sudden shudder,-" With these cords were tied the hands of Arthur Grizzlegut, executed for high treason, 19th November, 18-. Presented, as a mark of respect, to Caleb Quirk, Esq., by John Ketch." Poor Miss Tag-rag recoiled from the box as if she had seen it filled with writhing adders. She took an early opportunity, however, of calling her father's attention to it; and he pronounced it a "most interesting object," and fetched Mrs Tag-rag to see it. She agreed first with her daughter, and then with her husband. Quietly pushing her investigations, Miss Tag-rag by and by beheld a large and splendidly bound volume-in fact, Miss Quirk's album ; and, after turning over most of the leaves, and glancing over the "poetical effusions" and "prose sentiments,' which few fools can abstain from depositing upon the embossed pages, when solicited by the lovely proprietresses of such works, beheld her heart fluttered-poor Miss Tagrag almost dropped the magnificent volume; for there was the idolized name of Mr Titmouse-no doubt his own handwriting and composition. She read it over eagerly again and again,

"Tittlebat Titmouse is my name,

England is my nation;
London is my dwelling place,

And Christ is my salvation."

It was very very beautiful—beautiful in its simplicity! She looked anxiously about for writing implements; but not seeing any, was at length obliged to trust to her memory; on which, indeed, the exquisite composition was already inscribed in indelible characters. Miss Quirk, who was watching her motions, guessed the true cause of her excitement; and a smile of mingled scorn and pity for her infatuated delusion shone upon her face in which, however, there appeared a little anxiety when she beheld Titmouse-not, however, perceiving that he did so in consequence of a motion from Gammon, whose eye governed his movements as a man's those of his spaniel-walk up to her, and converse with a great appearance of interest. At length Mr Tag-rag's "carriage" was announced. Mr Quirk gave his arm to Mrs Tagrag, and Mr Titmouse to the daughter; who endeavoured, as she went

down the stairs, to direct melting glances at her handsome and distinguished companion. They evidently told, for she could not be mistaken; he certainly once or twice squeezed her arm-and the last fond words he uttered to her were, " 'Pon my soulit's early: devilish sorry you're going!" As the Tag-rags drove home, they were all loud in the praises of those whom they had just quitted, particularly of those whose splendid hospitality they had been enjoying. With a daughter, with whom Mr Quirk must naturally have wished to make so splendid a match as that with Titmouse,-but who was plainly engaged to Mr Gammon-how kind and disinterested was Mr Quirk, in affording every encou ragement in his power to the passion which Titmouse had so plainly cons ceived for Miss Tag-rag! And was there ever so delightful a person as Gammon? How cordially he had shaken the hands of each of them at parting! As for Miss Tag-rag, she almost felt that, if her heart had not been so deeply engaged to Titmouse, she could have loved Mr Gammon !

"I hope, Tabby," said Mrs Tagrag, "that when you're Mrs Titmouse, you'll bring your dear husband to hear Mr Horror? You know, we ought to be grateful to the Lord-for He has done it."

"La, ma, how can I tell?" quoth Miss Tag-rag, petulantly. "I must go where Mr Titmouse chooses, of course; and no doubt he'll take sittings in one of the West End churches: you know, you go where pa goes-I go where Titmouse goes! But I will come sometimes, too-if its only to show that I'm not above it, you know. La, what a stir there will be! The three Miss Knipps-I do so hope they'll be there! I'll have your pew, ma, lined with red velvet; it will look so genteel."

"I'm not quite so sure, Tabby, though," interrupted her father, with a certain swell of manner, "that we shall, after a certain event, continue to live in these parts. There's such a thing as retiring from business, Tabby; besides, we shall nat❜rally wish to be near you."

"He's a love of a man, pa, isn't he?" interrupted Miss Tag-rag, with irrepressible excitement. Her father folded her in his arms. They could hardly believe that they had reached

Satin Lodge. That respectable structure, somehow or other, now looked to the eyes of all of them shrunk into most contemptible dimensions. What was it to the spacious and splendid residence which they had quitted? And what, in all probability could that be to the mansion—or perhaps several mansions-to which Mr Titmouse would be presently entitled, and-in his right-some one else?

Whilst the brilliant success of Tit tlebat Titmouse was exciting so great a sensation amongst the inmates of Satin Lodge and Alibi House, there were also certain quarters in the upper regions of society, in which it produced a considerable commotion, and where it was contemplated with feelings of intense interest; nor without reason. For indeed to you, reflective reader, much pondering men and manners, and observing the influence of great wealth, especially suddenly and unexpectedly acquired, upon all classes of mankind-it would appear passing strange that so prodigious an event as that of an accession to a fortune of ten thousand a-year, and a large accumulation of money besides, could be looked on with indifference in those regions where MONEY

"Is like the air they breathe-if they have it not, they die;"

in its absence, all their "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends," disappear like snow under sunshine; the edifice of pomp, luxury, and magnificence that "rose like an exhalation," so disappears,

“And, like an unsubstantial pageant faded,

Leaves not a rack behind."

