d a Chinese pavilion, the most hideous building in the
world. He could drive a four-in-hand very nearly as well as the Brighton
coachman, could fence elegantly, and it is said, played the fiddle well.
And he smiled with such irresistible fascination, that persons who were
introduced into his august presence became his victims, body and soul,
as a rabbit becomes the prey of a great big boa-constrictor.

I would wager that if Mr. Widdicomb were, by a revolution, placed on
the throne of Brentford, people would be equally fascinated by his
irresistibly majestic smile and tremble as they knelt down to kiss his
hand. If he went to Dublin they would erect an obelisk on the spot where
he first landed, as the Paddylanders did when Gorgius visited them.
We have all of us read with delight that story of the King's voyage to
Haggisland, where his presence inspired such a fury of loyalty and where
the most famous man of the country--the Baron of Bradwardine--coming
on board the royal yacht, and finding a glass out of which Gorgius had
drunk, put it into his coatpocket as an inestimable relic, and went
ashore in his boat again. But the Baron sat down upon the glass and
broke it, and cut his coat-tails very much; and the inestimable relic
was lost to the world for ever. O noble Bradwardine! what old-world
superstition could set you on your knees before such an idol as that?

If you want to moralise upon the mutability of human affairs, go and
see the figure of Gorgius in his real, identical robes, at the
waxwork.--Admittance one shilling. Children and flunkeys sixpence. Go,
and pay sixpence.

CHAPTER III--THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARISTOCRACY ON SNOBS

Last Sunday week, being at church in this city, and the service just
ended, I heard two Snobs conversing about the Parson. One was asking
the other who the clergyman was? 'He is Mr. So-and-so,' the second Snob
answered, 'domestic chaplain to the Earl of What-d'ye-call'im.' 'Oh, is
he' said the first Snob, with a tone of indescribable satisfaction.--The
Parson's orthodoxy and identity were at once settled in this Snob's
mind. He knew no more about the Earl than about the Chaplain, but he
took the latter's character upon the authority of the former; and went
home quite contented with his Reverence, like a little truckling Snob.

This incident gave me more matter for reflection even than the sermon:
and wonderment at the extent and prevalence of Lordolatory in this
country. What could i