ion, abridges
the necessity for scandal, or, to say the least of it, as we have
heard even ungallant lordly man allow, it keeps us out of mischief.

And there are frequent and oft occurring circumstances which invest it
with characteristics of a still higher order. How many of "the sweet
solicitudes that life beguile" are connected with this interesting
occupation! either in preparing habiliments for those dependent on our
care, and for love of whom many an unnecessary stitch which may tend
to extra adornment is put in; or in those numberless pretty and not
unuseful tokens of remembrance, which, passing from friend to friend,
soften our hearts by the intimation they convey, that we have been
cared for in our absence, and that while the world looked dark and
desolate about us, unforgetting hearts far, far away were holding us
in remembrance, busy fingers were occupied in our behoof. Oh! a
reticule, a purse, a slipper, how valueless soever in itself, is, when
fraught with these home memories, worth that which the mines of
Golconda could not purchase. And of such a nature would be the
feelings which suggested these well-known but exquisite lines:--

"The twentieth year is well nigh past,
Since first our sky was overcast,
Ah, would that this might be the last!
My Mary!

"Thy spirits have a fainter flow,
I see thee daily weaker grow,
'Twas my distress that brought thee low,
My Mary!

"Thy needles, once a shining store,
For my sake restless heretofore,
Now rust disused and shine no more,
My Mary!

"For though thou gladly would'st fulfil
The same kind office for me still,
Thy sight now seconds not thy will,
My Mary!

"But well thou play'dst the housewife's part,
And all thy threads with magic art,
Have wound themselves about this heart,
My Mary!"

An interesting circumstance connected with needlework is mentioned in
the delightful memoir written by lady Murray, of her mother, the
excellent and admirable Lady Grisell Baillie. The allusion itself is
very slight, merely to the making of a frill or a collar; but the
circumstances connected with it are deeply interesting, and place
before us a vivid picture of the deprivations of a family of rank and
consequence in "troublous times,