Take away money, and that which raised its delicate and pampered possessors above the common condition of mankind-that of privation and incessant labour, and anxiety-into one entirely artificial, engendering totally new wants and desires, is gone, all gone; and its occupants suddenly fall, as it were, through a highly rarefied atmosphere, breathless and dismayed, into contact with the chilling exigencies of life, of which, till then, they had only heard and read, sometimes with a kind of morbid sympathy, as we do hear and read of a foreign country, not stirring the while from our snug homes, by whose comfortable and luxurious firesides we read of the

frightful palsying cold of the polar regions, and for a moment sigh over the condition of their miserable inhabitants, as vividly pictured to us by adventurous travellers.

If the reader had reverently cast his eye over the pages of that glittering centre of aristocratic literature, and inexhaustible solace against the ennui of a wet day-I mean Debrett's Peerage, his attention could not have failed to be riveted, amongst a galaxy of brilliant but minor stars, by the radiance of one transcendant constellation. Behold; hush; tremble!" AUGUSTUS MORTIMER PLANTAGENET FITZURSE, EARL OF DREDDLINGTON, VISCOUNT FITZ-URSE, AND BARON DRELINCOURT; KNIGHT OF THe Golden FLEECE; K.G., G.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., &c., &c.; LieutenantGeneral in the army, Colonel of the 37th regiment of light dragoons; Lord-Lieutenant of -shire; elder brother of the Trinity House; formerly Lord Steward of the Household; succeeded his father PERCY CONSTANTINE FITZ- URSE as fifth Earl, and twentieth in the Barony, January 10th, 1795; married, April 1, 1789, the Right Hon. Lady Philippa Emmeline Blanche Macspleuchan, daughter of Archibald, ninth Duke of Tantallon, K.T., and has issue an only child,

"CECILIA PHILIPPA LEOPOLDINA PLANTAGENET, born June 10, 1790.

"Town residence, Grosvenor Square.

"Seats, Gruneaghoolaghan Castle, Galway; Tre-ardevoraveor Manor, Cornwall; Llmryllwerwpllglly Ablace, N. Britain; Poppleton Hall, bey, N. Wales; Tullyclachnach PaHertfordshire.

"Earldom, by patent, 1667; Barony, by writ of summons, Hen. II."

Now, as to the above tremendous list of seats and residences, be it observed that the existence of two of them, viz., Grosvenor Square and Poppleton Hall, was tolerably well ascertained by the residence of the august proprietor of them, and the expenditure therein of his princely revenue of L.5000 a-year. The existence of the remaining ones, however, the names of which the diligent chronicler has preserved with such scrupulous accuracy, had become somewhat problematical since the era of the civil wars, and the physical derangement

of the surface of the earth in those parts, which one may conceive to have taken place consequent upon those events; those imposing feudal residences having been originally erected in positions so carefully selected with a view to their security against aggression, as to have become totally inaccessible; and, indeed, unknown, to the present inglorious and degenerate race, no longer animated by the spirit of chivalry and adventure.

[I have now recovered my breath, after my bold flight into the resplendent regions of aristocracy; but my eyes are still dazzled.]

The reader may by this time have

got an intimation that Tittlebat Titmouse, in a madder freak of fortune than any which her incomprehensible ladyship hath hitherto exhibited in the pages of this history, is far on his way towards a dizzy pitch of greatness,-viz., that he has now, owing to the verdict of the Yorkshire jury, taken the place of Mr Aubrey, and become heir expectant to the oldest barony in the kingdom-between it and him only one old peer, and his sole child-an unmarried daughter intervening. Behold the thing demonstrated to your very eye, in the following pedigree, which is only our former onet a little extended.

† Ante, No. CCXCVI. p. 820.

passage which any little schoolboy will translate to his mother or his sisters

"Hinc apicem rapax

Fortuna cum stridore acuto

Sustulit, hic posuisse gaudet.”

At the time of which I am writing, the Earl of Dreddlington was about sixty-seven years old; and he would realize the idea of an incarnation of the sublimest PRIDE. He was of rather a slight make, and, though of a tolerably advanced age, stood as straight as an arrow. His hair was glossy, and white as snow; his features were of an aristocratic cast; their expression was severe and haughty; and there was not the slightest trace of intellect perceptible in them. His manner and demeanour were calm, cold, imperturbable, inaccessible; wherever he went-so to speak-he radiated cold. Poverty embittered his spirit, as his lofty birth and ancient descent generated the pride I have spoken of. With what calm and supreme self-satisfaction did he look down upon all lower in the peerage than himself! and as for a newlycreated peer, he looked at him with ineffable disdain. Amongst his few equals he was affable enough; amongst his inferiors he exhibited an insupportable appearance of condescensionone which excited a wise man's smile of pity and contempt, and a fool's anger-both, however, equally naught to the Earl of Dreddlington. If any one could have ventured upon a post. mortem examination of so august a structure as the Earl's carcass, his heart would probably have been found to be of the size of a pea, and his brain very soft and flabby; both, however, equal to the small occasions which, from time to time, called for the exercize of their functions. The former was occupied almost exclusively by two feelings-love of himself and of his daughter, (because upon her would descend his barony ;) the latter exhibited its powers (supposing the brain to be the seat of the mind) in mastering the military details requisite for nominal soldiership; the game of whist; the routine of petty business in the House of Lords; and the etiquette of the court. One branch of

