived, cannot be easily it were, upon the city, and uneasy matched in Europe. He will be under the responsibility of luggage, told of some enthusiasts who are would have a dim instinct of where anxious further to develop this ornahe was from the children of the whip, ment, and by the agency of statues, who with wild cries and a pleasant fountains, walks, and planting, imanimation, compete for him, as though port a little French refinement, and he were a prize belt. The sort of create a sort of Irish Place de la Congipsy vehicle, wild and irregular, too corde. There is no impediment from --the shelf-car of the country-so absence of the root of all evil ; that characteristic and agreeable-brings esculent is offered in plenty. But the with it certain recognition. Else- old dilly, with six insides, basket where the stolid drivers sit placidly and all, complete, still lumbers along aloft, scornfully ignoring the over- the road, and stops the way; and so tures of a single traveller beside the a really magnificent project, indentimore profitable claims of a numerous fied, too, with a memorial for the family, crushed under mountains of dead, is on the verge of miscarriage. luggage. But here there is personal With this, too, was associated an importunity, cheerful gibe, lively Hibernian Rotten-row and a mimic joke, vehement gesture, and flourish “dwive”-a concentration of equesof whips; and then Peregrine again, trians and vehicles at the legitimate if he has ever stood in the Piazza hour. That elements are not wanting della Minerva, thinks of the lively for a suitable display may be gathercocchieri on that “stand," who, when ed from this :-of a brilliant day, he lifts up his finger, charge at him a train of between five and six hunen masse, like a troop of horse. dred mounted ladies and gentlemen

A little comforted at a restaurateur's may be seen galloping over the pleaand hostelry, Peregrine goes forth sant slopes of the “Ďhaynix.” upon the street to see Eblana for the Here, too, is the quiet majesty of first time. He has taken, it may be the Belgrave-square of Eblana, and supposed, Eblana at its most favour- which has yet a sort of therapeuticoable time—at the end of the month of legal atmosphere ; for it is growing January, when her " season” is “on” gradually to be the quarter of those -a festival which endures from that two great learned guilds-and Galen, month until June. Rusticus, down F.R.C.S., rising rapidly, and Rebutat Ballingarry, on the family, “esteet,” ter, now a virgin Q.C., looks fondly puts Mrs. Rusticus and her three towards à mansion in this sacred

be seen

quarter. No wonder. Here are stately traffic shall accumulate on the quarter old edifices, ripe and mellow, and of least suited to it. Here

may a date before a certain Union, with lines of broughams, locked in inex. grand staircases and gorgeous stucco tricable confusion, to which universal ceilings, and Pompeian walls, and chaos the key may readily be foundpainting on that ample scale the old for in this street are the temples of Hibernian magnates delighted in. If your Madame Augustes and PalPeregrine be curious in such things, inyres and Victorines (from Paris, he may turn back to that monster but nées Murphy), who regulate the “Green” he has just left behind, mode in Eblana. The sacrifices to and look up at the rows of stately these divinities are gigantic, for Ebold-fashioned mansions, with huge lana belles are frantic devotees, and porches, to which he must ascend by are indeed entitled to all unreasonasome twenty to thirty steps. Here ble decoration at any cost. are huge, spacious halls, flowered all Peregrine marvels at the bustle, over with elaborate stucco devices, the activity, the dense crowds walkwrought by cunning Italians, whom thé ing arm in arm--the vitality, in short. Irish virtuosi imported specially, and And yet here is no token of tradewith capacity for holding a dozen or of prosy, unromantic trade, which so sedan chairs” of a festive sort. takes the bloom off all things. The Here are broad, stone staircases, and eye is not offended with wains and exquisite Italian chimney-pieces, and drays. This is the city of the dolce ceilings, and door-panels decorated far niente—the city of money, and of with medallions, painted by famous money spent by retail; for no one Angelica Kauffman's own hand. hoards meanly in Eblana, and so shops With some there is a portecochere thrive. too, that might have been imported Foreigners who come into Eblana from Paris. These are the glories of protest it has a sort of half-foreign the Saint's Green. But there could air, which more nearly recalls their be pointed out to Peregrine, structures own delightful cities, than any other more imposing still-perfect palaces British city. Foreign architects have --built by the fine old Irish noble- more than once pronounced it one of men (with the titles out of senti- the most architectural cities of Eumental novels), and which dot the rope. Peregrine, as he stands on the city to the amount of a dozen or so. hill which descends from Irish BondBeside these, the mansions of the street, and looks towards the Univergreat seigneurs, ducal and other- sity, and the grand, graceful temple wise, seem feeble. There is one, now

