en the uppermost of the four broad steps which led to it,-stood another aged welcomer, who tenderly reiterated her brother's Christian salutation, and sealed it with a maternal kiss, as she gently drew me to her kind bosom. And so in a moment the little wanderer was at home again-transported but from one home to another-from the arms of tender parents to those which encircled her almost as fondly. "Mrs Helen Seale was the very personification of beautiful old age. A fairy creature she was-almost diminutive of stature-but her person in youth had been most delicately and symmetrically moulded; and in her old age it still retained much of its fair proportion, and all its native gracefulness. Her hands and arms were still beautiful! The taper fingers and soft palms were yet tinged with that delicate pink, which still mantled like a maiden blush over a face where Time had set his seal indeed, but, as it should seem, reluctantly, as if the ruthless spoiler had half relented for once in his destructive work. Her eyes were blue like her brother's, (the brother and sister were indeed twins in mind and feature,) but their mild lustre was almost unimpaired ; and the soft hair that was combed in glossy smoothness over the roll, under her clear lawn cap, was but silvered here and there among its pale brown waviness. No snow was ever whiter,no cobweb was ever finer, than that same clear lawn of which Mrs Helen's cap, kerchief, ruffles, and apron, were invariably composed; and the latter was spread out in unrumpled purity over a richly-quilted petticoat of silvergrey silk, and a gown of the same material, abounding in such depth and amplitude of fold as would have furnished out a dozen modern draperies. A narrow black velvet collar encircled her small fair throat, (down which, as is related of fair Rosamond, I used, to think one might see the red wine flow,) and the precise neck-kerchief was fastened with a fine diamond pin. The fashion of this raiment was never varied by season or circumstance, except that, regularly on the thirty-first of October, the rich lustring was exchanged for a richer satin of the same colour; a black lace handkerchief was superadded to that of snowy lawn, and a pair of black velvet mittens, turned down with white satin, were drawn over the delicate hands and arms, not to be discarded till the thirty-first of May drew forth the silvery lustring from its retirement of lavender and roses, and consigned the warm satin to a five months' seclusion. "It was marvellous to observe how Mrs Helen kept herself in point as she did! From morning to night, from week to week, from month to month, from year to year, always the same,always" mise à quatres épingles," as if she had just stept out of a bandbox ;-the silk or satin unchanging in hue or freshness-its lawn accompaniments never contracting soil or wrinkle on their snowy smoothness-the neck-kerchief folded in exactly the same number of plaits by the careful hand of that ancient abigail Mrs Betty, who would probably have been as much déroutée by any innovation of those laws of the Medes and Persians, as if her venerable mistress had commanded a ball-dress or a wedding-suit. Yes; one would have thought that the dear old lady had been kept in a band-box, all ready for company, if her whole course of life had not, in fact, been one of most active, though quiet usefulness; for Mrs Helen was never in a bustle. Neither was she uncomfortably precise about the preservation of this invariable neatness. Nay,-I have seen the old grey parrot on her wrist or her shoulder, and the favourite tortoiseshell cat on her lap often and often; and the old lady took snuff too, and, spite of all, the unruffled purity of attire remained inviolate. The matter was a mystery to me, whose whole girlish life had hitherto been an outrage to the oracles of tidiness.-But I must tell you something more of my first evening at Summerford Rectory. It was already evening, you rememher, when I arrived there,-about se ven o'clock of a sweet June evening, when the old green calash drove up to the entrance court, and my venerable cousin lifted me down within its quiet precincts. The entrance gate was of filigree iron work, breast high, between two low stone pillars, crowned with balls, but the walls were all evergreen-beautiful holly hedges, as finely kept as ever those at Sayes Court could have been in their day of perfection. This living wall, opening to the right and left in two bowery archways, leading to the offices and garden, formed three sides of the square court, the old mansion itself comple, who established herself before the tea ting the fourth boundary-a very an- equipage, all ready set out on a small tique dwelling, with quarter work of Pembroke table near the beautiful bay ved brick, mellowed by time and wea- window. My travelling guardian, ther to the richest and most harmo- John Somers, (jealous of devolving nious colouring. The double gable upon others any of his accustomed (the same Jolm Somers had pointed services,) soon appeared with the silout to me from the hill top) was sur- ver-chased tea-kettle and lamp, which mounted on each pinnacle by stone he set down on a small mahogany triballs siunilar to those on the entrance pod, beside his venerable lady, and it pillars. One was quite wound and was pleasant to observe the almost rematted over with ivy, of which only verential gratitude with which the a few encroaching tendrils had as yet faithful servant replied to the kind curled round