useful knowledge he had, however, completely mastered-that which is so ably condensed in Debrett; and he became a sort of oracle in such matters. As for his politics, he professed Whig principles-and was, indeed, a blind and bitter partisan. In attendance to his senatorial duties, he practised an exemplary punctuality; was always to be found in the House at its sitting and rising; and never once, on any occasion, great or small, voted against his party. He had never been heard to speak in a full House; first, because he never could muster nerve enough for the purpose; secondly, because he never had any thing to say; and lastly, lest he should compromise his dignity, and destroy the prestige of his position, by not speaking better than any one present. His services were not, however, entirely overlooked; for, on his party coming into office for a few weeks, (they knew it could be for no longer a time,) they made him Lord Steward of the Household; which was thenceforward an epoch to which he referred every event of his life, great and small. The great object of his ambition, ever since he had been of an age to form large and comprehensive views of action and conduct, and conceive superior designs, and achieve distinction amongst mankind-was, to obtain a step in the peerage; for considering the antiquity of his family, and his ample, nay superfluous pecuniary means-so much more than adequate to support his present double dignity of earl and baronhe thought it but a reasonable return for his eminent political services to obtain the step which he coveted. But his anxiety on this point had been recently increased a thousand-fold by one circumstance. A gentleman who held an honourable and lucrative official situation in the House, and who never had treated the Earl of Dreddlington with that profound obsequiousness which the Earl conceived to be his due-but, on the contrary, had presumed to consider himself a man and an Englishman equally with the Earl-had, a short time before, succeeded in establishing his title to an earldom that had long been dormant, and was of creation earlier than that of Dreddlington. The Earl of Dred

dlington took this untoward circumstance so much to heart, that for some months afterwards he appeared to be in a decline; always experiencing a dreadful inward spasm whenever the Earl of Fitzwarren made his appearance in the House. For this lamentable state of things there was plainly but one remedy-a MARQUISATE-at which the earl gazed with all the intense desire of an old and feeble ape at a cocoa-nut, just above his reach, and which he beholds at length grasp ed and carried off by some nimbler and younger rival. Amongst all the weighty cares and anxieties of this life, I must do the Earl of Dreddlington the justice to say, that he did not neglect the concerns of hereafter-the solemn realities-that future revealed to us in the Scriptures. To his enlightened and comprehensive view of the state of things around him, it was evident that the Author of the world had decreed the existence of regular gradations of society.

The following lines, quoted one night in the House by the leader of his party, had infinitely delighted the earl

"Oh, where DEGREE is shaken, Which is the ladder to all high designs, The enterprise is sick!

Take but DEGREE away, string,

untune that

And, hark! what discord follows! each thing meets,

In mere appugnancy!"*

When the earl discovered that this was the production of Shakspeare, he conceived a great respect for him, and purchased a copy of his works, and had them splendidly bound; never to be opened, however, except at that one place where the famous passage in question was to be found. Since, thought the earl, such is clearly the order of Providence in this world, why should it not be so in the next? He felt certain that then there would be found corresponding differences and degrees, in analogy to the differences and degrees existing upon earth; and with this view had read and endeavoured to comprehend a very dry but learned book-Butler's Analogy, lent him by his brother, a bishop. This consolatory conclusion of the earl's was greatly strengthened by a passage of

scripture, from which he had once heard his brother preach-"In my Father's house are MANY MANSIONS; if it had not been so, I would have told you." On grounds such as these, after much conversation with several old brother peers of his own rank, he and theythose wise and good men-came to the conclusion that there was no real ground for apprehending so grievous a misfortune as the huddling toge ther hereafter of the great and small into one miscellaneous and ill-assorted assemblage; but that the rules of precedence, in all their strictness, as being founded in the nature of things, would meet with an exact observance, so that every one should be ultimately and eternally happy in the company of his equals. The Earl of Dreddlington would have, in fact, as soon supposed, with the deluded Indian, that in his voyage to the next world

"His faithful dog should bear him company;"

as that his lordship should be doomed to participate the same regions of heaven with any of his domestics : unless, indeed, by some, in his view, not improbable dispensation, it should form an ingredient in their cup of happiness in the next world, there to perform those offices- or analogous ones for their old masters, which they had performed upon earth. As the Earl grew older, these just, and rational, and Scriptural views, became clearer, and his faith firmer. Indeed, it

might be said that he was in a manner ripening for immortality-for which his noble and lofty nature, he felt, was fitter, and more likely to be in its element, than it could possibly be in this dull, degraded, and confused world. He knew that there his sufferings in this inferior stage of exist ence would be richly recompensed; for sufferings indeed he had, though secret, arising from the scanty means which had been allotted to him for the purpose of maintaining the exalted rank to which it had pleased God to call him. The long series of exquisite mortifications and pinching privations arising from this inadequacy of means, had, however, the Earl doubted not, been designed by Providence as a