never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a squabby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion, only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.

Our ladies, on the contrary, seem to have no other standard for grace but the run of the town. If fashion gives the word, every distinction of beauty, complexion, or stature ceases. Sweeping trains, Prussian bonnets, and trollopees, as like each other as if cut from the same piece, level all to one standard. The mall, the gardens, and the playhouses, are filled with ladies in uniform, and their whole appearance shews as little variety or taste as if their clothes were bespoke by the colonel of a marching regiment, or fancied by the same artist who dresses the three battalions of guards.

But not only ladies of every shape and complexion, but of every age too, are possessed of this unaccountable passion of dressing in the same manner. A lady of no quality can be distinguished from a lady of some quality only by the redness of her hands; and a woman of sixty, masked, might easily pass for her grand-daughter. I remember, a few days ago, to have walked behind a damsel, tossed out in all the gaiety of fifteen; her dress was loose, unstudied, and seemed the result of conscious beauty. I called up all my poetry on this occasion, and fancied twenty cupids prepared for execution in every folding of her white negligee. I had prepared my imagination for an angel's face; but what was my mortification to find that the imaginary goddess was no other than my cousin Hannah, four years older than myself, and I shall be sixty-two the twelfth of next November.

After the transports of our first salute were over, I could not avoid running my eye over her whole appearance. Her gown was of cambrick, cut short

Her cap, if

before, in order to discover an high-heeled shoe, which was buckled almost at the toe. Her cap it might be called that cap was none, consisted of a few bits of cambrick, and flowers of painted paper stuck on one side of her head. Her bosom, that had felt no hand, but the hand of Time, these twenty years, rose suing, but in vain, to be pressed. I could indeed, have wished her more than an handkerchief of Paris-net to shade her beauties; for as Tasso says of the rose-bud, Quanto si mostra men tanto e piu bella, I should think her's most pleasing when least discovered.

As my cousin had not put on all this finery for nothing, she was at that time sallying out to the park, when I had overtaken her. Perceiving, however, that I had on my best wig, she offered, if I would 'squire her there, to send home the footman. Though I trembled for our reception in public, yet I could not, with any civility, refuse; so to be as gallant as possible, I took her hand in my arm, and thus we marched on together.

When we made our entry at the Park, two antiquated figures, so polite and so tender as we seemed to be, soon attracted the eyes of the company. As we made our way among crowds who were out to shew their finery as well as we, wherever we came I perceived we brought good-humour in our train. The polite could not forbear smiling, and the vulgar burst out into a horse laugh at our grotesque figures. Cousin Hannah, who was perfectly conscious of the rectitude of her own appearance, attributed all this mirth to the oddity of mine; while I as cordially placed the whole to her account. Thus, from being two of the best-natured creatures alive, before we got half way up the mall, we both began to grow peevish, and like two mice on a string endeavoured to revenge the impertinence of others upon ourselves.

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"I am amazed, cousin Jeffery, says Miss, that I can never get you to dress like a Christian. I knew "we should have the eyes of the Park upon us, with your great wig so frizzed, and yet so beggarly, and 66 your monstrous muff. I hate those odious muffs." I could have patiently borne a criticism on all the rest of my equipage; but as I had always a peculiar veneration for my muff, I could not forbear being piqued a little; and throwing my eyes with a spiteful air on her bosom," I could heartily wish, Madam," replied I," that, for your sake, my muff was cut into a tippet."

As my cousin by this time was grown heartily ashamed of her gentleman usher, and as I was never very fond of any kind of exhibition myself, it was mutually agreed to retire for a while to one of the seats, and from that retreat remark on others as freely as they had remarked on us.

When seated, we continued silent for some time, employed in very different speculations. I regarded the whole company, now passing in review before me, as drawn out merely for my amusement. For my entertainment the beauty had all that morning been improving her charms, the beau had put on lace, and the young doctor a big wig, merely to please me. But quite different were the sentiments of cousin Hannah; she regarded every well-dressed woman as a victorious rival; hated every face that seemed dressed in good humour, or wore the appearance of greater happiness than her own. I perceived her uneasiness, and attempted to lessen it, by observing that there was no company in the Park to-day. To this she readily assented; " and yet," says she," it "is full enough of scrubs of one kind or another." My smiling at this observation gave her spirits to pursue the bent of her inclination, and now she began to exhibit her skill in secret history, as she found me disposed to listen. "Observe," says she to me," that

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"old woman in tawdry silk, and dressed out even beyond the fashion. That is Miss Biddy Ever"green. Miss Biddy, it seems, has money, and she "considers that money was never so scarce as it is "now; she seems resolved to keep what she has to "herself. She is ugly enough, you see; yet I assure you, she has refused several offers, to my own knowledge, within this twelvemonth. Let me see, "three gentlemen from Ireland who study the law, "two waiting captains, her doctor, and a Scotch preacher, who had like to have carried her off. All her time is passed between sickness and finery. "Thus she spends the whole week in a close cham"ber, with no other company but her monkey, her "apothecary, and cat, and comes dressed out to the "Park every Sunday, to shew her airs, to get new "lovers, to catch a new cold, and to make new work "for the doctor.

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"There goes Mrs. Roundabout, I mean the fat lady in the lutestring trollopee. Between you and "I, she is but a cutler's wife. See how she's dressed as fine as hands and pins can make her, while her "two marriageable daughters, like bunters, in stuff "gowns, are now taking six pennyworth of tea at "the White-conduit house. Odious puss! how she "waddles along, with her train two yards behind her! "She puts me in mind of my lord Bantam's Indian sheep, which are obliged to have their monstrous tails "trundled along in a go-cart. For all her airs, it goes to "her husband's heart to see four yards of good lutestring wearing against the ground, like one of his "knives on a grindstone. To speak my mind, cousin Jeffery, I never liked tails; for suppose a young fel"low should be rude, and the lady should offer to step "back in a fright, instead of retiring, she treads upon "her train, and falls fairly on her back; and then you "know, cousin, her clothes may be spoiled.

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"Ah! Miss Mazzard! I knew we should not miss "her in the Park; she in the monstrous Prussian "bonnet. Miss, though so very fine, was bred a "milliner, and might have had some custom if she "had minded her business; but the girl was fond of finery, and instead of dressing her customers, laid "out all her goods in adorning herself. Every new gown she put on impaired her credit; she still, however, went on improving her appearance, and lessening her little fortune, and is now, you see, become "abelle and a bankrupt."

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My cousin was proceeding in her remarks, which were interrupted by the approach of the very lady she had been so freely describing. Miss had perceived her at a distance, and approached to salute her. I found, by the warmth of the two ladies' protestations, that they had been long intimate esteemed friends and acquaintance. Both were so pleased at this happy rencounter, that they were resolved not to part for the day. So we all crossed the Park together, and I saw them in a hackney coach at the gate of St. James's. I could not, however, help observing, That they are generally most ridiculous them"selves, who are apt to see most ridicule in others."

SIR,

SOME PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO

CHARLES XII.

NOT COMMONLY KNOWN.

Stockholm.

I CANNOT resist your solicitations, though it is possible I shall be unable to satisfy your curiosity. The