a true portrait of the place and its frequenters. I
dare say, you would have expected my young imagination to have been
encompassed with delight, amid the mirth-inspiring compositions of
Corelli, Mozart, or Rossini, warbled forth by that enchanting siren, De
Begnis, the scientific Pasta, the modest Caradori, or the astonishing
Catalani:--Heaven enlighten your unsuspicious mind! Attention to the
merits of the ~202~~ performance is the last thing any fashionable of
the present day would think of devoting his time to. No, no, my dear
Bernard, the opera is a sort of high 'Change, where the court circle and
people of ton meet to speculate in various ways, and often drive as
hard a bargain for some purpose of interest or aggrandisement, as the
plebeian host of all nations, who form the busy group in the grand civic
temple of commerce on Cornbill. You know, I have (as the phrase is),
just come out, and of course am led about like a university lion, by
the more experienced votaries of ton. An accident threw the honourable
Lillyman Lionise into my way the other morning; it was the first time we
had met since we were at Eton: he was sauntering away the tedious
hour in the Arcade, in search of a specific for ennui, was pleased
to compliment me on possessing the universal panacea, linked arms
immediately, complained of being devilishly cut over night, proposed
an adjournment to Long's--a light dinner--maintenon cutlets--some of the
Queensberry hock{1} (a century and a half old)--ice-punch-six whin's
from an odoriferous hookah--one cup of renovating fluid (impregnated
with the Parisian aromatic {2}); and then, having reembellished our
persons, sported{3} a figure at the opera. In the grand entrance, we
enlisted Bob Transit, between whom and the honourable, I congratulated
myself on being in a fair way to be enlightened. Bob knows every
body--the exquisite was not so general in his information; but then
he occasionally furnished some little anecdote of the surrounding
elegantes, relative to affairs de l'amour, or pointed out the
superlative of the haut class, without which much of the interesting
would have escaped my notice.

1 The late Duke of Queensberry's famous old hock, which
since his decease was sold by auction.

2 A Parisian preparation, which gives a peculiar high
flavour and sparkling effect to coffee.

3 An Oxford phrase.

~203~~

In this society, I made my first appearance in the green roo