the other ball ; but lower greeting of his aged mistress, and her down a fine apricot covered a considere thanks for having brought their dear able portion of the wall with its skil- young cousin safe to Summerford fully trained branches, and a lovely Rectory. The usual tea hour was honeysuckle (then in full bloom) had long past on the evening of my arrival, been allowed to occupy the remaining but for once the clock-work regularity space, and almost to darken some of of established custom was infringed, the windows with its picturesque fes- in kind consideration for the expected toons. The latticed windows were set guest, and Mrs Helen, anticipating deep in heavy stone framework, and that : the poor child would be half the massy doorway opened from a famished,' had taken care that the flight of four broad steps, on the up- tea-table should be far more abunpermost of which, on either side, stood dantly provided than with the four two tubs containing fine orange-trees. slices of wafer bread and butter, its And there, as I told you, in the door- customary allotment. In truth, the way between those two fragraut sup- dear old lady had calculated with great porters, stood the dear old lady; and foresight, for I did such ample justice after I had received the welcome of to her plain secd-cake, and made such her gentle embrace, the brother and consumption of her sweet home-made sister, taking each a hand, led me be- bread and butter, as must have infitween then, through an airy entrance nitely relieved any apprehension she hall, into a small but lofty anti-room, might have conceived at the first sight hung round with family portraits, and of the poor little sickly creature of from thence into a large pleasant par- whom she had so benevolently taken lour, the common sitting room. A charge. But, in fact, it must have very pleasant cheerful room it was, been that the air of Broad Summerwith a fine wide bay window opposite ford wrought miracles. At home, for the entrance, and on one side a sashed many preceding weeks, I had almost door, then standing open to a broad gra- loathed the sight of food. vel walk, bordered on either side by beds “Mr Seale and Mrs Helen soon drew of the choicest and sweetest flowers. me into familiar conversation ; and, The apartment contained no costly fure by the time tea was over, I was pratviture, except a fine Indian folding tling away to them with as much unskreen of many leaves, and a valuable restraint as if I had been domesticated Japan cabinet, loaded with rare old under their roof for a twelvemonth. china. The curtains were composed of But even before the tea equipage was white dimity, as well as the short petti- removed, this excitement of animal coats of the settee and chairs. Those spirits began to sink under bodily lanodd little chairs ! Methinks I see them guor and extreme fatigue ; my eyelids now, with their oval backs, sloping fell involuntarily, and the sentence I down like falling shoulders into little was uttering died away in an inartifin-like arms, spread out with such an culate manner as my head dropt aside air of tender invitation! And they against Mrs Helen's shoulder. Half held out no false promise. Modern roused, however, by. the gentle conluxury, recherchée as it is, has no- tact, I was just sensible that a kind thing half so comfortable among all arm encircled me, and a tender kiss its traps for loungers. I was soon was imprinted on my forehead,--that placed in one of those delightful fau- something was said about ringing for ccuils by the sidc of iny kind liostess, Betty, for that the poor dear ehild & could not sit up to prayers;' and then the bell was pulled,-(with what ex traordinary acuteness the sound of a bell tingles in one's ears in that state of half slumber !)-and Mrs Betty summoned, and between her and her mistress I was somehow, with little exertion of my own, conducted up stairs into a bedchamber, undressed, and put to bed in a state of the most passive helplessness,-unconsciousness wellnigh, except that I was still exquisitely sensible of the luxury of sink ing down on the soft pillow between the smooth fine sheets, that smelt deliciously of lavender and roses. "I recollect nothing more till the next morning, (my eleven hours' nap had been a dreamless spell,) when I unclosed my eyes to the light of a bright summer sun, which streamed in be tween the white curtains of my bed, and to the emulative brightness and summer sunshine of Mrs Betty's comely countenance, who, having looked over and arranged my wardrobe, and prepared everything for my levee, stood waiting in patient silence the natural termination of my unconscionable slumber, from which her gentle mistress, who had already looked in on me from her adjoining dressing-room, had prohibited all attempt to awaken me. Let the poor dear have her sleep out,' said the kind lady, and there stood Mrs Betty a statue of silent obedience. At last, however, when it pleased me to awaken, that portly handmaid saluted me with a pleasant good-morrow, and the information, that if I pleased to rise and dress direetly, I should still be in time for prayers, and Master and Mistress's breakfast. So, between my own alaerity and her assistance, I was soon ready, and then she showed me down to that large pleasant sitting-room, from which, indeed, I had ascended the preceding evening, but in such a slumberous state, as to leave me no recollection of the way. Breakfast was ready laid, and Mrs Helen had just preceded me into the