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far more people here with locks of all but Israelitish blackness, than of any shade that could with propriety be called either white, yellow, or red; and the general hues are exactly the same variations of brown, between Bistre and Burnt Sienna, which we are accustomed to in the south.

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I was at a large party yesterday eveningthe first sight I have had of the gay world here -and had an opportunity of viewing, at my leisure, all the fashionable belles of the town. You always accuse me of being too undistinguishing an admirer; but, I am sure, even you would have allowed that there was no want of beauty. It is many years since I have been familiar with the beau-monde of London, but I do not believe I ever, in any one evening there, saw a greater number of fine women, and of very different kinds too. I had heard before I went that I should see Miss *****, the same celebrated star of whom you have so often heard Sir Thomas speak, and who, indeed, cannot shew herself anywhere, even in this unromantic. age, without leaving an uneffaceable impression on all that behold her. I confess the description the knight used to give of her appeared to me to be a little high-flown; but "seeing is belie

ving"-the world has assuredly only one

I looked round a room crowded with lovely women, but my eye was fixed in a moment; and I never thought of asking which was she. The first view I had was a profile. I had no suspicion that nature could still form countenances upon that heavenly model. The forehead, high and clear, descends almost without a curve into the nose, and that again drops into the mouth with such bold defined elegance of lineament, as I should scarcely have believed to be copied from living beauty, had I met with it in some masterpiece of sculpture. The lips have such a delicate precision of form, and such an expression of divine simplicity in their smile, that one could almost believe they had never admitted any grosser diet than ambrosia; but the full oval sweep of the cheek and chin, and the mode in which these are carried down into the neck, are, perhaps, the most truly antique parts of the whole. And then such hair-such long luxurious tresses of radiant brown, braided with such serene grace upon that meek forehead! If you have seen Canova's testa d'Helena, you may form some notion of those most exquisite curls. The colour of her eyes I could not ascertain: I suspect they are dark grey, or

hazel; but the redundant richness of her eyelashes gives them all that glossy splendour which oriental beauties borrow from their Sirmě. But, indeed, colour is a small matter in eyes enchased so deeply beneath such majestic brows. I think Lucretius himself would have admitted, that the spirit must be immortal on which so glorious a tenement has been bestowed!

With this divine exception, I must do the men the justice to say, that the most beautiful women in the room were all matrons. Had she been absent, there were two or three of these on whom all my enthusiasm might well have been expended; and one, Mrs ******, whose graceful majesty was such, that when I met her next evening in a smaller assembly, I almost began to suspect myself of having been too exclusive my deification. But I have already said more than I should have ventured on to almost any other of your sex-a great deal more than I should have dared to write, far less speak to my cousin, to whom I beg you will present the humble duty of

in

Her slave,

&c. &c.

P. M.

VOL. I,

D

P. S. By way of pleasing Jane, you may tell her that I do not think the Scottish ladies are at all good dressers. They are very gorgeous-I never saw such a display of crimson velvet, and ostrich feathers, and diamond necklaces, except once at a birth-day. But the fashions have a long cold journey before they reach Edinburgh, and I think they do not regain the same easy air which they have before they begin their travels. They are apt to overdo every thing, particularly that vilest and most unnatural of all fashions, the saddle-or I know not what you call itwhich is at present permitted to destroy so much of the back, and indeed, to give so much meanness to the whole air. They say the scrophula brought in the high shirt-collars of the menand the Spectator gives some equally intelligible account of the fardingale. Pray, what hunchbacked countess was she that had wit enough to bring the saddle into vogue? I think all the three fashions are equally abominable, and the two of them that still remain should be voted out by the clean-skinned and straight-backed, who, I hope, are still the major part of the community. But, ne sutor ultra crepidam

P. M.

T

51.

LETTER VI.

TO THE REV. DAVID WILLIAMS.

DEAR DAVID,

ALTHOUGH my sole purpose, or nearly so, in coming to Scotland, was to see and converse with the illustrious men who live here, I have been in Edinburgh for a fortnight, and can scarcely say that I have as yet seen even the faces of most of them. What with lounging about in the mornings with W, and claret in the evening, and routs and balls at night, I fear I am fast getting into a very unprofitable life. The only very great man here, to whom I had letters of introduction, was S, and he happened to go out of town for a few weeks, I believe the very day after my arrival. I forwarded my letter to him in the country, however, and he has invited me to pay him a visit there, at the castle he has just built upon the banks of

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