to whom he from
that time has become reunited. The lady mayoress of the city was
excessively indignant on finding her preeminence of _entree_ disputed by
the wife of a Bristol butcher; while the chair of the master of the
ceremonies was for some time blocked in between the sedans of two old
tabbies, whose expressions of alarm, attempts at faintings, and little
flights of scandal, had so annoyed the poor M. C. that when he entered
the ball-room, he felt as irritable as a tantalized lover between two
female furies. In short, the scene was rich in amusement for the group
of merry hearts who had left the Castle in quest of adventure; and while
we were enjoying the ludicrous effects produced by the jostling of the
sedans, my friend Transit had sketched the affair in his usual happy
style, and designated it thus: ~306~

THE BATTLE OF THE CHAIRS.

"The chairs are order'd, and the moment comes,
When all the world assemble at the rooms."

Illustration: page306]

For the ball-room itself, it was the most splendid scene that the magic
power of fancy could devise. The variety of characters, the elegance
of the dresses, and the beauty of the graceful fair, joined to their
playful wit and accomplished manners, produced a succession of delights
which banished from the heart of man the recollection of his mortal
ills, and gave him, for the passing time, a semblance of Elysian
pleasures. The rooms are admirably calculated for this species of
entertainment, and are, I believe, the largest in England; while the
excellent regulations and arrangements adopted by the master of the
ceremonies to prevent any of those unpleasant intrusions, too often
admitted into mixed assemblies, deserved the highest commendation. It is
from scenes of this description that the writer on men ~307~~and manners
extracts his characters, and drawing aside from the mirth-inspiring
group, contemplates the surrounding gaieties, noting down in his
memory the pleasing varieties and amusing anecdotes he has there heard;
pleasantries with which at some future time he may enliven the social
circle of his friends, or by reviving in print, recall the brightest
and the best recollections of those who have participated in their gay
delights.

"In this distinguish'd circle you will find
Many degrees of man and woman kind."

And as I am here "life's painter, the very Spy o' the time," I shall
endeavour to sketch a few of