where the Hibernian Lords and Comdegraded into a counting-house, as mons used to meet, must own to a grand and stately as a Roman palace. most striking effect. All the public Some are barracks-some, public in- buildings in Eblana are of the same stitutions ; but all attest a rich and Grecian order, and have a certain costly taste, and a boundless expense. uniformity. He will note, too, how Some had their theatre attached. they form part of the street everyArtists and carvers were brought from where, and are not jealously cut off, Italy and France to do the painting or separated by paling. The lawyer and decorative work. It has been in Eblana walks under Grecian porwhispered, however, that the mere ticoes and Corinthian capitals, and drudges, who did the contractor's pediments crowned with statues by work for the noblemen with the ro- Flaxman.

As for the quiet grace mantic names, have not been paid for and beauty of the ancient House of it to this hour, or have been expunged Parliament, architects of all nations in the grand balance sheet of the have vied with each other in its Incumbered Estates Court.

praises. It now performs the more Now Peregrine plunges into Irish prosaic duty of a bank; but it is a Bond-street-narrow, winding, and bank such as no bank in Europe can hilly, yet very rich and opulent, and compare with. where nearly every hour of the day Going steadily forwards, and crossthere is a perfect blockade and stop- ing the river, all quayed, like Paris, page. This, of course, must be ac- and crossed at every two or three cepted as the inevitable law in all hundred yards, or so, by a bridge, he climes and cities, that the glut of gets into that famous causeway which

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ranks with the New York Broadway, hogsheads between the nations; and

; and the Russian Nevskoi parade-its a special growth was always destined breadth and spaciousness unsur- for “t' Hibernian shore"--a distincpassed, and, when planted with rows tion which tradition has kept up to of fine old limes, which a barbarous this hour. There are cellars of wonmunicipality cut away, must have drous efficacy in Eblana. So with had a unique effect.

tobacco. You will with difficulty No wonder these foreigners have light on the luxury of a penny cigar. their own associations recalled to And Peregrine, or any unknown them, when we think of the odd, ex- wandering Particulier, entering a ceptional look of the actors before stall and laying down upon the counthis scenery; the national vehicles ter the smallest silver coin known to spinning about, and the easy Neapo- our currency, will have handed to litan attitude of those who ride on him, not, indeed, a fragrant regalia, them; the bright cloaks of the West, but a sound, acceptable, genuine, copied from the peasants, of deep smokable cigar, that will not give him blue and Spanish scarlet ; the freshi a nausea, or have any arrière pensée cheeks ; the bright eyes; the gay of the kitchen garden. The careless ring of voices chattering like chil- stranger will, in fact, receive a fair dren; the platoons of the reaping cigar. In Babylon, alas ! it is but interest, in the characteristic stage too certain what cruel treatment will dress which Mr. Boucicault wore for befall the careless stranger entering a so many nights, and who are hurrying gaudy temple of this sort, and laying away to the ships; the ballad singers, down a large silver coin, which brings and the dreary funeral processions this result—that many leading Briwhich, at all hours, come trailing tons send regularly to Eblana for all down the broad street, with all the comforts in these two directions. sudden effect of a Misericordia pro- Peregrine has noted the special cession at Florence ; and the strange, block of carriages about Madame rakish figures of the American fire Mantilini's Temple of Fashion-a brigade, in their scarlet shirts, white sort of polite route of miniature breeches, and boots, always loung- broughams, and flashy open barouches, ing together in twos and threes— inside of which, as it were, in a dainty all this makes up a wonderful picture flower-pot upon wheels, bloom the for one whose eye loves colour and precious hot-house plants—the garshifting effects, and which has, in- denias and geraniums of the upper deed, something verging on thé fo- circles of Eblana. Peregrine has reign. But what does not verge upon come towards the latter days of Janthe foreign are the troops of bright, uary, which accounts for the conflux fresh faces, wonderful eyes, and rich, of vehicles towards Madame Mantishining hair-articles cheap from lini's. That unhappy artiste, speakmere plenty—not the mere rustic ing French with a slight“ suspicion" charms of a robust health, but strik- of a richer native Doric, has but a ing Spanish-looking creatures-chil- miserable time of it. Her nights are dren of the Mezzo Ceto, and with wretched ; her days are like the agowhich this capital abounds.