room, where sat her venerable brother, at the head of the breakfast table, with the Bible open before him, in which he was marking out the morning chapters. "Both my kind cousins greeted me with cordial affection, and Mr Seale, calling me towards him, while his sis fer rang the summons to their little household, said, 'Come, and take your place by me, my dear child-I think, after to-day, I shall appoint you my clerk, for I know your good father has well qualified you for the office. Proud and happy girl was I to take my station beside that good old man, and on the morrow to assume my allotted office; and though my voice faltered a little at the first responses, my father had made me a correct and articulate reader, and from that day forth I officiated to the entire satis faction of my indulgent hearers, and with a very tolerable proportion of selfapproval. "Soon after breakfast, Mrs Helen took me with her through all the household departments, in every one of which, good order and beautiful neatness shone apparent. Five servants composed the in-door establishment-Mr John and Mrs Betty having authority over the Corps de Cuisine, under the mild control of the higher powers, for Mrs Helen, though reposing perfect confidence in her old and faithful servants, took an active share in the family arrangements, and no little pride indeed, in all the more refined and complex culinary artssuch as pickling-preserving-making wines and cordials-sweet waters, and strong-waters-pastry, and floating islands and confectionary hedgehogs. In all the mysteries of distilling the dear old lady was an adept. Rose, peach, almond, and orange flower— pennyroyal and peppermint waters, were ranged rank and file in long-necked squat bottles on the still-room shelves, sufficient in quantity to flavour all the confectionary, and cure all the stomach-aches, in England. I believe, indeed, Mrs Helen did supply half the county, so great was the reputation of her odoriferous stores, and so liberal her distribution of them. Certain it is, that the annual replenishment of the stock, was considered as much a matter of course by the lady and her assistant handmaid, as the summer reproduction of the grey lus tring and its accompaniments;-but why, or on what principle Mrs Helen conceived it equally indispensable to concoct a certain yearly quantity of Plague-water, I was never fully satis fied, nor, indeed, did it ever come within my knowledge, that there were any applicants for that invaluable elixir, made after the recipe of our late Queen Henrietta Maria, of blessed 6 memory, as set forth in crabbed tawny characters, in the old family receipt book; neither could I ever precisely ascertain (though I had my ewn surmises on the subject,) what became of the quantity which periodi cally disappeared from the shelf, to be replaced by a fresh concoction. "It were endless to enumerate the palsy-waters-balsams- tinctures elixirs-electuaries, which occupied one department of the still-room, and almost profane to reveal the mysteries of that sacred chamber, during the season of concoctions-mysteries as jealously guarded as those of the Bona Dea from the eyes of the uninitiated and ignorant. "In after days of complete natural ization in the family, I was privileged with les grandes et petites entrées even of that generally prohibited closet and great was my delight in accompanying thither my venerable cousin, when her occupation lay within the spicery or confectionary region, and in receiving her instructions in the arts she excelled in-those always excepted which related to the medicinal depart ment; for to my shame be it spoken, I derived infinitely more gratification from the pastime of sticking over blancmange hedgehogs with almond bristles, than in compounding the most infallible ointment, nor could I (with all deference to Mrs Helen's superior wisdom) ever go the length of agreeing, that her tincture of rhubarb was to the full as palatable as her fine old raisin wine, and her walnuts preserved with sugar and senna equally delicious with those guiltless of the latter ingredient. "Among the various concerns transacted in that notable chamber, one of the most important, that of breaking up the loaves of double refined sugar, was always superintended by Mrs Helen; and on those occasions, with a fine cambric handkerchief pinned on over her clear lawn apron, she assumed even an active share in the operation, and I used to delight in watch ing the lady-like manner with which the clumsy nippers were managed by her pretty little pink fingers, and the quiet dexterity which supplied their deficiency of muscular strength. If Mrs Helen Seale had chosen by way of variety, to twirl a mop, or handle a carpet-broom, she must have done it with the air and grace of a perfect gentlewoman. "But you are impatient to know more of my first day at Summerford Rectory. It was full of delightful incident to me, though little or nothing to make a story out of. I have told you how Mrs Helen took me her morning round through the stillroom, the housekeeper's room, and various offices; and then we visited the dairy-Such a dairy! such a paradise of milk, and cream, and butter, and curds, and whey, and cream cheeses, and crystal water, and purity and fragrance! for many bouquets of the sweetest flowers were dispersed among the glossy milk pans, and round the shallow reservoir of a marble slab in the centre of the octagon building; on the polished surface of which, butter pots of many a fantastic shape