ities
that passed between Miss Seward and her admirers, or to retrace for
ourselves the complications of female jealousy which played round
Cowper's tea-table at Olney. We awoke to the discovery that the charm
was not in us, nor altogether in the books themselves. The talisman,
which endowed with life and meaning all that it touched, had passed away
from among us, leaving recollections which are our most cherished, as
they must ever be our proudest, possession.

Macaulay thought it probable that he could re-write Sir Charles
Grandison from memory, and certainly he might have done so with his
sister's help. But his intimate acquaintance with a work was no proof of
its merit. "There was a certain prolific author," says Lady Trevelyan,
"named Mrs. Meeke, whose romances he all but knew by heart; though
he quite agreed in my criticism that they were one just like another,
turning on the fortunes of some young man in a very low rank of life who
eventually proves to be the son of a Duke. Then there was a set of books
by a Mrs. Kitty Cuthbertson, most silly though readable productions, the
nature of which may be guessed from their titles:--'Santo Sebastiano,
or the Young Protector,' 'The Forest of Montalbano,' 'The Romance of
the Pyrenees,' and 'Adelaide, or the Countercharm.' I remember how, when
'Santo Sebastiano' was sold by auction in India, he and Miss Eden bid
against each other till he secured it at a fabulous price; and I possess
it still."

As an indication of the thoroughness with which this literary
treasure has been studied, there appears on the last page an elaborate
computation of the number of fainting-fits that occur in the course of
the five volumes.

Julia de Clifford..... 11
Lady Delamore....... 4
Lady Theodosia....... 4
Lord Glenbrook...... 2
Lord Delamore...... 2
Lady Enderfield...... 1
Lord Ashgrove....... 1
Lord St. Orville..... 1
Henry Mildmay....... 1

A single passage, selected for no other reason than because it is the
shortest, will serve as a specimen of these catastrophes "One of the
sweetest smiles that ever animated the face of mortal now diffused
itself over the countenance of Lord St. Orville, as he fell at the feet
of Julia in a death-like swoon."

The fun that went on in Great Ormond Street was of a jovial, and
sometimes uproarious, description. Even when the family was by itself,
the school-room and the drawing-room were full of young people; and
friends and cous