nies of the dying whale-a ceaseless For two special blessings of human “flurry.” Gentlestranger, Peregrine ! existence, which verge in the

direc- these things are signs and warnings, tion of wines and cigars, has Eblana as it were, in the heavens. As you a particular notoriety. She has a sort came along, you marked the garb of of pride in purveying these comforts, the late revered Samuel Johnson, of the best and soundest quality, in LL.D., author of the English Dictheir degree. In the more remote tionary and other works, unaccounperiods, when there was a palpable tably set out in the windows of tailindifference abroad as to the fiscal ors' shops, with the corresponding rights of the revenue, a sort of affec- steel spike of the period balanced on tionate sympathy had grown up be- its point. The “ancient and fish-like” tween wine-exporting countries and sprigged waistcoat, too, a little frayed the absorbing earth of Eblana, which and tarnished, with a significant resulted in a mutual respect and ad- splash here and there as from the miration. Henceforth there was a wine cup. At what mahogany, O steady, unbroken chain of claret effete garment? Where is Lucullus

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now, erst measured for that finery? which sat in Eblana was bought up Where? Were this a Roundabout (a piece of public morality which, if Paper, how easily we might now adopted by the House of Hapsburg mount the pulpit, and with the old toward its Hungarian Diet, would waistcoat for a text, what an affecting excite a scream through Europe), it sermon might be preached ! The was felt that some little compensaConsul Plancus (that is under–when tion was due to the despoiled natives, the Duke of Dorset was Lord Lieu- and it was bargained and covenanted tenant); and the locks of hair of our that, henceforth, this semi-royal instimistresses ; and the "faded old let- tution should be preserved inviolate. ters ;" all fished out of the pocket of The men and women of Eblana do the old waistcoat,“On an old Court not bow down before the Molochs of waistcoat !” It would sound prettily. cotton or iron. They are a little Gallic For why should there be a monopoly in their temperament, and prefer of letters patent for these things ? a little scenic effect, and the exhibi

If Peregrine has read this hand- tion of this semi-royalty, even though writing on the wall aright, he will Cynicus and his brethren snarl at it, know that a grand ceremonial is im- as being "sham” or Brumagem; minent—"THE LEVEE” and “THE they do not want the dead provinDRAWING-ROOM," or what, by an ex- cialism-in tone and thought, at least cusable provincialism, is more familiar --of Cottonopolis, and Navipolisas “the Levy” and “Drawn-room.' on-the-Mersey. Sham? Wherefore Hence the crowding in the streets ; sham ? Vice-king at home is but a hence the block of broughams; hence nobleman of England ; 'but sitting on the temporary insanity of the hapless a throne at Eblana Castle, is goverMantilini. For what gives Eblana nor of six or seven million of lieges, this peculiar attraction is that it is with powers of giving titles and high the seat of a Court-miniature, if offices, of pardon, of life and death, you will, yet complete and perfect in of proclamations, of making laws, and all details. Very different from the what not. He is " Depute" for the feeble dulness of the reigning Duke Queen of these Islands. of Pumpernickel, or the Landgrave of “ Levys” are pretty much the same Selbzerbrunnen. Eblana has its pa- all the world over. But let the gala lace or “Castle,” well known every- night of the “drawn-room” have where, with its banqueting halls, room, and let Peregrine, the stranger, ball rooms, reception rooms, galleries, either recklessly purchasing, or pruand “Royal Chapel," and suitable dently hiring--for both these operafinery, complete. It has its court- tions are within his power--one of yards and guard-house, where the the becoming suits of the courtly ceremony of guard mounting," with period, with the attendant spike of military music, is performed, as at a defence or offence, go up magnificently greater palace. Here dwells the Vice- to Eblana Castle. With his florid King and lris court-chamberlains, waistcoat of the period, and his lower gentlemen-at-large, and of the bed- limbs so heartlessly exposed, with an chamber, aides-de-camp, masters of effect generally suggestive in the the horse, all complete. Cynicus, who jackdaw direction, he will yet prehas been listening scornfully, here sent a less conspicuous. image of bursts out with Mr. William M. degradation by lamplight. He will Cornhill's well-known remark (fresh have journeyed up in broad noon-day out of the aloe jar), to the effect to the “ Levée,” enter his qualifica

that a court calendar is bad enough; tion in an effete vehicle, a fossil but a shum court calendar, how in- “job,” which the rest of the year

has tolerable!" Yet, pace tanti viri, lain, like Mr. Sterne's desobligeant, there is something to be said. The “in the corner of a coach-yard,” a sort institution is of a prodigious anti- " of vampt up, business,” for the quity, and has, therefore, the respec- whole year, and now, like everything tability which long standing imparts that can at all trundle upon wheels, to other institutions. When, too, is dragged forth and brings gold sixty years ago, by an unblushing However feeble and decrepid, a few traffic in peerages, pensions, and ready streets progress at a funeral is no money, and at an outlay of more than great intrusion upon the retirement a million sterling, the parliament of an honourable old age. In Eblana,

