How could a lady look On such a work askance? His compliments I took, I own, with complaisance. A bunch of flowers he gave me Good Lord! and yet they say To know her from the crowd. Peace be with the soul of that charitable and courteous author who introduced the ingenious way of miscellaneous writing. - Shaftesbury. ESSAYS AND SKETCHES. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF LORDS. HE first time we saw any Lords, we were too THE young to receive such impressions of them as should remain in after life. The earliest man of any note we remember, was an American projector, who had a talent for ship-building. We were told of the extraordinary things he could do to make ships sail fast and well; and him we have never forgotten. We have his face this minute before us. The next time we were blessed with the sight of Right Honorable and Most Noble faces, was in the House of Lords itself. We had just been shown the House of Commons, where the nonchalant appearance of a few members, with their hats on, lounging upon the benches, struck us as no very dignified sight, though we thought them sharp looking men and mightily unaffected. From there we were taken to see the Lords; and we state, with perfect candor, the impression they made on us, when we say that they looked like a parcel of linen-drapers. If the Commons were free and easy, we expected to find the Noble Lords noble and lordly; we thought we should 117 see the dignity which we missed among the others. Not an atom of it. Both houses, it is true, were very thinly attended, and the most dignified members of both may have been absent; but we found that a number of lords might be collected and not look a bit superior to any other collection of decent men. We had absolutely seen our chamberlain of London a few days before, who surpassed every man of them in dignity of appearance. Nor had we any prejudice against lords. On the contrary, our prejudice was in their favor, and we were greatly disappointed. "What!" said we to ourselves, "are these lords? Why, they look like men just come from behind counters, and those of the least manly description." It was the fashion at that time to wear light-colored small clothes and white stockings, and this custom added to the effeminacy of their appearance. But their faces! What poor-looking expression was there! What weakness! What a negation of all purpose and energy! We came away, quite mortified for our chivalrous notion of the peerage, - of the relations of the Bolingbrokes and Peterboroughs, and never heartily recovered the impression afterwards. From time to time we were shown a lord in a stage-box or on horseback. They were nothing different from other men, except that we fancied a look of higher self-possession,- perhaps because they were lords. Doubtless there was often a conscious look which the spectator might take for selfpossession, or assumption, or pride, or dignity, according to his preconceived notions. Pope talked |