ill be with us at Tusculum on Friday the 20th, in his way from the
county of Wicklow, for the collation I mentioned; and expect a large
party of officers; so pray come early, with your house, or as many as
the jaunting-car can bring. And pray, my dear, be ELEGANT. You need not
let it transpire to Mrs. O'G--; but make my apologies to Miss O'G--, if
she says anything, and tell her I'm quite concerned I can't ask her for
that day; because, tell her, I'm so crowded, and am to have none
that day but REAL QUALITY.--Yours ever and ever, ANASTASIA RAFFARTY.
P.S.--And I hope to make the gentlemen stop the night with me; so will
not have beds. Excuse haste, and compliments, etc. TUSCULUM, Sunday 15.

After a charming tour in the county of Wicklow, where the beauty of the
natural scenery, and the taste with which those natural beauties had
been cultivated, far surpassed the sanguine expectations Lord Colambre
had formed, his lordship and his companions arrived at Tusculum, where
he found Mrs. Raffarty, and Miss Juliana O'Leary, very elegant, with
a large party of the ladies and gentlemen of Bray, assembled in a
drawing-room, fine with bad pictures and gaudy gilding; the windows were
all shut, and the company were playing cards with all their might. This
was the fashion of the neighbourhood. In compliment to Lord Colambre
and the officers, the ladies left the card-tables; and Mrs. Raffarty,
observing that his lordship seemed PARTIAL to walking, took him out, as
she said, 'to do the honours of nature and art.'

His lordship was much amused by the mixture, which was now exhibited
to him, of taste and incongruity, ingenuity and absurdity, genius
and blunder; by the contrast between the finery and vulgarity, the
affectation and ignorance of the lady of the villa. We should be obliged
to STOP too long at Tusculum were we to attempt to detail all the odd
circumstances of this visit; but we may record an example or two which
may give a sufficient idea of the whole.

In the first place, before they left the drawing-room, Miss Juliana
O'Leary pointed out to his lordship's attention a picture over the
drawing-room chimney-piece. 'Is not it a fine piece, my lord?' said
she, naming the price Mrs. Raffarty had lately paid for it at an
auction.--'It has a right to be a fine piece, indeed; for it cost a fine
price!' Nevertheless this FINE piece was a vile daub; and our hero could
only avoid the sin of flattery, or the danger of offending the lad