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cars.

too, there is a strange and unique like lines concentrate into one. Loud vehicle—a square, sombre, packing and hoarsely in the ear rings out the case-into which light penetrates by cries of mounted policemen, in sepulfour cell windows, and which is chral military cloaks, prancing hither cleverly balanced upon a pair of and thither, and intimidating drivers wheels

. A strange oubliette-or di- with a fierce and superfluous declaminutive prison van-moving with mation. Towards Irish Downingspasmodic jerks, and which by the street, the causeways are filled with action of the horse imparts a charm- an idle and eager crowd, who spend ing motion to the prisoner within. the night peering into the wheeled It has a certain undignified aspect, to jewel, and criticising pleasantly and see a gentleman of the period of epigrammatically the contents of the George the Third looking from the wheeled jewel caskets. As the train window ; so, therefore, Peregrine will toils up the steep hill, and when it not "take up" one of these triumphal stops is kept from receding by a

skilful corps of “blockers,” Eblana But as the conditions on which Castle comes--ranges of windows all Melrose is to be seen aright are suf- ablaze--shadows flitting past--courtficiently familiar to the public, and yard thronged--and sounds of milimoonlight is indispensable to a proper tary music wafted to the ear. Many effect, so, after all, the natural and a young heart, about to debuter, flutappropriate condition fitted to a ters as we roll in. ‘Drawing-room” is by the flare of This is the hall of Eblana Castle, wax-light. “They order, then, this spacious, dazzling, almost-at least to matter" better in Eblana. Yonder, debutante, who flutters timorously in Babylon the Great, it seems a alone, sheltered behind the parental frigid and piteous spectacle to see the magnificence, between rows of soltrain of beauties fluttering up to diery, up the grand flight, a mass, of court, with all their trappings on, in what seems to debutante--a mass of inthe ruthless and unfeeling light of distinct menials and powder confused day. There is a monstrous discord- together ; magnificent and sumptuance in the effect. It is as chilling ous menials, courtly creatures, with a as a rehearsal at the Theatre Royal, palatial flavour. Then this long corBullock Smithy--when a cold streak ridor, then through this chamber of blue daylight falls on the faded (menials still abounding), then into a scenery and the dull tinsel, and the large room-one mass of passing feafootlights have not been lighted. thers, diamonds, jewels, gold, silver Diamonds, and bouquets, and lace, lace, stiff moire trains, fans, and uniand tulle, and feathers (and may it be forms, and a perfect Babel of tongues. just whispered, anything in the direc- A sort of crush-room, where all wait tion of artificial complexion), belong their turn, which becomes, for the to a distinct element, and seem to nonce, a sort of garden of rare and fade and die in this unnatural atmo- choice flowers, where the anxious sphere. But in Eblana they are wiser stranger will see many that he would in their generation. The daughters like to pluck for his button-hole. We of that picturesque generality, who hear of the "violet eyes" of Eblana, always sits with a harp at her knee, and of glowing Magenta complexions ; know what theatre best suits their but here is the best opportunity for charms.

having these charms focussed. For The wayfarer of this festive night, many are drawn hither, fresh from wandering towards Irish Downing the provincial hills, before the bloom street, will find his progress cut off has been brushed from their cheeks by long lines of caskets or jewel cases by the sleeves of a hundred waltzers. on wheels, waiting patiently, and con- Here we may see Mrs. Dolan, of “Kesverging steadily on Eblana Castle, tle Dolan," from the west-south, a from all points; and, dark though it gross and earthly creature, possessed be, he will see, nestling within each by her seven demons of vulgarity; and casket, something glittering-toge- yet, after her walks something so mether with clouds of vaporous tulle, tropolitan-so refined--that it would with a little female humanity, and seem incomprehensible how there eyes that light up all. From north, should be any relationship between east, west, and south, do these snake- them. Here, in this direction, coming,

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