were curiously arranged, half floated by a constant supply of the purest and coldest water, conveyed thither from a neighbouring spring. From the dairy we passed into the poultry-yard, and there I was introduced to a train of milkwhite turkeys, and fowls of the same colour-a few bantams, and three galenies-Mrs Helen's especial favourites, though the perverse creatures could never be brought to submit to any of the regulations of the fathered establishment, straying away over pales, walls, roofs, and barriers of every description, scratching up seedbeds, and flower-borders, to the despair of the gardener, and laying their eggs on those, or on the bare gravel walk, in flagrant dereliction of all fitness and propriety. Yet those irreclaimables were, as I told you, prime favourites with their order-loving mistress; and I, who partook in some measure of their wild, and wandering, and untameable nature, very shortly became the object of her tender and unbounded indulgence, though the dear lady's nice sense of decorum, and habitual placidity, were frequently startled into a gesture of amazement and a hasty exclamation at sight of her éléve swinging on the orchard gate-scrambling like a cat along the top of the garden wall-running knee-deep in mud, with a lap full of cresses from the water meadow, or with a frock torn to tatters, in some lawless excursion over hedges and hurdles, when, as dear Mrs Helen mildly assured me, the somewhat to the consternation of Mrs Helen, though she could not find in her heart to repress the fine spirits of the poor dear child, so wonderfully recovered (under God's blessing) by Summerford air, and her good manage ment."" So much for one "night's entertainment," as I have faithfully recorded it, from the well-remembered words of my dear historian. She shall resume the narrative in an ensuing chapter, for the benefit of all those who have patience with a subject, which has neither invention-magic - adventure- sentiment - eccentricity-passion-love-murder, or metaphysics, to recommend it-only TRUTH. common roadway was so much shorter and pleasanter.' It was some time, indeed, before I astounded the decorous inhabitants of the Rectory, with these feats of prowess. On my first arrival, I was far too weak and languid for such performances, even if I had not been restrained a while by natural shyness, but that soon yielded to the affectionate encouragement of my kind hosts; and in a month's time, the pure air of Broad Summerfordgentle exercise in the old calash, in which Mr Seale took me a daily airing-simple but nourishing diet, and asses' milk, had so effectually restored my health, that my natural exube rance of animal spirits began to manifest itself by the indications aforesaid, DE OMNIBUS REBUS ET QUIBUSDAM ALIIS. I WISH I was a Jew. Not that I envy the wealth of Mr Rothschild, to whom Solomon, in all his glory, was but as a parish poor-box to the Catholic rent. Not that I love (more than beseems a devout and continent Christian,) the black-eyed Rebeccas of Duke-street, though I have seen looks among them that might have melted an inquisitor. I wish they would attend a little better to the cleanly precepts of the Mosaic law They seem to think it unworthy of their sacred nation to wash in any waters but those of Siloa or Jordan. Their large gold ear-rings and brilliant eyes remind me of Virgil's obligations to Ennius. Yet it is not for their sakes that I wish myself an Israelite. No, good reader, neither avarice nor amativeness prompts this strange hankering. I envy not the Jew his bargains; I covet not his wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor anything that is his, except his pedigree, and his real property in the Holy Land. The Jew is the only gentleman. The tree of his genealogy is the oak of Mamre. His family memoirs are accounted sacred, even by his worst enemies. He has a portion far away-in the land which, above all others, is the land of imagination, the scene of the most certain truths, and of the wildest fictions. He may, at least, feed his fancy with the product of his never-to-be-seen acres; and, though forbidden to possess a single foot of ground, may rank himself with the landed aristocracy. A strange passion possessed the European nations, of deriving their origin from the thrice-beaten Trojans. Event the Greeks caught the infection. So enamoured are mankind of a dark antiquity-so averse to consider themselves the creatures of a day—that, not content with the hope of a future immortality, they would fain extend their existence through the dusk backward and abysm of Time, and claim a share in the very calamities of past generations. How great then the prerogative of the Jew, whose nation is his own domestic kindred; who needs not to seek his original amid the dust of forgetfulness, and the limitless expanse of undated tradition, but finds it recorded in the Book that teaches to live and to die! I am not ungrateful for the privilege of being an Englishman: but an Englishman, of all nations, has the least ground for national family pride. For my part, I know not whether my stock be Celtic or Teutonic, Saxon, Dane, or Norman. For land-I cannot tell whether any of my ancestors ever owned or claimed an acre. were a pleasant thing could I say of one green field, one sunny-sided hillthis was my forefathers' property, even though they had been dispossessed by the followers of Hengist and Horsa. It is certain that I had ancestors even in the days of Cæsar-Did my great It |